Uglies
There is little debate as to what genre ruled the young adult landscape of the early 2010’s. “The Hunger Games” war fans in 2012 before the likes of “Divergent”, “The Giver”, “Maze Runner” launched in 2014. Almost all of the above dystopian node YA novel adaptations were wreaking havoc in theaters with massive fandom delivering them straight into our imaginations. Scott Westerfeld had already released two books, but they didn’t go into production just yet because there were so many works dominating the market. This picture of a world, completely consisting of beautiful people, will be portrayed in “Uglies” directed by McG, known for “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” and “The Babysitter”.
In a world where there is no conflict, there is also no bhaed that is right. On every fifteen years, especially on the sixteenth birthday, everyone around has got to have a grand looking transformation made to them for the sake of the world looking beautiful, which is, longer hands and feet, a pair of bright shining eyes and a smooth, flawless skin. Children who are fifteen and under are referred to as ‘the uglies’ and reside on the edges of the tall shining city of pretties in dull and harsh concrete buildings. Tally (Joey King) was born only a few months after his best friend, Peris played by Chase Stokes. He has to go through the same transformation and hence they make promises to each other that they will remain in contact until they can meet again. However, when he doesn’t respond, that’s when he rips the security of the city to be able save him. Without feeling anything now, she views her ugly transformation as a disgrace something that she wishes to go over as soon as possible.
For now, Tally meets Shay (Brianne Tju), who is ugly too and shares a birthday with Tally and they both have fun on hoverboards and smuggle reading Walden by Thoreau. As the date comes closer, Shay admits that she is all free at the end of quite and soothing.
Instead, she intends to remain true to herself and escape to “The Smoke” to participate in the activities of a band of outlaws led by the mysterious David (Keith Powers). Shay’s operation date is missed and now it is Tally’s turn to be made by Dr. Cable (Laverne Cox), the official who knows that she is friends with Tally and uses her change as leverage. Tally will be able to look pretty only after locating Shay and taking her back to the city. But as she discovers a new world in The Smoke, and meets David, who is somehow in the middle of her imagination, Tally starts to question herself and whether the world she believed so simple, is really divided into uglies and pretties, than even more disturbing than she imagined.
Uglies, feels out of synch in its ideology as well as its deployment. It’s all computer generated images and the film strives to insert us in its time setting through gimmicks and effects. And although the source text is likely to contain the gimmicks of toothpaste pills, AI rings and hoverboards within its premise; the movie gratuitously presents these as minor and irrelevant. And despite the expected thrill that such affordances should provide, Uglies does not set the mood for the action part which eventually becomes central to its movement.
The intense life and death action scenes become weak in between the artificial elements, both in terms of technical aspects and also structurally.
The film never stops as it rushes from one action to an exhibition explanation and back again. McG doesn’t have the peace of mind to simply breathe and be in the world he is attempting to create. In the same vein, the thesis of the film can be summarized concisely Void of any depth superficiality or shallowness is always constraining. It is also a thesis by all standards that is not profound in the least, and at its most basic level, it most times is acceptable for the age that its intended target audience is, of course, however, the film does not do much to get involved in anything that goes under the external level of the artwork. It’s a fact that has been established within the first 20 minutes of the film and barely adds anything new regarding the narrative for the rest of the time.
Comparing the performances to the utter nothingness of the script is not particularly easy. King fits the bill of a stereotypical lead female character in a young adult dystopian film perfectly. She is tired of her usual role which embodies desperation and grit. Portraying the character of an evil Doctor Cable, Cox goes about her actions with a typical uncaring and deadpan sinister monotonous expression. There is really nothing much ‘amazing’ or horrifying about her on paper, thus, it is disheartening when the film considers her character’s malevolence as its rather great appeal to its audience and that quite shockingly creates a gap between the objective of the film and its real drive.
Powers’ David does have a character arc but not a very emotional one since his character remains shrouded in much mythology that he is supposed to uncover as the same goes for Tju’s Shay who still has to surround herself into what more lies deeper than the action that is taking place at present. Powers and Tju inject a sliver of emotive attachment into what eventually turns out to be a rather tiresome, stereotype ridden film.
“Uglies” is an odyssey of an Orwellian tale that possesses less than robust conviction. It is an unremarkable out of the many out there and one among the YA dystopian genre which is embarrassing. Barely making any constructive contribution to its titular thesis, the film can be indulgent in its headline subject matter hence loosening its grip on both enjoyment and engagement.
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