By: Shilpi Mohanty
Spoiler Warning!Â
On September 13th, 2024, the movie adaptation of the book Uglies by Scott Westerfeld came out. I was so thrilled, as I was an avid lover of the Uglies series in high school. I was skeptical, though, because some adaptations don’t exactly portray the books.Â
The movie begins with the main character, Tally, and her best friend, Peris, at the school, but his surgery is tomorrow. Peris and Tally then promise to never change who they are on the inside and plan to meet up in a month. This is notably different from the book, which begins with Tally escaping from her dorm to get into Pretty Town. The movie ensures the audience meets Peris, which is amazing. In the book, the reader only meets Peris once he became pretty and acted cold towards Tally. One negative aspect of this is that it removes the detail of Tally and Peris having been friends. The movie doesn’t mention how Tally and Peris worked together to trick a mind reader and would stalk Pretties and watch them, which would lead the audience to be skeptical about the relationship between Tally and Peris. It was unclear whether they were more than friends or just friends.Â
The movie utilized Peris as a soldier for the Pretties that battles Tally, and he also symbolizes the force Pretties have to ensure there is no abomination that threatens their own existence. This is different from the book, where Shay battles Tally instead. Using Peris as a soldier for the Pretties made the plot more interesting. However, this was a sad development since we know how close Tally and Peris are from the book. It felt like they used the story just to make a profitable movie rather than cater to the fans.
Another way they altered the plot to cater to new fans is changing how the audience meets Shay. In the book, the reader was introduced to Shay as she was hiding in the bushes, too afraid to go to Pretty Town to reunite with her already Pretty friends. In the movie, however, Shay was the total opposite of Tally. Shay was against being Pretty and wanted to move to the Smokes. This helps show the contrast between people who follow community norms and others who are brave enough to step away from these societal standards. This was a nice addition, but it also strays from the plot.Â
There is one key similarity to all other adaptations, which is speeding up the plot. It rushed to Tally going through the Smoke to protect Shay. They don’t explore the bond that Tally developed with Shay and Peris. It shows a few aspects of their bonds, but not in as much detail as the book does. For example, when Tally went through the Smoke, the movie sped through her journey navigating to the Smoke, and doesn’t show how hard and time-consuming it was. It would have been nice to emphasize how hard the journey is to show how it takes courage to stray away from the norm. Another important thing to emphasize is the parallel between the Pretties and the societal standards of how people are ostracized when they stray away.Â
Overall, I rate the movie a 7 out of 10. It has a consistent plot even though it was rushed, with Tally taking on the mission to find the Smoke and getting caught. The visuals were amazing with how Pretty Town was portrayed as the city of happiness by highlighting its glamor through the architecture. I liked the dramatization of the plot by having Peris battle Tally for revolting against the Pretties. I also liked how it made the Smoke the number one enemy and emphasized how Dr. Cable wanted to annihilate the Smoke. It was interesting that they changed Peris from not reacting much to being really cold, truly emphasizing how much people change when they become Pretty. The movie had a couple of drastic changes to spice up the plot, but a lot of the time, it did stay close to the plot. I recommend this movie for anyone and I really hope that the sequel, Pretties, comes out soon!