Uglies (2024) Movie Review

I’ve not heard so many things about the movie I’m about to review. I guess I just got attracted to it because of its name which is quite intriguing and because it’s sci-fi/dystopian in nature. I will not say that it’s because Keith Powers is in it, because although that’s why many people, especially ladies within my generation, got hooked to this movie, I’ve never really gotten the hype where he is concerned. Lol. Anyway, I digress...

Uglies (2024)

Based on the book series by Scott Westerfield “Uglies,” this is a dystopian film released in September 2024 and directed by McG. It stars actors like Joey King who plays the role of the protagonist, Keith Powers, Laverne Cox, and so on. It is about an hour and forty-two minutes long.

Summary of the Movie

In a dystopian society where there is a clear divide, Tally Youngblood falls into the category of the Uglies. A set of people that can only be admitted into the other side of this society known as the City once the turn 16 and undergo a surgery that makes them “pretty.” Tally’s friend, Peris has just gone and while Tally awaits her procedure which is to take place in three months time, she makes a new friend, Shay, who is against everything the system stands for.

The moment finally comes when Tally realises that getting her surgery procedure may not be a straightforward and easy as she thought. With Shay who’s made her way out of the system and an incensed society leader, Cable, issuing threats to Tally, Tally must now choose whether to betray the location of her friend or face a whole new world that is against everything she’s ever believed in. A new world that isn’t so....pretty?

My Review and Rating

I don’t know if you could tell but I was eager to get to this part for a lot of reasons. I haven’t read the book by Scott Westerfield and I’m sure I would have had a lot more to say if I had, but yeah, I guess it’s better that I haven’t read the book so I can focus squarely on the film and what I thought of it during and after watching.

First off, I’ll start by saying that this movie is not bad. It’s not a bad production. It has the entertainment quality to it that lets you keep watching to the end, but that’s just it. Nothing else to keep you hooked other than the fact that it’s sci-fi or dsytopian, and that they seems to have a destination that you’re not quite sure of and want to find out.

With that being said, the movie was quite predictable. You can immediately tell who the bad guys are. It’s like you’ve seen this script okay out a dozen other times and you’re just trying to find out which of them it’s most similar too. I got the Divergent vibe a lot from it but at least that was portrayed better. I think the fact that I could predict where the movie was going at almost every point in time took away the novelty of the entire production from me. The clichéd lines didn’t help it as well.

When it comes to character development, this film, I’m afraid, still falls short of the mark. The connections made at each point was too rushed so much so, that when core emotions were displayed, it kind of fell flat. It happened both with Shay and David in the movie with regards to Tally. And I was like "crying over Shay that you just met how long ago?" Also, the romantic whatever Tally had with David was quite unnecessary in my opinion. It wasn’t the subject matter anyway but if they were going to explore that part, they should have at least given us a reason behind why they were already kissing when the clearly just met and again in my opinion, had no chemistry whatsoever.

The subject matter in itself made me raise my eyebrows a bit. So they concept of being pretty is all about having lighter eyes and blonde hair ? So the concept of being ugly is just about your physical “European-like” appearance and everything that is needed to make a perfect world devoid of all the heartaches of reality is everyone looking “pretty?” It’s like I saw what they were trying to portray but they clearly missed the point and left us with a negative interpretation altogether of what would make the ideal utopian society.

The bad guys didn’t leave us much to work with. They were predictable. They weren’t even menacing enough for me to see why they were evil and needed to be avoid. Their side of the story that should make us reason with them why it is necessary for everyone to be pretty, or whether it was to prevent a high rampage of suicides because of looks. I get that it’s not a two hour film but they were dozen little plot lines that could have been expanded upon to create an ideal film. Things as it were just felt rushed.

So yeah, I’d rather not say any more on the subject. It had an open ending that promises another part, but I doubt I’d watch that cause I wasn’t given much to work with it in terms of anticipation. Through it all, I’d give Uglies a good 5.5/10. Netflix could do a lot better, for real.

Jhymi🖤

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