On September 13, the Netflix streaming platform released a teenage dystopia «Uglies», which is based on the novel of the same name by Scott Westerfeld, published in 2005. In the review below, we describe what constitutes a world in which the imposed Instagram the story is a good one, but is it worth the attention of viewers who are well over 16.
Genre science fiction action movie, teenage dystopia
Director McGee
Starring Joey King, Keith Powers, Chase Stokes, Brianne Tju, Laverne Cox, Jean Luis Castellanos, Charmaine Lee, Gabriella Garcia, Ash Maeda, Jordan Shirley
Premiere Netflix
Year of issue 2024
Website IMDb
After the poster apocalypse, shown in a few frames and explained in a couple of standard sentences, a utopian era of complete happiness and beauty has arrived. Scientists have managed to develop a miracle flower that has become a reliable source of energy, and all young people on their 16th birthday now have the opportunity to undergo cosmetic surgery and become literally perfect in appearance. This makes any conflicts caused by discrimination based on appearance impossible. There’s nothing to quarrel about — everyone is happy, cheerful, and stupid, and most importantly, beautiful, as if they were on the cover of a glossy magazine.
Get into the realm of solid, Barbie and Ken are the dreams of young Telly Youngblood, who is about to turn sweet sixteen. The best friend of a girl with a symbolic name Paris is already in the paradise of her dreams, but she seems to have forgotten about their friendship, so she starts hanging out with her new friend Shay. The latter doesn’t share the general enthusiasm for free beauty treatments and decides to join a resistance group that advocates individualism. Thus, the heroines diverge, but everything changes when Tellie is asked to discover the location of the rebels and their secret weapon.
Here, even before the screening, it was clear what ideas would be conveyed: the importance of inner beauty, not outer beauty, and the importance of always being yourself. Plus, the theme of young people’s self-identity, which was voiced in the novel, was also raised.
However, in today’s era of pseudo-utopian «Instagram luxury» and the pursuit of ephemeral beauty standards «for the sake of followers», this story is gaining additional relevance and literally plays with new colors. So here we could even make an expository satire about social media focused on impeccable appearance. Or the willingness of a certain category of influencers to go under the knife for the sake of an imaginary ideal of beauty to the delight of the public. But it doesn’t come to that.
And so it turns out that «Uglies» — is a movie that is as predictable and secondary as possible, with zero fresh ideas and a very tired script. Every further plot move here is read once or twice, every line deprives the characters of the very individuality that the local resistance forces are fighting so hard to maintain. The extreme secondary nature is reinforced by a confident boredom, because the movie is hardly interesting. It has no exciting action scenes, no intrigue, and cannot boast of sane character interaction.
The only thing that pleases the viewer’s eye — is certain elements of the setting, such as the bright look of a futuristic metropolis with the eternal fireworks in the sky, as well as the «transformation of the disgusting», which seem to be interested in context because it is still a question — who among the present is really disgusting. For example, magical «Instagram filters» aim to «improve» absolutely pretty girls who have been nicknamed «Zdychlya» and «Kosenka», although Joey King’s eyes are perfectly fine. But let’s write off this slightly idiotic factor as a mandatory surgical procedure and the zombification of immature minds.
The ending of «Uglies» directly points to the option of continuing and turning into a franchise, because Scott Westerfeld also has several book sequels — the novels «Pretties», «Specials» and «Extras». But looking at the first movie, it’s better to nip the idea of sequels in the bud.