Netflix's 'Uglies' Is a Disastrous Algorithmic Nightmare

By Dustin Rowles | Film | September 18, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | Film | September 18, 2024 |

Every once in a while, the Netflix algorithm determines that a certain segment of its audience
loves great movies with solid performances and superb direction that do not feel algorithm-generated (the algorithm is sophisticated enough now to algorithmically generate movies that don’t feel algorithmically generated). Unfortunately, Netflix allotted all of that bandwidth for Rebel Ridge and didn’t save anything for its latest, Uglies, which feels like a movie created with the ChatGPT prompt: “Create a parody of an algorithmically generated dystopian YA movie.”

Based on a novel by Scott Westerfeld (who is probably a bot), Uglies feels like McG (who is definitely a bot) took the scripts for The Hunger Games, Divergent, and The Maze Runner, spilled hydrofluoric acid on them, and then hot-potato’d the remnants back together and fused them onto Bratz dolls with the melted skin of his fingers. This is not a movie. It’s the effluvia of a fart triggered by a sneeze that’s been robbed of its odor because that would suggest a personality.

The only thing interesting about Uglies is the extra layer of irony. It’s set in a dystopian world where teenagers who turn 16 are given surgery that makes them pretty and perfect so that they may live in a world free of prejudice: If everyone looks perfect, then no one judges each other. But what about their personalities? Exactly! The surgery robs them of that, too, leaving behind the kind of soulless humans who would create this movie. See the irony? It’s the perfect cover for McG! Why would a bot create a movie that indicts other bots? Genius!

The lead of the movie is Joey King, who was actually produced in a Netflix factory (and occasionally loaned to Hulu). She’s a beautiful 25-year-old woman who plays an “ugly” 15-year-old named Tally Youngblood because the McG bots are particularly bad at making up names. Tally is very excited about her surgical glow-up until her best friend, Peris (Chase Stokes), has his surgery but appears to lose his personality along with his imperfect nose. Through her other best friend, Shay (Brianne Tju), Tally learns about a resistance movement led by David, played by Keith Powers, a 32-year-old playing a love interest to a 15-year-old character (the bots are also bad at math!). The leader of the Pretties is Dr. Cable (Laverne Cox), who attempts to use Tally to infiltrate the resistance effort and bring it down, only Tally predictably ends up sympathizing with them.

The McG bot is apparently trying to convince Generation Alpha that being pretty is somehow ableist. Thankfully, there’s an antidote (spoilers) for the pretties, only we don’t know if it works because — like all YA films — Uglies is the first part of a trilogy (there is also Pretties and Specials) — either that, or the film hilariously and abruptly ends tragically because Netflix can’t be bothered to continue the series. That would actually be an unexpected blessing for what is otherwise a complete waste of hard drive space.