There is no
shortage of excuses that people come up with to justify hating one another.
Political affiliation, race, class, gender, religion; all can lead to
artificial divisions that make the world a worse place to live in. Uglies,
a new Netflix original based on the bestselling young adult novel by Scott
Westerfeld, presents a dystopian society in which peace is obtained by simply making
everyone prettier via extreme cosmetic surgery. This incredibly naïve solution
is not the primary reason for the lack of violence and strife in the pretty
world of Uglies, as we inevitably find out that something more sinister
is at play, but it does represent the biggest flaw in the film: Distilling
complicated issues best left explored in novel format into the lowest common
denominator.
I have never read Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies
series, but it’s hard to imagine it having less nuance than the film that
is based on the first volume. Be yourself, true beauty comes from within…
that’s about as deep as the lessons in Uglies gets (and the second point
is slightly undermined by the fact that they hired the very pretty Joey King to
be our main character, as Netflix, Hollywood, and other movie making hubs are apparently
allergic to actual ugly people). The film could have offered something very interesting,
like a discussion of how conforming to Euro-centric beauty standards eliminates
individuality and cultural identity, or how damaging social media saturation
can be to people in their formative years (an issue that was undoubtedly absent
in the original novel, as it was originally published in 2005 before social
media became ubiquitous). Nope, being yourself and recognizing the beauty
within is about it. Uglies is one of those films that thinks it’s much
smarter than it actually is, and the streamlining necessary to convert a book
into a movie certainly doesn’t help.
I am harping about the deeper meaning of Uglies
(or lack thereof) largely because there is not much else to it. Joey King
does fine as the main character, although it is a bit off-putting when she and
many of her fellow actors do the whole bubbly teenager thing, considering that
most of them are around 25 in real life (not a new issue, I suppose, as adults
have been playing teenagers since Danny corrupted that unfortunate Sandy girl).
The CGI is often poor, the green screens apparent, and the flying skateboards
ridiculous (as are silly phrases like “rusties” and “the Smoke” --I’m sure
these were more acceptable on paper than in live-action, or maybe I’m just an
old man who hates whimsy). As for the script, well… let’s just say I’ve seen
more subtlety in a… not very subtle thing. I don’t know, I’m bad at similes and
I don’t think this movie deserves a good one.
Full of missed shots and even more missed
opportunities, Uglies is destined to fade into dystopian YA
adaptation/bad Netflix original film obscurity. I, for one, have already
forgotten it.
Uglies is now playing on Netflix
This review was first published in the
Keizertimes on September 20th, 2024. Visit at www.keizertimes.com
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