Netflix Top 1 Movie Is the Worst Sci-Fi Flick of the Year With Only 17% on RT

In the early 2000s, author Scott Westerfeld published a series of books called Uglies, the leitmotif of which was future humanity's struggle for individuality.

Like many other writers in the young adult genre, Westerfeld built the narrative largely on widely known and popular clichés. In his novels, teenagers rebelled against the injustices of the adult world, sacrificed themselves for a higher purpose, and, of course, won, but not without heavy losses.

Uglies differed from Divergent in its acute social concept – in Westerfeld's fictional universe, people solved the world's problems through forced plastic surgery, and subsequent lobotomy: the infamous "happiness for all," which, again, did not work.

Uglies Was Released at the Wrong Time

Uglies and subsequent novels were very popular and even won a number of awards. But the best days for teen dystopias in the movies are long gone, as the modest box office of the recent Hunger Games prequel demonstrates.

The belated release of Uglies, even given the impressive fan base of the original novel, does not seem to be the best strategy for Netflix, a platform not known for high quality teen adaptations.

What Is Uglies About?

The plot of Uglies takes place in a distant future world that has fallen into endless chaos. National discord and geopolitical conflicts are reduced by so-called "beauty operations." At the age of 16, every person on the planet is given the opportunity to permanently get rid of defects and the associated complexes that lead to internal conflicts.

The main character, Tally, looks forward to the transformation. The situation changes when Tally's best friend Peris unexpectedly distances himself from her after the operation. The girl realizes that along with his face, the doctors "improved" Peris' personality.

Uglies Suffers from Bad Makeup And CGI

Beauty and the quest for perfection have, to varying degrees, become the main movie trends of 2024. And while Demi Moore searches for the elixir of eternal youth in Substance and Elizabeth Banks gets lost in the endless beauty trends in Skincare, the actress who plays Tally, Joey King, suffers from far-fetched complexes in Uglies.

Perhaps one of the biggest downsides of the new Netflix movie is its absolutely unrealistic nature, achieved through bad makeup and cheap CGI.

Uglies' Director Chooses Action Over Lore and Story Development

Another obvious weakness of the movie is McG's direction, which seems to be stuck in the Charlie's Angels phase. Uglies' visuals and sound design clearly have an expired taste of the 2000s, with the choice of dubstep as the soundtrack feeling particularly blasphemous.

McG, like the Netflix producers, turns a blind eye to Westerfeld's mythology, deliberately omitting important parts of the plot in favor of dynamic action. But McG's constant attempts to evade contact with the story reveal him as a director who, unlike Terry Gilliam or Tim Burton, is simply incapable of working in a conventional reality.

For the dystopian fantasy genre, the lack of a well-developed concept is literally the end of the whole franchise. And despite the fact that Uglies was made with the clear intention of getting a sequel, the film's open ending is just another promise made by the producers that will never be fulfilled.