Brief Story Line
Story was set in the future where to avoid conflicts resulting from the fossil fuel war and distinct appearance of people, the government impose regulation to perform procedures on teenagers who reached the age of 16 to become perfect called "Pretties". Tally Youngblood aka Squint (Joey King - Despicable Me 4, The Act TV series etc) was one of the Uglies, term used for people who had not been operated yet. She was best friend with Peris aka Nose (Chase Stokes - Outer Banks TV series etc) who was few months older than her.
After Peris had his procedures and stayed in the city, Tally who could not wait to have her procedure later befriended Shay (Brianne Tju - I Know What You Did Last Summer TV series, Unhuman etc) who had same birthday. However, Shay was doubtful about having the procedures as she knew about the movement outside the city led by David (Keith Powers - The New Edition Story TV series, The Tomorrow War etc) which allowed people to remain as they were and live a normal life. When something happened before Tally and Shay had their procedures, the city leader Doctor Cable (Laverne Cox - Jolt, Inventing Anna TV series etc) decided she had other plans for Tally.
So what would happen to Tally? Would she be able to get her wish? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Well the reason I was intrigued was the premise which I thought was relevant in the current conditions of the world where physical appearance had been something very important for people, especially with the existing social media. But the story was not focusing on having procedures for showing off in those media. Instead it was more towards making sure there was no conflict due to extreme difference of appearance and ensuring people were happy. Now the early part of this movie seemed to be able to show this effectively for me.
As the story progressed, it was clear that the movie was not just about the sci-fi element and drama, but also the mystery surrounding the procedures and its background. The film was more exciting when Tally met with David and she was made aware of more important things in life. Unfortunately though, I think the special effects were a bit poor. The CGI effects were rather apparent, especially during the time the hover board or shuttles were being used and also on the AI used of the Pretties. Perhaps they did not have enough time or budget? Anyway, that was one of the downsides of the movie to my opinion.
The film was apparently adapted from novel of the same title by Scott Westerfeld which was the first of Uglies novel series. Somehow I did not see this mentioned in the opening or closing credits (maybe I was not paying too much attention), but I did see the name McG (Director of Family Switch, 3 Days to Kill etc) credited as director and Joey King as one of the Executive Producer. From what I read though, the film was heavily trashed by critics and audience did not seem to embrace it either. And I could understand it, cause somehow the film lacked spark. The characters felt not too engaging and I did not have any real excitement during the adventure part, and there was no intensity during the suspenseful part.
The cast were pretty standard to my opinion with Joey King seemed suitable as the character Tally and Brianne Tju was pretty decent as Shay. The rest were so so and did not leave any great impression. The movie had a duration of 102 minutes without any mid or post end credit scene. Now the ending was definitely another downside for me. Once I reached towards the end, I suddenly had a feeling that it would not have sufficient time to complete the whole story. Obviously after reading more about the film, I realized it definitely would not be completed, seeing it had several novels in the series. And sadly looking at the poor reception, likely it would not have any sequels and we would end up having no proper conclusion.
Overall this was a film that would have been more entertaining for me if it had better special effects and probably longer duration to have a proper conclusion, instead of having such ending. I understand the ambition to be loyal to the novel series but to do that, it required a lot of resources and the knowledge that audience would definitely embraced it. Without those, this would just be another unfinished franchise that left us disappointed. Maybe making this into a web series would make more sense and be satisfying for fans of the novel, where the demands were not as high. So if you are looking for a great sci-fi adventure set in dystopian future with wonderful special effects, you would not be happy with this. But if you just want to see a rather thought provoking story on the physical appearance in society, then this might be to your liking. For me personally, this was not as good as I thought it would be.
Mike's movie moments rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
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