By: Sam Gruetter
Opinion Editor
On Sept. 13, Netflix released Uglies, starring Joey King and including other actors such as Chase Stokes and Lucky Smith. The film is an adaptation of the best-selling novel, which follows Tally, an adolescent girl growing up in a dystopian society. In Tally’s society, people get a surgery when they are sixteen years old that makes them pretty and raises their social status and rank to soaring heights. However, Tally faces many challenges while trying to get her surgery, and ultimately must choose between the society she grew up in or a group to whom she has become accustomed.
Because the film is set in a dystopian society, scenes often feature modern technology and sprawling cityscapes. However, the CGI put in place to bring these elements to life is painfully obvious and makes the movie look cheap and disorganized. On many occasions, the green screens producers use to generate a scene is easily distinguishable from the actor and props in the scene itself. Alongside the unfortunate use of CGI, is the editing of the show’s characters. when they get their surgery to become pretty. This is a key plot point for the movie and should indicate the nature of Tally’s society, but instead, the poor editing softens the effect the surgery should have on the audience. The faces of those dubbed pretties are obviously edited due to their airbrushed complexion and lifeless eyes. However, instead of seeming uncannily perfect, the faces look like the editors sloppily applied a Snapchat filter to the actors.
Another notable aspect of the movie is the star-studded cast. Despite the actors’ good performances, the cast felt awkward and inaccurate to the book’s descriptions at times. When watching the movie, it feels as though the casting team and producers favored the actor’s bankability over who would be best suited for the role.
Despite the unrealistic editing and casting, the movie is not all bad. One thing it executed well was the plot, keeping the movie as close to the original book as possible. Often film adaptations stray from the book and include unnecessary details or spare important ones, creating obvious plot holes for those who have not read the book. Uglies was not one of these movies. Instead, there was a balanced ratio of background information to the climax and then the conclusion.
Despite the well-executed plot and pace of the movie, the Uglies cast and editing make it hard to focus on anything but their failures, detracting from the overall viewing experience and earning the movie negative reviews from fans and critics alike. The movie leans too much into the dystopian setting.. Instead, it should have been kept more simple and relied on the strong plot to convey the tone and message of the movie.