If there’s one frontier that’s tough to tame, it’s human nature.
Centuries in the future, humanity has progressed to the brink of utopia. We’ve developed a sustainable renewable energy source that provides all the energy we could ever ask for. We’ve got the technology and resources to make working for a living a relic of the past. But even with all that prosperity, people still fought.
But, as it turns out, there’s even a solution to that problem. It’s a surgery known as the Transformation.
“Everyone, on their 16th birthday, undergoes a life-changing operation to become their most perfect self,” we’re told. “And when everyone is perfect, conflict melts away.”
These modified humans are known as Pretties. Unfortunately for those 15 years old and younger, they get a much less endearing tag: Uglies.
Not surprisingly, 15-year-old Tally can’t wait for her surgery. She’s made an avatar depicting every physical trait she’d like the surgical machinery to give her. But the day before her transforming operation, Tally’s friend and fellow Ugly, Shay, admits that she doesn’t want the surgery.
Instead, she longs to live a natural life away from all the fake glamour and perfection—someplace like the distant, rumored settlement known as The Smoke, where a resistance leader named David allegedly hopes to let people have the choice to do just that. And after giving Tally instructions on how to find her in case she changes her mind, Shay sets off.
And that’s why, instead of getting her longed-for surgery, Tally finds herself unexpectedly in Dr. Cable’s office. The doctor, who oversees the Transformation surgeries, tells Tally that Shay’s getting involved with a dangerous, radical group—one with a charismatic leader who aims to destroy their way of life. And if Tally wants to save Shay from being brainwashed into this group, she needs to follow after her and report to the government exactly where this extremist group is located. And so she agrees to the clandestine spy assignment.
But when Tally arrives and begins to spend time with the rebels, well, they don’t seem all that bad, living off the land and being content in their own skin. Tally begins wondering if there might indeed be more to life than becoming one of the Pretties.
And whether there may just be something ugly under all that beauty after all.
Uglies is intended for a teen audience, and the narrative aspires to help insecure adolescents recognize the pull of societal pressure in unhealthy ways. The story also wants young viewers to see how that pressure can make us feel we must conform to its subjective standards to be accepted and/or loved. Thus, the movie is filled with messages about recognizing that we have inherent worth as human beings independent of whether society sees us as attractive or not. Likewise, it touches on the dangers and problems that arise when we do attempt to assuage the culture by conforming to it.
Uglies doesn’t deny that the pressure to conform can be strong. Tally deeply struggles with insecurity, believing that the only way people will really see her and stop thinking less of her is if she undergoes the surgery. However, Shay reminds Tally that she and her friends already see Tally and appreciate her for who she is.
One group of people notes the value of perseverance and hard work. A couple who held high positions of power willingly step away from their roles when they realize they’re hurting others. Several characters risk their lives to protect others. We hear some comments about fighting against misleading propaganda.
The film grapples with human nature’s inclination towards selfishness. And if we were to take that one step deeper, the film would likewise teach that the sin nature that concept represents isn’t something that can simply be fixed by hiding it under a coat of paint.
In debating whether resistance leader David is a legend or real, one person jokes about David having the ability to walk on water.
We see what appears to be a 3D-animated naked woman as she jumps into the air. Her breasts and rear are seen from the side.
Men and women kiss. Tally appears to spend a night in a man’s tent. Women wear dresses that reveal cleavage or midriff, and men are sometimes seen shirtless. One man, as he steps into a machine to undergo his Transformation, wears nothing but a towel. We hear a reference to “pleasure gardens.”
Dr. Cable is played by Laverne Cox, who identifies as a transgender woman.
Someone snaps a man’s neck. Another guy falls from the top of a dam into the waters below, presumably dying. A character cuts his hand on glass, and Tally intentionally slices her hand on the glass in solidarity with him.
A few people suffer smoke inhalation and burns from fire. Tally falls from different heights a couple of times. People are beaten up in fistfights. A soldier gets hit in the shoulder with a crossbow bolt but seems unphased by it. Blood is present in some wounds. Two futuristic planes crash into one another.
[Spoiler Warning] We learn that the Transformation causes lesions to occur in the brains of Pretties, resulting in permanently muted personalities and difficulty expressing emotions.
God’s name is used in vain eight times. “A–” is used twice.
People take pills and are injected with chemicals to change their bodies. Some people are genetically modified into Captain America-like super soldiers. At a party, Pretties drink bubbling drinks.
Uglies centers around a surgery that changes people into a “perfect” version of themselves, implying that anyone who doesn’t have this surgery is, by definition, imperfect.
The city where the Pretties reside is depicted as a nonstop Mardi Gras-like party and hosts a population of people with no responsibilities.
Teens long to see their favorite young-adult book series adapted for the big screen. Some have to wait a lot longer than others.
The first book in the Uglies series released in 2005, meaning that any teen who read it after its initial publication is in their 30s now. And that may very well mean there will be some parents out there who are more invested in this film than its intended teen audience.
Uglies addresses that pressure every teen faces, regardless of generation: the desire to fit in. It warns about the dangers of conforming to societal norms and changing yourself into someone you’re not in order to gain cultural affirmation. It should come as no surprise at how many of this film’s “Pretties” appear as if they’ve crawled straight out of the uncanny valley: They’ve traded their true, natural selves for plastic caricatures for the sake of a lie that told them it was the only way they could be happy.
Because this is a teen dystopian flick, the dialogue never actually goes that deep. But the societal pull it reflects is certainly something that kids have felt, and an important subject that parents can speak into.
And while we don’t typically speak into a movie’s subtext, we’d be remiss not to point out the parallel between the film’s “Pretties” surgery and modern arguments in favor of transgender-affirming surgeries—especially given that the main antagonist promoting the “elegant procedure that will make you perfect” is played by a transgender person.
Compared to other teen dystopian movies such as The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner or Divergent, Uglies doesn’t contain too much violence—the worst of it being a snapped neck. In terms of other issues, a brief sideview depicting a naked woman reveals some of her curves, and God’s name is misused nearly 10 times.
Ultimately, Uglies gives us a societal parable for an issue that’s particularly relevant to teens but by no means exclusive to them. We all have a desire to be accepted by the world.
But, as Uglies points out, if the world is wrong, then it’s good to be rejected by it.
Considering the world’s hatred of Jesus, you’d be in some pretty good company. So why not look to the One who calls you to put aside what the world thinks and believe in Him?
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
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