The hit fiction series Uglies finally gets a movie adaptation, yet its awkward pacing and artificial look leaves a lot to be desired.
It’s unfortunate that it took so long for an adaptation of Uglies to happen. The popular YA book series, written by Scott Westerfeld, has been a staple of the young adult science fiction genre since 2005. To get an adaptation 19 years after the publication of the first book means it missed the boom of YA adaptations of the mid-aughts and early 2010s, where the appetite was stronger and Netflix wasn’t yet a content farm. However, Uglies manages to pull off an enjoyable adaptation, even if nostalgia for the books plays a big part in why.
Directed by McG (Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, The Babysitter), Uglies follows Tally Youngblood (Joey King), who lives in a world made up of “uglies” and “pretties.” Society has collapsed in the way that a lot of science fiction societies collapse — a lack of fossil fuels led to war and fighting and people dying. Then, scientists discovered a special flower that allowed them to create a great equalizer. This creation resulted in a mandatory operation everyone gets on their 16th birthday to make them “pretty.” Now, everyone looks and acts the same, thus no more wars.
But, a small band of renegades exist outside the city in a camp called The Smoke, led by the mysterious David (Keith Powers). The people of The Smoke dream of the old way of life, refusing the operation and living in the natural world. Tally, desperate to get her operation to reunite with her best friend Peris (Chase Stokes), already a “pretty,” infiltrates The Smoke under Dr. Cable’s (Laverne Cox) orders lest she remain an “ugly” for the rest of her life.
A slow and steady saga.
The film suffers the most with its pacing. Once Tally makes it to The Smoke, worldbuilding exposition is the only language the characters speak. This hurts the inevitable romance between David and Tally, who barely get any real connection before Tally’s betrayal reveals itself. While Tally’s interest in David makes sense as someone who holds knowledge Tally never even dreamed of having, there’s less conviction behind David’s interest in Tally. A result of underwritten character dynamics and a wooden performance from Powers.
What the film does well is in the development of the friendship between Tally and Shay (Brianne Tju). One of the more complicated relationships from the book, Tally and Shay foil each other nicely. Tally, wanting to belong to the world of the pretties, and Shay, searching for something outside what society tells her she wants. In the books, it’s a constant push and pull between the friends, sometimes enemies, and it translates well on screen.
Pretty on the outside.
While not a perfect adaptation, there’s plenty here to enjoy. Nostalgia for the books might give the film an edge, but it’s also got an interesting set up in its own right. King shows signs of life in Tally’s character, who feels like she’s just getting started. The chemistry between King and Tju lends so much warmth into the story. No matter how much the film pushes the love story between David and Tally, it’s the tragedy of Tally and Shay’s friendship that elevates the film past today’s standard YA films.
The premise was always going to be hard to adapt. Attractiveness is subjective; in the written form, Uglies relies on your own biases to play a part in who these characters are and what they turn into after the operation. On screen, some of the magic of that deeper layer falls away. Netflix’s standard glossy and cheap look doesn’t help, though, in a way, it almost works to the film’s advantage. The operation the characters go through is superficial, much like what you would find on an instagram filter.
Its themes around attractiveness, conformity, and free thinking won’t get you far in a philosophy or social university class, but it is reaching for interesting ideas. The casting of Laverne Cox, a transgender actress, as the leader of this world is an inspired choice, but the film never interrogates what it actually means to want to change the way you look. There’s not a lot of room between “I want to stay the way I am” and “I want to be pretty” in the world of Uglies. Though going against societies’ norms is queer history, this adaptation so far is not equipped to handle such nuances.
The bottom line.
However, Uglies still manages to be a fun adaptation for book readers. Hopefully it’s enough for everyone else to get the sequel. The world of the Uglies is filled with fascinating and complicated character dynamics that get more room to breathe in the sequels, and the end of Uglies sets us up for those.
But it’s not just the character dynamics we have to look forward to. This futuristic world of enhanced technology and brainwashing gets more complicated as the story goes on. Uglies is just the start, but in a world quickly being consumed by AI, deepfakes, and social media sites exploiting our attention spans, the reality of Uglies is not far off is chilling. In fact, it’s already here.
Uglies is now streaming on Netflix. You can watch the trailer here.
Images courtesy of Netflix. You can read more reviews by Katey Stoetzel here.
REVIEW RATING
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Uglies - 7/10
7/10
Katey is co-founder and tv editor for InBetweenDrafts. She hosts the “House of the Dragon After Show” and “Between TV” podcasts and can be read in various other places like Inverse and Screen Speck. She wishes desperately the binge model of tv watching would die, but still gets mad when she runs out of episodes of tv to watch.
