Uglies, a new dystopian film based on a 2005 book of the same name by Scott Westerfeld, has defied a horrendous Rotten Tomatoes score to claim Netflix’s number 1 movie slot.
Critics have slammed Uglies so much that it’s currently sitting on a critic score of just 19% at the time of writing. Its audience score is better, although it’s still only 53%. They are the kind of numbers that make you wonder who’s watching the film, but clearly lots of people are and presumably many are enjoying the story about a society that forces cosmetic surgery on its citizens so that everyone is beautiful and no one is ugly.
Uglies, whose cast includes Joey King (A Family Affair, The Kissing Booth) and Chase Stokes (Outer Banks, Stranger Things), follows a group of people who rise up against their society where beauty is the basis for everything. It is sitting in the top spot in Netflix’s movie chart in both the US and the UK.
But Variety wrote: “The ending winks at a sequel (there are additional books in the Westerfeld series), but it’s hard to leave Uglies with a desire for a franchise when the movie doesn’t say anything all that meaningful.”
The reviewer for RogerEbert commented it was “an Orwellian tale with weak conviction”.
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But obviously, some people are enjoying it and one viewer commented on the movie being “such a fun, action-packed, thrilling and refreshing story with such a great message”. While another wrote: “Having read all the books and having a deep understanding of the story, this was a great movie”.
It’s yet to be clear if there will be Uglies 2. The next book in the series is called “Pretties” and Netflix will no doubt be keeping a keen eye on how Uglies performs before committing to another film.
Director McG told Deadline: “The audience needs to speak up and say we should finish the book series. Obviously, it’s a series of books. The story goes on, but we need to have everybody clamor for it, because it’s tough to get movies made, and it needs to be worth it, and they’re expensive. We’re all very optimistic that the stories will continue, and of course, that’s why we signed up for this in the first place. It’s a series of books, and we want to tell the full story.”
Uglies is available to watch now on Netflix.