Even with McG being behind The Uglies and a few cast members that I have enjoyed in other movies, Uglies was still a movie that right from the first trailer felt off to me. This is a Netflix original and I thought that it could have the potential to be a decent dystopian sci-fi kind of movie, but the whole thing just falls flat.
How to Download Uglies
Uglies was released on September 13, 2024 on Netflix. You can download or stream the film from this digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review.
The Movie Review
I would learn that this is based on a novel of the same name, I cannot speak for how accurate this is to the novel. What I can speak of is that this is a movie that feels like it is trying way too hard to have a good message. I guess the message is what is on the inside is what counts, but the whole movie I hate to say it, is just kind of dumb. And I have a high tolerance for dumb!
The idea is that the world has been nearly ruined thanks to humanity basically using up all the resources. A special new orchid that works as an energy source is created and when people turn 16 they are given a medical procedure to turn them from “uglies” to “pretty”. You know actually writing that makes this seem even more dumb to me.
The Plot – A Dystopian World with “Pretties” and “Uglies”
Once you are given this procedure to become pretty, you can live in a nice city and have the best life imaginable! Our main character is a 16 year old girl called Tally, played by The Kissing Booth’s Joey King. Tally and her best friend Peris are due to get their pretty surgery, but Peris gets to go first. Tally sneaks into the pretty city to see him and notices that he has changed, not just physically, but his whole personality!
Tally soon finds out that this perfect city and these pretty people are not what they seem. Tally joins a group of rebels that tell her the truth about what is going on and they end up trying to fight for what is right. Wow, I was boring myself writing that synopsis! That is the perfect way to sum up what Uglies is, it is boring. It is not that it does things badly, there is just a lack of any real excitement here.
Uninspired Characters and Unconvincing Plot
I never grew to care about any of the characters and the whole “uglies” thing was just so dumb to me! Perhaps the book explains it better and it has a deeper meaning there. However, as far as this movie goes, it is just so lame. The concept of people being classed as ugly unless they get this surgery does have the potential to be interesting, especially in a day and age where so many celebrities and even regular people are going under the knife.
Yet, this movie just went on and on and never felt like it got out of third gear. It is not even all that long of a movie either, coming in at just over 90 minutes! They even leave it open for a potential sequel, I would be legit shocked if Netflix funded a sequel, I have yet to hear one person say that they loved this movie.
A Visually Lacking Experience
Another thing I want to mention before I bring this thing to a close is that the movie looks pretty bad. There is some very noticeable and questionable looking CG and green screen stuff here that looks very, very odd, almost like it is supposed to look fake. Although I do want to say that to be fair to the actors, I do feel like they were all trying to do their best with what they had to work with, it was just what they had to work with was not all that great.
Not Another Hunger Games or Maze Runner
It is not even because this is aimed at teens either. I have enjoyed stuff like The Maze Runner, Divergent, and especially The Hunger Games, I feel that is the audience they were going for here. Yet, this movie just lacks all the heart, soul, substance, and excitement of those movies. Thank goodness I had a bar of Cadbury Caramel while watching this as I am sure it would have been way worse if I had watched this snack free!
