*This article contains spoilers for the movie Uglies.*
If you’re looking for a movie to hate-watch, Uglies might be the one for you. Otherwise, I’d stay far away from this film. When people were saying that we need to bring back dystopian movies, this isn’t what they meant.
Uglies is an adaptation of the young adult dystopian book series of the same name. The books were a hit back in the early 2000s when they were first published. In true YA dystopian fashion, the story follows teenagers who are forced to live a certain way, but think they can change the world with their rebellion. The main themes – including coming of age and good vs evil – are nothing new. It feels like they were trying to bring back the popular dystopian film adaptations that we saw a lot of ten years ago.Â
This movie follows Tally, AKA “Squint,” (Joey King) and her best friend, Peris, AKA “Nose,” (Chase Stokes), as they face their “beautification” procedures once they turn 16. Since Peris is older, he undergoes his procedure first, leaving Tally behind. They make a deal to meet under the bridge that separates the “Uglies” and the “Pretties.” In a not-so-surprising turn of events, Peris doesn’t show up. She is shocked to find that Peris has changed, but not just physically.
 Once she returns to the land of the “Uglies,” she befriends a “radical” girl named Shay (Brianne Tju). She informs Tally on the tales of “the Smoke,” a place where everyone is free to choose and live how they want. Shay tries to convince Tally to refuse the beautification procedure and join her in finding “the Smoke.” Tally refuses, but things change when her 16th birthday arrives and she is told she cannot get the procedure unless she helps the government out with finding and spying on Shay and “the Smoke.” When Tally reunites with Shay, she is then introduced to David (Keith Powers), the leader of “the Smoke.” Predictably, she learns that “the Smoke” isn’t some big bad group of people; they are the good guys. She finds out that the beautification procedures are actually a way of lowering your brain capacity and making you more susceptible to being controlled.Â
Ultimately, she unknowingly leads the government right to them. A lot of the rebels are captured. David and Tally go to free the rebels while having to fight off a super-human version of Peris. They free all of the rebels except for Shay, who underwent the procedure. The movie ends with Tally undergoing the procedure so she can test the cure “the Smoke” has been working on.Â
This was not a surprising ending. It was a little abrupt and made the whole movie and everything the characters went through to prove they’re against this procedure feel pointless. They were trying to show that Tally was making a sacrifice for the greater good.Â
Believe it or not, watching this film was somehow even worse than reading the synopsis. There were multiple points throughout that were supposed to be serious, but I couldn’t help but laugh at them. This includes when they were trying to describe these conventionally attractive Hollywood actors as ugly. The whole message they were trying to get across about how beauty doesn’t define your worth really missed the mark. My friend and I watched this film and felt that being “pretty” isn’t that bad. The stakes didn’t feel as high as they wanted them to be. Ultimately, it looked like the pretty people lived a pretty good life. It was portrayed that the pretty people had a life of luxury. They were given beautiful clothes, had beautiful places to live, and seemed to party all the time. Somehow, even worse than the plot was the pacing of this movie. The beginning felt so long, but the actual conflict felt short-lived, and the ending was rushed. I watched this movie with my friends, and we all turned to each other at the end, saying, “That’s it?” Overall, Uglies was a mess. Between the plot, pacing, and special effects, there were no redeeming qualities. I don”t even consider this movie good enough for me to “hate-watch” a potential sequel in the future.