It’s ironic that Uglies is about valuing authenticity over the artificial when it is the most contrived, synthetic dystopian product to ever exist. Even Divergent, a shallow mimic of The Hunger Games, had more to offer than Uglies does.
The movie begins by establishing the friendship between Peris (Chase Stokes) and Tally (Joey King), who playfully call each other Nose and Squint, in some way embracing their physical imperfections because those imperfections brought them closer together. Both await the surgery they will get when they turn 16 – surgeries that will make them beautiful and allow them to move to life in the city. This relationship is supposed to be central and important to the emerging narrative, but because the film doesn’t invest much time in making this friendship believable, we don’t really care even though we’re supposed to.
Peris is older so he heads off for his surgery first, and despite his promise to Tally, he becomes non-communicative and doesn’t seem keen to be a part of her life until she too gets the surgery. As she waits, she becomes friends with Shay (Brianne Tju), who encourages her to do more with her rather than wait around for a surgery to make her pretty. Once again, this is supposed to be an important relationship, but merely having two characters skateboard through the air isn’t enough to establish their growing closeness.
Shay decides she doesn’t want to go through the surgery as she wants to embrace her authentic self. Instead she heads to the Smoke, a non-conformist community that rejects everything those in power advocate. At this point, it’s clear that the Smoke values nature, a sense of community, a contrast to those in the city and their attachment to their appearance and screens. It’s a criticism of modern society and how we currently live, given our obsession with our devices and social media. The film even references Henry David Thoreau, so the themes are fairly transparent.
The problem is, it doesn’t really have anything meaningful to say about our modern preoccupations. Tally merely tells us that she’s changing because of her time spent in the Smoke, but we don’t understand how as the difference isn’t fleshed out enough. How is she changing? Why is this way of life superior? The movie never goes into that. And of course, to top it all off, we get a flat romance between Tally and David (Keith Powers), one of the leaders at the Smoke. King and Powers try really hard to make this screen relationship work, but the screenplay just doesn’t provide enough substance to build anything. The third act happens so quickly that nothing gets a chance to stick; we don’t feel the consequences of the conflict, nor the aftermath of it.
The main reason why The Hunger Games franchise is so successful and has managed to haul in a whole new generation of fans is because of the care for the main relationships. With just a few scenes we could understand Katniss’ friendship with Gale, and her love for her sister Prim. Uglies ends in a way that sets up the possibility of a sequel, but honestly, it’s a synthetic product we could do without.
REVIEW SCORE – 1.5/5
