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Do you, by chance, remember when director McG made good movies? Yeah, I know, me neither. And his latest,Uglies, won’t disprove that point. It is hard to believe that the man who cut his teeth directing Sugar Ray music videos has successfully made movies for nearly a quarter of a century.
Yes, cinema is a visual medium, but McG has always focused more on aesthetics. From theCharlie’s Angelsfranchise to family fare likeRim of the WorldandFamily Switch, he emphasizes vain visuals instead of character depth and a good story.
McG may have finally found a film that tackles those sensibilities with Netflix’s latestJoey Kingvehicle.Ugliesis a grossly digitally enhanced, special effects-driven, inefficacious streaming film whose themes are so wide of the mark that it practically becomes conceited.
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Netflix’sUgliesReview and Synopsis
Uglies followsJoey King’s(The Kissing Boothfranchise) character, Tally Youngblood, a 15-year-old girl about to turn “Pretty.” This is a drastic societal change set in a post-apocalyptic world where everyone lives in a dystopian society. It is a kind of graduation: when someone turns 16, they transform to become “Pretty.”
The government ensures this transformation happens, including extreme and endless cosmetic surgeries to make someone as attractive as possible. Tally spends most nights with her best friend, Peris (Outer Banks‘Chase Stokes), on the rooftop of the publicly funded school dorms. He is about to graduate, but they plan to meet back at their favorite spot in eight weeks.
When Peris doesn’t show up for their meet-up, Tally takes it upon herself to find him. She crosses the bridge into a world of the self-indulgent and unencumbered, among spoon-fed and heedless characters. She then makes a new friend in Shay (Scream’sBrianne Tju), an “Ugly” who wants to rebel against the establishment.
McG Misses the Point When It Comes toUgliesSource Material
Uglies‘ script was written by Jacob Forman (Lawmen: Bass Reeves), Vanessa Taylor (Divergent), and Whit Anderson (Ocean’s 8). And yes, if you run out of breath while reading the list of credited screenwriters, you know your film has a problem. There are too many hands on the typewriter while adapting Scott Westerfeld’s best-selling young adult novel.
Talk about overthinking the source material. The constant rewrites of the script entirely miss some of the most basic, overused clichés from Westerfeld’s book. McG doesn’t fare well in cleaning up the mess. The main crux of the story comes down to Tally being caught between a world she always wanted and one that offers a dose of reality.
He is too reliant on covering up tropes, paper-thin and flimsy characters, and story development with grotesque special effects that are vomited all over the screen. Of course, nothing can overshadowKing’scartoonishly incongruent turn and Stokes’s wooden performance. At that point, the distraction from the special effects was a welcome distraction.
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Is the Netflix filmUgliesWorth Watching?
Ugliesis not worth watching and could only have been written with movies like TheMatrixorDark Cityin mind. The film is strictly for fans of Joey King and the YA genre, of which there are plenty. However, it’s surprising that director McG was given another chance with this type of film. One of the few young adult film franchises that failed,Divergent, was under his direction.
And that’s the issue with Uglies, where films likeThe Hunger Gamessucceed. LikeJennifer Lawrencein the aforementioned film, McG can never coax a stronger female character out of King’s performance. Additionally, the film will be unable to enhance the complex themes from the source material, such as propaganda, violence, inequality, and totalitarianism.
It’s not that the political and social commentary inUgliesis paper-thin; it’s hardly broached with any maturity. That, along with plot points, like explaining how the “Rusties” came to be, how they fund expensive military equipment, and how every “Ugly” looks like a model. In recent memory, this makesUgliesthe most hypocritical young adult social commentary film.
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You can stream Uglies only on Netflix on September 13th.
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M.N. Miller
Film & Television Critic
Articles Published :336
M.N. Miller is a film and television critic and a proud member of the Las Vegas Film Critic Society, Critics Choice Association, and a 🍅 Rotten Tomatoes/Tomato meter approved. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Mansfield University and a Master’s from Chamberlain University. However, he still puts on his pants one leg at a time, and that’s when he usually stumbles over. When not writing about film or television, he patiently waits for the next Pearl Jam album and chooses to pass the time by scratching his wife’s back on Sunday afternoons while she watches endless reruns of California Dreams. M.N. Miller was proclaimed the smartest reviewer alive by actor Jason Isaacs but chose to ignore his obvious sarcasm. you’re able to also find his work on Hidden Remote, InSession Film, Ready Steady Cut, Geek Vibes Nation, and Nerd Alert.
