Uglies review – Netflix's dreary and old-fashioned dystopian mess for young adults isn't pretty | Science fiction and fantasy movies

It's been a few years since Hollywood's onslaught of young adult dystopian franchises, from The Hunger Games to Divergent to Maze Runner, and Uglies, a new Netflix adaptation of Scott Westerfeld's 2005 novel that would launch a new trilogy, already feels out of time. Directed by McG (Netflix's Babysitter: Killer Queen), the exceedingly corny film clearly tries to hark back to its famous predecessors, even enlisting Divergent screenwriter Vanessa Taylor, along with Jacob Forman and Whit Anderson, for a script that takes strong aim at prevalent young adult dystopian themes: physical and emotional change, staying true to your values, remembering who the real enemy is.

Uglies deserves credit for this: In 2024, cosmetic surgery and the beauty standard of body modification are a rich and relevant topic for young people. Unfortunately, Uglies imparts its lessons in the most clumsy, laughably shallow, and unconvincing way possible. Like The Hunger Games, this cruel post-apocalyptic society is ruled from a garishly colored capital surrounded by ruins. The elites differ from the rest of the human population in clothing, makeup, and physical form, though that description overstates the effectiveness of the production design, which consists mostly of CGI fireworks and lights. After a parody explanation from star Joey King about the pre-apocalypse oil crisis (such unfortunate pre-crisis souls are called “rusties”), the flower that saved everything (??), and the required “transformation” every citizen undergoes at 16, we are thrown into the boarding school room of King's Tally Youngblood.

The flimsy, mostly exposition-based script gets to the point quickly: Tally and her best friend Peris (Outer Banks' Chase Stokes) could be more than friends, but his surgery is tomorrow, so they promise to meet in a month and never change inside. That doesn't happen, of course; after the surgery, the glorified Peris is cold, dismissive and uninterested in the ugly Tally, who escapes the “undesirable presence detected” alarm—she's so obviously not pretty that the police are called—with a bungee vest and a hoverboard. (There are many elements of this story that aren't meant seriously on screen, most notably the idea that any photogenic face in this film, especially King's, would be considered offensive.)

While on the run, Tally befriends fellow student Shay (Brianne Tju), who plans to rebel against the forced surgery by joining a group of misfits known as the Smoke. When Shay disappears, the coldly evil Dr. Cable (Laverne Cox) offers Tally a deal: find the Smoke, discover their secrets, and bring Shay back, or be denied the surgery and remain ugly forever. Desperate to be pretty, Tally—who, incidentally, might be a hyper-competent action hero?—sneaks into the Smoke, quickly falls in love with leader David (Keith Powers) and his ethic of free-thinking and egalitarian subsistence living, and learns of the Prettys' lies. There are also several gun battles, hyper-activated Prettys with superhuman abilities (including Peris), and remorseful former plastic surgeons.

I'm only describing all this as such because there's not much else to it, nothing of substance that could be an allegory about the rejection of beauty standards (again, everyone is beautiful) or the question of who benefits from them. Most elements of this adaptation are just plain ridiculous in an unfunny way: Stokes can't play a 16-year-old at 31; several characters conjure up Henry David Thoreau's Walden Pond out of nowhere; viewers have to listen to several minutes of King's Tally nagging about her “flaws,” like asymmetries, blue eyes, and her general appearance like a human. And it's a little queasy that Cox, one of Hollywood's most prominent trans actresses, plays a villain whose surgeries “designed to make you a better you” are secretly toxic and brain-destroying.

As with the modifications of “Prettys,” everything feels artificial, from the abundant CGI effects in the cheap-looking Netflix house style (overexposed, garish colors, dull sheen) to the dialogue, which is bereft of any interesting, specific features beyond the necessity for the plot and the bluntly stated theme. King, a likable screen presence who was stuck in mediocre Netflix movies for too long, at least brings some much-needed humanity to the proceedings; Tally may say and do stupid things and change on the fly for the sake of the plot, but King gives her some grit. But she can’t develop into a solid, cheerful female protagonist through excessive emotion, nor is her charisma enough to ignite a spark in this drab, better-looking-on-paper mess. Though it ostensibly argues against turning people into synthetic quasi-droids, “Uglies” feels like another throwaway product.