Grace Reichenau
Staff Writer
Since the success of The Hunger Games, several books and films have been created to take advantage of the vastly profitable young-adult dystopian genre, such as the Divergent and Uglies series. While the latter novel predated The Hunger Games by a few years, the film—a Netflix original—just came out last month, Sep. 13, 2024. The response to this movie hasn’t exactly been positive. Currently, Uglies sits at 15% on Rotten Tomatoes, 4.7/10 on IMDb, and 34% on Metacritic. So, what exactly went wrong here?
The concept around Uglies’ dystopia is straightforward. At age 16, the people of this futuristic city undergo surgery that alters their physical features to their liking. Before that, these children are isolated in prison-like dorms where they receive minimal education and are instead taught that they are Uglies until they come of age and are transformed into Pretties. Our protagonist, Tally Youngblood, is about what you’d expect. She’s rebellious, kind, and clever. There isn’t anything about her that stands out among the ocean of other young-adult main characters. The story follows the pattern of almost every dystopian we know and love—she starts just like everyone else who dreams of someday being “pretty,” is introduced to a different way of thinking, runs off to the “real world,” and joins a rebellion to fight back against an evil, authoritarian leader. I got so many flashbacks to The Island while watching this film I expected the big twist to be that the people in charge killed anyone unworthy of being pretty. The formula, while stale, is not outright bad. The problem with Uglies is that every aspect of the film is predictable and clichéd, and it doesn’t do anything right. Among other movies in this oversaturated genre, this one is so unsatisfyingly mediocre that it is doomed to fade into obscurity within the year or as soon as the internet tires of making fun of it.
The following is actual dialogue from the scene where Tally is told about the government-mandated brainwashing:
“But why… would [the antagonist] do that?”
“To control us.”
This movie has all the subtlety of a gun and does more telling than showing, yet plot decisions still muddle what should be very obvious messaging. Commentary about conforming to beauty standards and how capitalism enforces them with products and plastic surgery would make for an interesting thematic story. However, this is not a capitalist dystopia but a government one. Alongside the surgery that converts Uglies into Pretties, a modification is made to the brain that takes away a person’s personality in order to make them easier to manipulate. The intention was likely to lean more into the theme of conformity by taking away what makes people unique. However, why did this have to be a physical altercation? From my perspective, the system and culture surrounding the city are effective enough forms of brainwashing. Societal pressures cause conformity anyway—isn’t tampering with the brain, narratively, an unnecessary extra step? This takes away from the themes the movie is trying to build. The unfair standards of conventional beauty, the main message that Uglies tries to send, are pertinent already in the current world, and, as far as I know, that isn’t because we all have surgeries done on our brains to make us think this way. The same can be said for social conformity. The plot handles something so realistic in such an absurdly cartoonish way that it’s impossible to take seriously.
Believability is very important in a dystopia. A well-crafted dystopian world shouldn’t feel all that different from our world, as that unease makes it impactful. The acting is not to blame for the film’s flaws. There were some scenes where unnatural dialogue had me cringing, but I would blame the awkward script more readily than the performers. The direction is the issue; everyone in the cast is conventionally attractive. I don’t think every actor had to be ugly to fit their roles– quite the opposite. Having already desirable people still be brought down by unattainable beauty standards the world promotes is true to life. However, the actress who plays Tally is a literal model. Is it so much to ask that, at the very least, some of the characters are average-looking? If the only flaw in a character’s appearance is that they look human, the entire message falls flat. The actors aren’t the only problem, though. The weaknesses of the rebellion and the city are incredibly (and very conveniently) easy to exploit. Tally and her friend group often sneak out of the dorms and cause mischief. They have little to no difficulty doing this and never face consequences. How are we, the audience, supposed to see the authorities as threatening if they can’t even keep some dumb teens in check? Likewise, once Tally arrives in the rebellion camp, everyone accepts her as part of the community except for a single member. They have so many reasons to think that she’s some sort of spy, but no, they readily trust her and let her in on their secrets. How did they last so long with such poor decision-making skills? Everything that happens in this film comes so easily to Tally– it’s astonishing.
Of the myriad of problems with Netflix’s Uglies, the poor execution of the most important elements of a dystopian, theming and worldbuilding, brings the film down the most. I have several criticisms of other films in this genre, such as The Island, 1984, and even The Hunger Games. However, each of these stories succeeds in telling a compelling narrative that the audience gets something out of. Uglies provides nothing unique or insightful to the viewer. The Critics Consensus on Rotten Tomatoes described it best: “It’s what’s on the inside that counts, but unfortunately Uglies doesn’t have much going on in there, either.”