‘Uglies’ review: Netflix film does little with its wild premise — a future of mandatory plastic surgery

Let’s talk about the Uglies in the room.

“Uglies,” the Netflix adaptation of Scott Westerfeld’s popular 2005 novel — the first of four books that continued with “Pretties,” “Specials” and “Extras” — revolves around conventional notions of beauty, and the prejudice of lookism.

In the dystopian world of this film, directed by the filmmaker known as McG (the “Charlie’s Angels” films, “Terminator Salvation”), everyone is an “Ugly” until they reach the age of 16, at which point they undergo extreme cosmetic surgery that turns one into a “Pretty,” inside and out, and all their cares melt away. (It’s basically a reverse version of the classic “Twilight Zone” episode titled “The Eye of the Beholder.”)

Netflix favorite Joey King (the “Kissing Booth” films) plays the heroine, Tally, who is three months away from “metamorphosis” and is counting down the days. Chase Stokes is Peris, Tally’s best friend since they were kids. Brianne Tju is the plucky Shay, who introduces Tally to “The Rusties,” a band of rebels who escaped the mandatory surgery, live in a commune-type environment outside the city’s boundaries and practice free will. (The dialogue is often painful, but the performances are solid.)

It’s a great-looking group. In fact, the pre-surgery characters are more appealing than the “Pretties,” who look like they’ve been dipped in a vat of Instagram filters. This is the underlying point of “Uglies”; it’s not about people who might (cruelly) be described as ugly according to conventional perceptions, it’s about teens who BELIEVE they’re ugly, that they don’t measure up to impossible standards, because that’s what they’ve been told their whole lives. (Real-world parallel alert.) The supposedly hideous people are just fine as they are, while the “Pretties” look like creepy, A.I. beings.

All well and fine enough, but this point is hammered home with little nuance or subtlety. Plastered with VFX that always looks like VFX, “Uglies” begins with Tally explaining that hundreds of years ago, people squandered Earth’s natural resources, and the planet was engulfed in war and chaos, and then scientists invented a renewable power source as well as the aforementioned “Transformation” process.

The Uglies live in a dark and gray world, while the Pretties reside in a section of the city that looks like a Vegas version of Barbie Land, with fireworks always shooting into the sky and all the goodlooking people partying the night away, blissfully unaware that the procedure not only changes your looks, it takes away your independence. You’re basically a Hot Dumb Zombie.

When Tally sees how Peris has become a shell of himself after the surgery, she joins the Rusties, but the manipulative and controlling Dr. Cable (Laverne Cox), who is like the Mayor of Pretty City, presses Tally into duty as a double agent of sorts. In between the constant messaging about how we as a society put far too much value on look, and true beauty comes from within, we get serviceable action sequences, before a cliffhanger of an ending.

Everything about “Uglies” is average. Not terrible enough to be campy, not deep or provocative or visually impressive enough to merit further chapters in the story.