Failed Adaptation: How the UGLIES movie missed the point of the books

Uglies got a movie adaptation— 20 years overdue.
I've reviewed it— several months overdue.

Editing by: Space Nathan
Text editing: ShreddieKirin on Discord!

My books:
Good Angel/Bad End (YA angel/demon friendship LGBT apocalypse weirdness duology)
Angel Radio (Post Apocalyptic horrorterror angels adventure YA horror)
Check em:

[Crowcaller]

Thank you everyone! This got heavily delayed but I'm glad I can finally share it <3

[ujlt]

"The moment his neck is snapped is one of the few times we get a close look at one of the hunks" has to be one of the funniest sentences to have ever be uttered.

[summerchild_]

" no one is ugly when they laugh, everyone is so much lovelier when you befriend them" is such a cute quote.

[Timbeon]

Disappointed but not surprised that the Specials in the movie are just generic hot people who look sort of annoyed all the time instead of trying to go for an uncanny-valley-on-purpose angle like they're more or less described in the books.

[imjustaguyintheworld]

“ill got to bat for it but i wouldnt take a bullet” is such a good way to express it!!

[chelscara]

I know they get brain brained too but man, I wonder if there’s any whiplash for the people who DONT get a lot of changes at 16 and they sit there questioning their whole upbringing of getting called ugly like “wait a fucking second…”

[kaialexander]

Trying so hard to turn my brain off when Tally's like "it's okay, I'm strong and I know who I am now" regarding the surgery because THAT'S NOT HOW YOUR BRAIN WORKS, TALLY.
Like I'm already turning my brain off regarding the surgery anyway - since I don't really get how lesions only on the frontal cortex would make people just like mindless and non-confrontational like at the very least, you still have your limbic system and temporal lobe to consider - so Tally being like "um actually, brain damage won't affect me because I'm different" is the last damn straw.

[armythecat]

This movie really proves that cashgrabs can make a movie as shallow as a puddle even when the source material was not THAT far away to begin with

[gayrurumon]

Theory regarding The Hunks: some higher-up at some point in production pitched a notion along the lines of "this movie needs more scenes with hot men in it, to appeal more to the target teenage girl audience!" thus, The Hunks were conceived (not literally). However, some time after filming of that scene had finished, one of two things likely occurred:

A) Someone else higher-up went "oh my god, we can't have this much focus on half-naked men in this movie aimed at a teenage girl audience, it's inappropriate!"

or,

B) while editing that scene together, the filmmakers inevitably came to the realisation that having these two unnamed + inexplicably shirtless men just _standing there_ silently during what is supposed to be a tense scene was... well, probably _weird_ and _unnecessary, _ and maybe contributed to the scene as a whole feeling a bit _silly_ or even actively confusing.

Whatever the cause, the decision was made to substantially cut The Hunks' screen time, at least as much as was possible without necessitating a reshoot of the scene. Naturally, this had the opposite of the intended effect, making what little presence The Hunks still had feel even more bizarre.

[butterflytaster]

14:38 i'm so glad you mentioned this bc while i was watching the movie, with no prior knowledge of the book whatsoever, i kept saying that tally and shay were giving off crazy amounts of lesbionic energy. the way they said "you have me forever. you made me brave enough to reach for what i wanted. i want you here. i want you with me" like i was

[paper_bag_pancake]

when the world needed them most, they returned

[Sootielove]

It is fascinating when circumstances delay a film to the point of getting slapped across the face with a different time period. This was always going to be the sort of Divergent-esque adaptation Uglies would get but it feels so strange having this be the example of a YA dystopia film in the 2020s so far

[funkystudios]

8:50 yeah I agree with you here, the actors are already very good looking, for their "pretty" version they just slapped some filters and makeup. It would have been more inpactful if they hired average looking actors and then replaced them with good looking ones, or just not put makeup on the actors when they are "uglies"

[katsucandy]

"exit, pursued by hunk" had me cackling

[mixxuie]

Oh actually I watched a video (I believe it was Pillar of Garbage’s video on slop) that I think has some insight on why media is getting ‘dumber’! Netflix is making what he referred to as slop, which for Uglies as Avatar are shallower retellings, because they *don’t* expect you to pay attention. They are making “2nd screen” content with the assumption it will be playing in the background while your phone is your primary screen. So basically they double up any visual information with dialogue so you don’t miss anything if you aren’t actively watching, hit each beat multiple times, and otherwise try to be pleasant background noise.

It seems a bit foolish to me to turn movies into 2nd screen content, as Netflix also produces a bunch of reality TV now and that is the OG 2nd screen programming. But a LOT of the live action Avatar TLA makes sense if you filter it through being made to not be your primary screen. There are a few flashy action scenes to catch your interest, and otherwise there is little you would miss by looking away. Since you aren’t paying attention they don’t want you to think Aang is bratty, so they make him a weird not-quite-a-kid so you can’t miss the scene of growth. He says what his personality is like so you can’t miss the scene of him playing with other kids before he got trapped. Same with Sokka’s misogyny, what if you were watching a TikTok and missed Suki straightening him out? The silliness is toned down and the general tone is more even, without as much difference between the high and low energy moments.

I agree there are probably multiple reasons things come out the way they do, but thinking about if a piece of media was planned to even be on your PRIMARY SCREEN has made the tendencies of made-for-streaming make a bit more sense to me!

[endfall]

Wow, Dominic Noble is looking different these days! Jokes aside this is a great video!

[engineerforthefuture]

At least they included the hoverboard action sequences.

[SarahJo]

I think this is one of those books that did not need a movie, and that's from someone who deeply loved these books in middle school and I'd honestly call them a foundational piece of media for my taste. They were my first introduction to Dystopia which became my favorite genera, and will always hold a special place in my heart despite their flaws. But I think one of their strengths was that you had to imagine exactly what the Pretties looked like for you. I also loved that Talley messed up all the time! It was way more realistic for a teenager who grew up in this society, and I feel like Uglies strength was that it actually had societal critique, which got dulled down as YA Dystopia became more and more popular until Divergent just murdered the genera lol
Uglies walked so Hunger Games could run, but Uglies was never going to be the media power house that Hunger Games is

[palinurus]

Two videos covering UGLIES? You spoil us, Crow!

[sentimentalelemental]

"I look like me and thats the only standard that matters to me"

I love that 🎉