Rating: 2/5

The movie industry has been in a drought and great movies are becoming rarer and rarer. But recently, Uglies, a movie released on Sep.13 has picked up a lot of controversy. Originally based on Scott Westerfield’s famous novel, its cast is well-rounded. Although the movie is dystopian, it has meanings about beauty expectations that are reflected in our society.

At first glance, actors like Joey King and Keith Powers catch the eye’s attention. Joey King portrays the main character, Tally Youngblood, who lives in a society that strives for physical perfection. Keith Powers plays David, who is part of a rebellion group that helps Tally understand the consequences of surgery. In their society, people have to get cosmetic surgeries at the age of 16 to become “pretty”. When Tally is about to turn 16 and get the cosmetic surgery, she befriends and joins a group of rebels that reject the procedure. Due to this, she starts to question the expectations of their society and begins challenging the norms.

The movie’s striking cinematography and specific color contrasts demonstrate how society honors and emphasizes physical perfection too much.  For example, when Tally first arrives in the New Pretty Town, the camera pans around the landscape of the town, displaying vibrant colors that represent the happy and surprised emotions of Tally.  Along with the combination of sounds of laughter in the background, it successfully immerses the reader into Tally’s perspective and her thoughts about the new town. But at the same time, the colors occasionally become heavy on the viewers and are sometimes distracting. With all the vibrant and beautiful colors, viewers don’t know where the emotional weight of the scene is.

The movie also has flawed construction and pacing. In the beginning,  it introduces the characters and the semi-slow pacing is set, but later on and during the climax, it slows down and therefore causes confusion for the audience. But although it confuses, there is also a benefit to this uneven pacing. The unbalanced and slower pacing in the middle of the film gives viewers additional time to see Tally and her friendships develop. It also shows themes of loyalty and sticking to your key beliefs as throughout the additional time, Tally ultimately makes the decision to leave her old friends and fully embrace her rebel role.

Throughout the movie, Tally challenges and confronts the unrealistic and cruel realities of her world. In turn, it makes viewers question their view on physical perfection and the definition of beauty. This film is relevant due to its similarities in modern society. It explores what the definition of “pretty” is and as a result, the movie is named Uglies to show a contradiction as even though people in their society are not truly “ugly”. They just do not fit into their society’s norm of what’s “pretty.”

Overall, I believe that Uglies is worth a view if you are interested in topics about challenging modern beauty expectations for people, but if you are searching for more action and an overall good movie, I would not recommend it.