the uglies movie is even worse than i thought 🛹👄🌲 (uglies movie review)

[@kendall3655]

The pretties are supposed to be freakish good-looking with symmetrical faces and every thing to the T perfect. The pretties in the movie just look like attractive people with eye contacts in. They should have used cgi.

[@alexxandra-]

Whats weird is that when she sneaks into the pretty city, only a few of the pretties had the surgery & the rest looked normal with flashy clothes 😂

[@ladydiamond6611]

i think they did......

[@LeaLeaA7]

Are you blind? It wasn’t just contacts, they did use CGI and face filters on all the pretties (well the more important pretties to the story like Dr Cable) The pretties all have airbrushed smoothed out skin, wigs and their noses are slightly changed with cgi.

[@rebecca8866]

And wigs. Don't forget the pretty actresses and actors wear realistic wigs.

[@bosoudang]

The pretties literally look like they are edited using remini 🤣

[@clairebraganza5181]

The difference between an Ugly and a Pretty is the Bold glamour filter

[@Mangomochiluvr]

LMFAOOOO

[@maarya.x]

😭😭😭

[@Margogo2007]

Literally it's so obvious and sloppy. It's like they wanted to make a meme out of the movie

[@jimena8105]

i thought the same. they look like being "yassified" memes

[@Paulxl]

Don't forget the colored contact lenses.

[@jessip8654]

Unfortunately most Hollywood executives still see animation as something only for small children. Doesn’t matter how well anime is hitting with the teens, the idea of making their own teen-aimed animation just never enters their minds.

[@nicolevo9261]

Not to mention how they prioritize quantity over quality in every movie for cash grab

[@ruminationstation4200]

They should have CGId people so they looked *uncannily* beautiful..like avatar but models instead of aliens. They definitely didnt have the budget for that though. Would be cool to see it redone in 15 years when it could be afforable

[@giveandtake8428]

It's also because Animation is expensive as hell, too.

[@Haveahollyjollylife]

Even after the success of Spiderverse they still crap on animation as though it’s not the cheapest way to get the most dynamic story across

[@unkofi445]

The teens? Wouldn't adults be a safer audience? I mean, they probably would care more about that audience. Adult cartoons like Bob Burgers, Archer, Futurama, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Rick&Morty, Bojack Horseman or Arcane are a hit for a reason.

[@floralglitch]

The single problem with adapting Uglies to a live action is that live action is not the appropriate media for the story: animation is. You simply cannot do justice to the original material with the limitations of human actors and sets, it's that simple. An animation series à la Arcane would have curved any issues before they appeared. I don't always love to be proven right -this is one of those occasions. But I can't say that I expected anything else 🤷

[@floralendurance]

THIS!!!!

[@nicolevo9261]

I agree with you; however animation is way expensive than live action considering the factors including the cost of making animation, storyboards, and everything else and the shitty economy we're living in.

[@abbeyBominable123]

​@@nicolevo9261this is so not true. At the same scale, animation would be so much cheaper. Live-action things like this also has animation and storyboards, etc. But it also has hundreds of extras that needs costumes, food, and so many more that animation dont need. In animation you can have outdoor settings that can be used and adjusted to the needs of the movie/show. But with live action, outdoor settings are not so easily adjusted due to weather and sun location. Everything is so much more tedious in live action and hollywood is stupid for not utiziling the versatility of animation.

[@asuko-san7440]

@@nicolevo9261 so very not true. There is a rise lately for indie animations being made, to a non mainstream public, because it is way cheaper. You easily can hear about a live cation show getting cancelled cause it wouldn’t be « successful enough », or a show who’s script was extremely changed for mainstream. Meanwhile, animators are having a fun time making the most niche shows to the most niche audiences, and then getting rich. I draw, do commissions, and I have worked on live actions movies in the past. Trust me : your animator will just cost you what an employee will cost you. Making a movie will cost you the actors(employee) and much more! Costumes, propos, ect. So yeah.

[@OpossumOnTheMoon]

@@nicolevo9261I don’t think you realize that CGI is animation

[@ChibiRandom13]

I wish they would've leaned much harder into the uncanny valley rather than just colored contacts and makeup. It also would've helped to "standardize" the pretties so they all looked more similar. From what I've seen any time we see multiple pretties together it just looks like a rich people party. And it would make the "uglies" human faces look more unique in contrast

[@whiteraven562]

Especially since the whole in-universe point of the Pretty operation was to make all of humanity look as similar as possible

[@ahstiasummers5583]

The Korean film "Human Form" did that aspect a lot better. In that world, normal faces are considered ugly and surgically made porcelain doll faces are beautiful

[@kimberleywilliams7802]

In the books, all pretties are varying degrees of blonde. Despite the implication, maybe they could have employed that technique more strictly here.

[@MeloraCarabas]

That's a great idea, but then it would too much like a cheap knockoff of the Barbie movie.

[@VividiVavidi_V]

@@ChibiRandom13 exactly

[@toyosibee.mp3]

If I had a nickel for every time a pre-2008 novel featuring teenagers and a dystopian future was adapted into a boring and gray rip-off of the first Hunger Games movie.. [edit: some of you-(i don’t wanna name names)-but Some of You could do to practice reading comprehension and critical thinking skills before replying to comments]

[@Bellathebiggay]

I'll never forget what they did to The Giver. That book is amazing and they turned it into a boring hunger games rip off

[@arex9000]

I think we need to make a drinking game on color contacts=looking beautiful. Especially the ones these movies use.

[@microcult]

Maximum Rideeee

[@toyosibee.mp3]

@@microcult …okay, three nickels

[@Aelitagurl]

​@@microcult wait... that was made into a movie??? 🤯

[@TimothyRobert93]

The whole idea of the Uglies is that any normal face is ugly. I think you're concentrating on the wrong thing. What they SHOULD have done is make the pretties more symmetrical and "perfect looking" to make the difference feel more severe. I also think they didn't do enough with the Specials. Their faces were supposed to be super angular with sharp teeth, and they didn't really differ from the pretty look.

[@Hannah-gz5xy]

Literally like all they changed was their makeup & hair when imo they should’ve had sfx prosthetics and stuff

[@thecavalieryouth]

That's what the video is criticising, though, no? They *tried* but ultimately failed at making the pretties more symmetrical & perfect looking, but it didn't read very well. From what I can tell, they went with what our current estimation of perfect is, which we have already developed a distaste for and "immunity" to, but I suppose they could only take it so far because trying to estimate what perfect looks like beyond what we're still trying to achieve with filters & procedures now isn't easy.

[@PetitPoneyDuVercors26]

Yeah specials are supposed to look scary, like even more uncanny valley, symmetrical, like literally surgical precision traits, to have an aura of strength and inspire no positive emotions That's how I pictured it as a kid reading the novels, almost like killer human like androids (and their minds are programmed this way too)

[@kammie225]

"normal face = ugly" is a cop out to avoid actually casting ugly people. The message doesn't hit the same if the ugly people aren't actually ugly.

[@beetlebob4675]

​​​@@kammie225 Additionally, they were only PERCEIVED as ugly, because the kids were conditioned to see surgery faces as the only acceptable form of beauty, and that would drastically brainwash how they saw each other and their own reflections full of asymmetry, which is like, IMPOSSIBLE to do with film. Because no one was ACTUALLY ugly in the books. Lol They completely skipped over her reaction to a person in like, their 20s, who'd never even had ONE surgery their whole life, because that's a mental psychosis that's real complicated to translate in a live action YA teen dystopia. Lol

[@TriggerRose1213]

If I was given the option to design the pretties in the movie, I had them appear like they walked out of a anime (think Alita) or have doll like faces. I always picture them looking a little inhuman and uncanny compare to the more realistic looking uglies. This is partly inspired by the German covers of the uglies book Also for fashion, I tend to picture uglies wearing button ups, sweaters, hooded jackets, baggy pants and knee length skirts(maybe some over pants) in muted colors like blue, browns and greens. While pretties tend to have have a more futuristic 1990s and 2000s style fashion in more bold colors like reds, purples, pinks and or oranges. Specials I imagine tend to wear dark colored leather or military style uniforms

[@erikdaniels0n]

I agree with you on both the Alita eyes and the idea of the Uglies wearing more normal, modern clothes and the Pretties wearing futuristic meets 90s/Y2K style outfits

[@Hmletmetry]

Same ! Like yeah the point is “uglies are actually ordinary people” but then let’s take the pretties and special concepts “extra”, for better visualisation in the movie

[@Melissa-sx9vh]

Agree! I pictured the pretties as looking like manga characters with freakishly big eyes and colorful hair

[@toyosibee.mp3]

@@TriggerRose1213 Them using subtle CGI on people’s faces would’ve been so good!!

[@caitlynluciano]

Just googled the German cover and it’s kind of terrifying

[@TheKhaliente]

I could not finish this movie…it was so bad. I also was so frustrated about how the Uglies rebel camp was filled with objectively gorgeous minorities. Like what are we doing Hollywood?

[@AlvaroIbacacheS]

This!! I mean Keith Powers as Davis alongside Brianne Tju? They looked stunning every single time.

[@MarcosSantos-dj6lk]

they are old for teen and look like models so I don't know too what message they trying to give us hahaha

[@Destinnies]

​@@MarcosSantos-dj6lk I agree with what all you're saying but then I realized "Oh... maybe that's the point?" They look conventionally attract to US as the audience but in their world they're not good enough. *They have to be "perfect" to be considered pretty.* A good mixture of not-so conventionally attractive actors and attractive ones could work as these insecurities were forced upon them anyway, so both sides have no reason to think what we think, nor see how we see them

[@MarcosSantos-dj6lk]

@@Destinnies but that's the problem they loose the authenticity realism because in general we in real life are just normal we are not the ''pretty'' ones this status is put in celebrities because they eat well have time to do gym plastic surgeries etc. Jan Luis Castellanos a ''ugly'' is insanely handsome is funny he be in uglies side he has more symmetric face than Chase Stocke a 32 year old cast as 16 hahaha

[@chelseashurmantine8153]

Faaaaacts facts facts

[@serenitymoon825]

I was very disappointed with all the changes, but I thought the actors did the best with what they were given. Still mad that Dr. Cable didn't get her full viciousness. Where's the woman who said: "Then I'll make you a promise too, Tally Youngblood. Until you do help us, to the very best of your ability, you will _never_ be pretty. You can d!e ugly, for all I care."

[@alexxfunk]

Exactly this! Her casting was probably my least favorite part.

[@TriggerRose1213]

I know. In the book, it really give the idea that Tally has no choice. Find Shay or be stuck as a worthless ugly forever. She’s isolated from her peers and all her stuff is recycled by the time she get back to her room(while they say that they do it to all uglies when they had the surgery, the fact that her room was back to the standard default when Tally didn’t have the surgery says something) as a way to convince her to find Shay.

[@jaguarenduda]

I have to say this material is already bad you guys. Tally Youngblood??

[@Ready-ForTheEnd]

​@@jaguarenduda 😂😂😂

[@briannaex8627]

Thank you for this explanation as I haven't read the book. The movie definitely made me hate Talley because it seemed like she DID have a choice

[@trinaq]

It might be surprising to the uninitiated that this series predates "Hunger Games" or "Divergent" by three to five years, since it includes all of the classic YA Dystopian elements.

[@dontrelate465]

Exactly, this was put into production way past its prime.

[@Luna-rw3uo]

I see your comments everywhereeeee I’ve been seeing them since last year! We always watch the same videos lmfaooo and I also love the adams family play and was in it in a school play that’s why your pfp always sticks out 😭

[@billiealexander7484]

​@@Luna-rw3uoDivergent was 10 years later. I just read it a few months ago and wasn't sure how I missed it until I realized I was an adult when it came out and missed the YA marketing, it came out in 2013 so after Hunger Games etc.

[@800Ms-k6n]

Funny enough, one of the script writers of Divergent literally wrote this movie lol

[@barvinok1808]

All started from “twilight”, so it is strange to expect from such movies something, because they only want to make money by lover triangle within average girl.

[@JoeMamis1987]

I'm going to be honest uglies feels like a movie that would be extremely difficult to adapt especially in live action because of how scared most production are of showing off physical flaws in their main character. Like God forbid a woman in a leading role isn't conventionally pretty with one easily fixable flaw here or there. I could see this premise working way better in animation because it would allow for way more freedom to portray the uglies as "ugly" and it would make the twist reveled later way more impactfull. Either way some books just don't need to be adapted because it's hard to visually translate somethings. EDIT A lot of the comments are very insightful and giving me some interesting points and views that begin said I am aware that the whole thing of uglies actually being regular looking people is the point of the book and was what I meant with the twist reveal I should have maybe made that more clear😭. The book exaggerates the simple human flaws of the uglies to highlight how hyper strict beauty standards are in that world and I think it would be interesting to adapt that level of exaggeration to fully bring the point home that these hyper rigid beauty standards are kind of bullshit when these are just regular features everyone has and how it warps people views of them so bad! But that's just how I would personally go at it and hey everyone is allowed to adapt something in their own unique style!

[@jovic_sawyer]

Totally agree. This story gives me Tim Burton's 9 movie and that Oblongs cartoon, an animation with very caricature vibes would be awesome

[@Emily-the-faerie]

I think the point of the uglies is that their not ugly they just look human

[@nikiigreen]

to be fair, book!Tally isn't necessarily actually ugly according to our modern standards of beauty. she's just. pubescent. everyone in this series is an unreliable narrator in a way. the standards in their time period are even more rigid than ours. I agree that the difference in her appearance could be emphasized better with animation (a lot about this series would work better in animation) because it would better translate to our standards. but this casting is possibly accurate to her canonical appearance (except for her age, I believe).

[@Emily-the-faerie]

@nikiigreen I haven't read the book but when someone says your ugly it plays illusions on your minds and sometimes even the camera

[@nikiigreen]

@@Emily-the-faerie I definitely agree. like I said, I don't think this approach translates well to our eyes as viewers. it's possibly a more objective lense but that doesn't make it the right one stylistically.

[@beetlebob4675]

No one in the books was actually ugly, and i think that's a major thematic point that's extremely difficult to do in live action. It's a mental state. They PERCEIVED pre-surgery faces as ugly. They were brainwashed.

[@zizojaezekeom3565]

Exactly or they could've actually made them ugly not because they're naturally like that but because of the environmental issues like a mutation to make it easier to adapt

[@beetlebob4675]

@@zizojaezekeom3565 They could have used make up to create bad acne, scars, etc. they could have used prosthetic face pieces and changed the shape of different parts of their features. They could have done anything besides nothing. Lol And JOEY KING does NOT look like a 16yo. I'm sorry, Joey. But no. Just no. Lmfao. That is an adult woman. Wtf were they thinking??🤣🤣🤣

[@caramel9154]

In this way I think the actors chosen weren't really right, if you know what I mean? Our standard of ugly is as equally as constructed, ugly people aren't actually ugly for falling outside of conventional beauty standards. By casting people who're conventionally attractive to us for _both_ the Uglies and Pretties, the opportunity to accept 'ugly' people as just regular people is missed.

[@rhiapsae]

I think for the point to come across effectively, they should have made the pretties "uncanny valley" (as in weird looking). That way people would understand that the ugliness is perceived as a luck of characteristics present in individuals who allign to the canon of beauty, even if that canon is faulty to us.

[@kristinhawkes4466]

The whole point was that the uglies were never actually ugly to begin with. The pretties just make it seem being normal is ugly, when in reality they never were ugly to begin with. Sure they may have some flaws, but they are supposed to look downright ugly. There just the average person

[@Me-vn3gz]

tbh the average person is still “uglier” than these actors

[@Rubiecat]

so do actually "ugly" people just stop existing in this story if the uglies are supposed to look "normal" ? (apparently normal means skinny with no acne, no particular unusual feature, no scar)

[@anastasiap1856]

​@@RubiecatWhat? The uglies are just regular people. Some will be attractive, some will be average, some will be actually ugly. The pretties are basically the avarage instagram baddie after a week to Dubai.

[@nixiemartian4658]

​@Rubiecat Why do people keep on trying to put our modern beauty standards on the people of this story? It's an alternative reality. They don't compare to our objective standards because our standards, a rooted in a different reality, completely were none of that stuff is going on. So it's just such a weird take that they're conventionally attractive by our standards, they're not conventionally attractive by the standard set in the book, because anyone who doesn't have the surgery isn't.

[@Window4503]

⁠@@nixiemartian4658Because unmodified humans still have imperfections or non-traditional expressions of beauty. The point isn’t that everyone normal should be ugly, it’s that even when they’re normal, they don’t come across as natural. The movie needs “more” normal plain-looking people or, if attractive, then more variety in types of beauty besides lean, no skin blemishes, etc.. The audience shouldn’t have to bend their minds this hard to remember what the status quo is supposed to be especially since the book doesn’t require this level of gymnastics BECAUSE it rarely describes how characters are “ugly”. Greater contrast would have been helpful for better visual storytelling.

[@charlottexx2638]

I kinda enjoyed it, because it felt like bad low budget version of the dystopian trend era movies in the 2010s and I felt like 15 again 😂

[@blurrybie111]

Me too honestly! I was 8 in 2010 but those YA Dystopian movies shaped internet culture for me back in those days so this movie was like a wave of nostalgia even if it was perceived as bad 🥺💛

[@snappiepappie9899]

sameee, I miss dystopian movies

[@Scriptadiaboly]

​@@snappiepappie9899 name a few

[@Iquey]

Me too except for the vibe of the Aeon flux movie, which was another hokey dystopian spy movie.

[@iewutake]

Saaaaaaame, the nostalgia was such a good feeling

[@trinaq]

Joey King is a decent actress, as "Fargo", "Bullet Train" and "The Pact" and "We were the Lucky ones" would all attest, but she keeps choosing lacklustre, hokey scripts, such as "Family Affair", "The Kissing Booth" Trilogy or "The Princess." She needs to find a better agent.

[@miticaBEP07]

And nothing is more lackluster than Isntreal.

[@orangesouth]

shes gettin that bag tho

[@ishathakor]

yeah, she really needs to get a better agent. it's gotten to the point where if i see joey king is in a project i just assume it's going to be boring and poorly written because she's done so many of those.

[@bananayummyable]

Honestly i think she’s a very mediocre actress. To me she never seems to embody the character, but instead is always just Joey King

[@deusexmachina9776]

maybe thats what shes offered and the fargos are the exception

[@ThelouwseFD]

You know what makes me mad ?? They keep adapting these series and getting rid of all the creepy gory stuff about it !The operation is described in details in the books and it's horrifying, it's chirurgical, it's just striking !I remember it vividly !!!In the movie they made the operation into a joke... they enter a transparent cage, some white smoke comes out and POOF you're magically pretty... WHY ??? The disturbing parts are what made these fascinating to us as teens !!!! It's a dystopia for f*** sake, it's supposed to have some disturbig imagery to warn us about the future, it's the point of it. They are making everything lighter because it's "for kids", the books were for kids too ! Same with the specials, they were supposed to be terrifying !Not just have more fillers in their cheeks. Why do they strip these universes of everything that makes them unique. It makes the whole movie looks so generic and stupid.

[@briannaex8627]

These comments are making me want to read the book!! Sounds WAY better than the movie

[@lucyc5844]

True, but to a point though. Shay and followers cutting themselves to achieve an "icy" state is probably best left in the books.

[@thepandoricaoffandomsbacku7349]

why is it always the 16th year of age? It's ALWAYS a protagonist who's 16, they do bat shit crazy things but if i think about my time as a 16 yrs old girl... i was a child!

[@01neveroddoreven10]

It's because they live in a dystopia! Back when life was harder hundreds of years ago (less, even) people grew up faster because they had to. Also because these are young adult novels and ~16 is the target demographic. Same as how all the goosebumps main characters are like 12

[@caramel9154]

in regards to the book series, its to be relatable to the target audience

[@happinessislaughter]

it's just who they want to sell these books/movies to most

[@Hellsing375]

Because for the target audience this is an age that is "old enough" that the character is "almost an adult", while still being young enough to be relatable, regardless of if the reader is 13 or 17.

[@mimik222]

I don’t even remember being 16 like at all 😭 is that bad

[@alexandrialortiz]

Dr. Cable is supposed to look scary and be more harsh/mean. In the books, Tally did not have a choice to find the Smoke. Dr. Cable denies Tally the Pretty operation, leaving her Ugly and ostracized by society until she agrees to find the Smoke. In the movie, Dr. Cable says, "You have a choice to make Tally. Get the procedure as you always wanted. Or you can head into the unknown. Save your friend. Save us all." Those are two very different situations.

[@rtybt]

LITERALLY I wish they'd done the feeling of alone-ness when she was left in the dorms a little better too. i get they had limited time, and god knows they already didn't have enough for the smoke and the journey, but that part was so well done in the books, and (like a lot of the movie) we didn't get to feel tallys emotions in the same way.

[@feelstora3]

I thought the same. It sounded like she didn't want her to have the surgery not like an ultimatum.

[@imaginingdefeat]

Dr. Cable: “So, you can go ahead and get the surgery without any downsides, or you can delay what you’ve always yearned for and on top of that betray your friend and her deeply held beliefs. Hard choice, huh?” I do not understand this change

[@kokosan09]

that extended hoverboard scene is HILARIOUS.

[@bartrese]

That CGI cost 50 cents!!

[@mayavp]

The cgi was rouuugh and hilarious 😂😂😂😂

[@syd91]

There’s a Korean body horror short film, “Human Form,” that tackles similar themes abt unattainable beauty standards and the pitfalls of cosmetic surgery that I’d rec over this adaptation. I’m seeing some comments point out that Pretties are supposed to be “pretty” to an uncanny/freakish degree, to the point that the average face IRL would be considered “ugly”, and the short film goes for this effect by using really creepy facial prosthetics

[@skyofthelivingdead]

I assume you’re talking about “Human Form” which is a Korean body horror short distributed by Alter (a short films company) and sounds like exactly what you’re talking about. It is a great one. It’s especially relevant in Korea (the plastic surgery capital of the world; teenagers are often gifted double-lid surgery or nose jobs for graduation, that’s how normalized it is there.) I majored in international studies with a focus on Korean language and culture, so I know a few things. I think something like 1 in 5 women have had at least one cosmetic procedure. Regardless, it transcends Korean culture and multiple generations of people, predominantly women.

[@syd91]

@@skyofthelivingdead I could’ve sworn I typed “Human Form" initially, my mistake 🤦‍♀TYSM for the correction & added context abt Korean society! It’s a shame Uglies’s adaptation flopped when its themes are becoming even more relevant now in many parts of the world, but I’m glad Human Form was made to shed light on the reality of these issues.

[@Pleiades21]

To everyone complaining about how the actors are conveniently attractive - that’s literally the point of the book. In the books tally literally sees an old magazine of models and is shocked that people thought they were attractive. Even people we find conveniently attractive would be seen as ugly in this world

[@Hmletmetry]

Yes but then the “pretties” should have been way more dramatically prettier, like irl some people are uncanny without lenses etc but the pretties in the movie don’t look near that. Idk how to make my point clear I hope you understand what I’m saying 😭

[@Scriptadiaboly]

You literally missed the point

[@Pleiades21]

@@HmletmetryI haven’t watched the movie since i hated the books but yeah based on this video the prettiest just look like a yassified version of the actors lol

[@lilybartgremlin]

i didn't read the book but are ugly people not supposed to exist in the world then? what's the point if uglies are just attractive people all along, what does that tell us about actually ugly people. it feels like the point of the book is not being delivered in the movie then

[@kailah8249]

​@@lilybartgremlin The point is that the beauty standard is literally perfection, and no one, not even models, can live up to that, so it reflects how beauty standards are ridiculous and how it warps all of our perceptions about what "ugliness" really means and how it's never been an objective reality whether someone is pretty or ugly it's almost all down to the society one lives in

[@chelseapurssey5687]

I dont understand if they wanted a love triangle why they had to shoehorn Peris in when there was a love triangle between Shay, David, and Tally! By omitting that it took away so much of the emotion and tension of Shay and Tally's relationship. It made Tally's betrayal so much more poignant. She stole her boyfriend, sold her to the feds, got her made pretty. The whole emotional impact of that was lost and thus made Tally's decision to become pretty feel empty. Ugh they just absolutely gutted the story. I have also been waiting 20 years for this movie, LOVED the book as a teen.

[@jacquelinelugo5518]

All this, they needed to build up Shay and Tally's relationship way more. When Tally unknowingly betrays The Smoke. It's what hurts their relationship the most. And it's a big factor as to how Shay's mind is able to break away from the mind control that they do to her brain

[@quenepacrossing4675]

This book series predates hunger games and most other popular fiction in the genre. I really liked it as a kid, but when the first rumors on tv/movie adaptations started back in the say i knew it would suck. It would need to be a true passion project to adapt in a way that truly says something and looks good.

[@sunnisideupplz3920]

I remember loving these books as a kid- they were actually assigned to students in middle school to read and analyze. I'm a zillenial, so I always have felt that these books are super relevant to my time period growing up. I always interpreted the uglies to look like everyday teens. Awkward, still growing into their bodies. By all means, normal. And the pretties were supposed to represent what we saw in magazines and tv. At that time in particular, there was nothing to indicate what was airbrushed, faked, or done through plastic surgery. So my child brain thought something was terribly wrong with me. Just like the main character, I was eager to get older and be able to be 'transformed'. I would suck my stomach in, complain about the lack of chest I had, and try to lose my muscles to look 'girlier'. Putting these books into that time period may help frame things, is what I'm saying. A lot has changed for the better and equally for the worse.

[@KariTalks]

I’m watching Laverne Cox walk with her hands behind her back in all white and all I can see is Julianne Moore/Kate Winslet/Patricia Clarkson in THG/Divergent/Maze Runner Edit: lol I hadn’t even finished the video before commenting this

[@mpazinambao2938]

Same looking dress even.

[@vall3ygirl]

and those are all hella dated, why are they doing this again in 2024?? don't they know we're all TIREDDD of that?

[@kimberleywilliams7802]

I-

[@solsito24]

maybe this is unreasonable to ask of a live action adaptation but when i imagined the pretties i always thought of them being scaryly perfect and grotesque. Like objectively creepy looking but everyones self image was so warped that the inhumane became the ideal. They had clocks in their eyes for gods sake😂 and their eyes almost bug like and detached.

[@phoenixfritzinger9185]

They could have just used all those filters on TikTok that the Gen-Xrs use whenever they’re oversharing/ having a public mental breakdown on there

[@caramel9154]

tbh isnt that like, the current standard anyways? i mean that _was_ the point of the series, wasn't it?

[@aimeewilson4505]

They should’ve cast new people everytime the characters became more and more beautiful, so by the end, not only are they different visually but also we don’t recognize them either. So you could have a non conventionally attractive lead AND kissing booth girl

[@hookedonfandom]

Honestly I think skipping straight to Extras might have been a better idea - I think the social capital as actual capital and anti-influencer intentionally leaving as little of a digital footprint as possible might have been a more relevant story to explore today.

[@jacquelinelugo5518]

Extras would be so good as a TV series. They could explore more of that world and still tell an amazing story

[@calicoathena]

I haven't watched the full video yet so I'll edit this if its mentioned. but one thing I'm seeing again and again is people complaining that the actors aren't our current real life idea of ugly. the "uglies" in the book were never ugly. they were just kinda normal. even celebrities in our world would be considered uglies bc their faces are not literally perfect. pretties are a level of beauty that literally doesn't exist in our world. so, I genuinely don't understand why so many people are hung up on this specifically.

[@lulupomegranate]

Because the actors are still way above average in terms of beauty, and Tally wasn't that.

[@calicoathena]

@@lulupomegranate1. that's your opinion. personally Joey king is one of the least attractive people they could've picked for this role. in my opinion anyway. 2. you are not understanding. above average does not equal perfect. pretties are LITERALLY perfect. i can't overstate that enough. anything less than 100% symmetry zero flaws. would be considered an ugly. it's meant to emphasize those crazy high beauty standards.

[@thecavalieryouth]

I mentioned this on another comment, but yes - it's hard for us to imagine a beauty that goes so far beyond what we've already pushed the beauty standards to become as of 2024. The furthest we can go is the pinnacle of beauty as we see it now, which is a weird mix of racially ambiguous, but still passably white, IG baddie who's completely natural-looking at the same time. And the audience has already gotten to a place of not liking that look, not to mention our exposure to AI generated images that bleed into uncanny valley territory, so nothing will look "extreme" or "perfect" enough to us, at least not right now. Not when we've started picking at what's considered perfect for quite some time now.

[@sarahlu7378]

I agree. What they should have done was have the "ugly" characters without makeup. That would show them as normal, just like the average person. The pretty version with the IG filter I think works but just needs to be done better by turning down the photoshop a tad.

[@Pleiades21]

exactly tally literally sees an image of a model from the past and is shocked because she thinks she's ugly- even people we find the most attractive among us are still ugly in this world

[@theyellowshoe9741]

It's so disappointing that it seems like they missed the mark 😢 one part that always stuck out to me about the first book, and really helped to put just how DIFFERENT the Pretties are supposed to look is when Tally finds fashion magazines from our time and she's shocked that they would put Uglies in them. Like Pretties are so far out of what is natural that even supermodels are considered ugly compared to them 👀 so I wish they had really committed to making them look completely different. Some with the Specials. They're supposed to look so weird that they make people uncomfortable to look at them not at all like what the Pretties look like

[@ishathakor]

laverne cox was 100% phoning it in. she took one look at the script and thought "wow, this movie is going to suck. but at least they're paying me a lot of money" edit: i also think the pretties should have been genuinely pretty, not insta baddie uncanny valley. because to modern audiences it just looks laughable. we can see when something is a bad filter. it just doesn't land well. if they wanted to adapt it it should've been animated because it's far easier to make all these distinctions in animation. you don't have to rely on filters.

[@AlvaroIbacacheS]

Agree! The pretties should be conventionally pretty, you know Abercrombie models and that. It’s bad to say it, but it’s “easier” to make beautiful people “ugly” like Charlize in Monster, than make the audience believe so filter would make Chase Stokes conventionally handsome, dude end up looking like on of those human Ken doll surgery cases.

[@CoquetteCygnet]

You’re so right, the concept would translate better in animation and there’s plenty of dystopian animated episodes out there like love death and robots so audiences would likely be open to an animated dystopian film. I think they wanted to lean into an “unnatural” beauty but it completely backfires with these instagram like filters.

[@lostkittenxx]

this makes me think of how the characters in the show "westworld" are styled - they're robots, perfectly engineered to attract desire and fulfill a fantasy. They look stunning, but in an eerie way. Talulah Riley's character is the best example, she looks almost unsettlingly beautiful, which is the whole point of the show

[@mcnoneya]

@@CoquetteCygnetidk I never liked cartoons but I also didn’t read the books. But I am disabled and have deformities so to do vfx to make the characters more “ugly” idk how that would translate. Like i really have no idea how they could make it work so that ALL people feel good about themselves by seeing the “uglies” i mean it’s obvious why they went with conventionally attractive actors to portay the uglies- audiences are drawn more to what looks “pretty” . In the video she said that the Doctors looks in the book were more experimental, they could’ve gone the Effie Trinket way, she’s definitely imposing and a little frightening at first.

[@lexitehrani5299]

you're so right about the "insta baddie thing"

[@selvarajagop4739]

Man I wish Joey King were in more movies that actually utilized her acting skills because she actually is a really good actor

[@Ghostleeee]

She is not, she was in more bad movies than in good ones.

[@selvarajagop4739]

@@Ghostleeee bad acting is a result on both the writing, lack of direction and the actor. If you have watched any of her projects that were actually good you'd know some of the really good acting skills joey king has

[@musicallynerdy8860]

She was excellent in We Were the Lucky Ones. Logan Lerman is in it too.

[@Ghostleeee]

@@selvarajagop4739 well, even a blind human will hit the target from time to time!

[@selvarajagop4739]

@@musicallynerdy8860 she really was!

[@lispeaks]

as one of the two celebrities that people constantly say i look like, i need joey king to collect a W somewhere and stop taking lead roles in terrible movies

[@twggybtch]

I absolutely hated how corny they made it.. Adapting it to have a mature tone and not spoon feed us information would have worked so well. I think the writers/ studio executives did a massive disservice to this script.

[@siobhanflanagan4339]

Lucky Blue Smith's cameo in the film being unedited is really funny to me

[@Theendbeginsagain]

Atleast they stayed true to the SpagBol.

[@LuanaBatista-h6w]

I tried so hard to take this movie seriously but I couldn't stop laughing at the skating scenes 😭 the 3D modeling was sooo bad. One of the things that bothered me throughout the whole movie and I just couldn't let go was how OLD Peris actor looked, especially after he became pretty, my dude looked 35 meanwhile the characther had just turned 16. But to be fair, Joey King is a great actress and I feel like she did a great job with the material she had.

[@Iquey]

I also didn't understand why the specials had neon tron suits 😂 in the books the suits have scales that shift like pixel camo or chameleon/octopus skin, to sneak invisibly.

[@awkwardcupcake3395]

Canonically, I think the decision to have coventially attractive actors as Uglies does fit into the universe. When Tally goes to an old abandoned library and finds a magazine, she is stunned that our society made ugly people famous. By their future standards, even movie stars are Ugly. Really highlighting how warped and distant from our reality they have become. However, they then should have made the Pretty effect be even more uncanny and stark in contrast. It shouldn't just have been IG Baddie face and color contacts. Pretties should have been uncomfortable and alien to look at from our society perspective, and yes Specials should have been scary.

[@BoringTroublemaker]

Has it occurred to no one that slapping on an IG baddie filter _does_ look uncanny valley already to people who aren’t exposed to it every day? literally no one looks like that in real life so if you came face to face with someone who does it would be completely disorienting and most people are desensitized to it. Perhaps that’s the point.

[@maddyvogel4525]

but lucky blue smith being just himself because he's already so pretty lmao

[@kimberleywilliams7802]

No literally that man is unreal lmaooo

[@bananayummyable]

It’s PAINFULLY cringe

[@Jade-3000]

I think I would’ve been mad asf if I were Laverne Cox - when my agent said “you’d be perfect for this role” 💀 the irony is insane

[@thegayghost872]

“Uglies” honestly sounds like a parody of ya dystopia novels

[@KookiesNolly]

for real! From the names to the plot points summary, it sounds like a 15 y/o who over thinks about her looks and the pretty girls at school writing a wattpad fanfiction lmao. Like I get it's for teens and young adults but I'd argue the best of YA novels can only be written by adults who are out of their teenage years enough to reflect on them and say something truly constructive. A real teenagers understanding of the world is always laughable.

[@GwynzyGG]

@@KookiesNollywhat’s funny is that it apparently predates hunger games

[@natashakahan5413]

I don’t know if you know this already so apologies if you do. It is a book series and it was written in 2005. From my memory it was actually pretty good! Though it has been a while since I read it. I feel like it was meant for teenagers in the same way the Hunger Games was. But it was also written by a man, so the critiques on being a woman in society and the beauty standards we’re held too is potentially not as deep as he intended since he never experienced it. Anyway, I hope you have a good day! ☺️

[@gandalfs-pants]

Yeah but it predates most of them and the series is SO much more well-written than any YA novels I've read. It's more like the other way around -- a lot of those super-popular novels felt like poor knockoffs of Uglies.

[@ThelouwseFD]

Read the books, they are actually pretty good.

[@elaineb7065]

One thing I noticed: none of the uglies have any disabilities. Nobody wears glasses or hearing aids, nobody's in a wheelchair... Does it even mention what happens if what makes you ugly also makes you less capable??? Surely such folks would be the most likely to want a surgery to fix them, so they'd not only look better, but perform better. Surgery on a long-sighted, short-sighted, or vision-impaired person making them see perfectly without glasses for the first time, people in wheelchairs able to walk, run, dance, & do other stuff with their legs they previously couldn't, & so on. I wear glasses, & have done since I was 4. If I'd been in that world I'd have wanted my vision fixed right away.

[@Mansplainer2099-jy8ps]

And they would have fixed it right away. They're not gonna go "Sorry, five year old boy, you'll have to wait until your Pretty operation in eleven years, running the surgery machine's expensive."

[@BoringTroublemaker]

Also, I feel like it’s kind of crossing an unnecessary line to explicitly say that a disability makes someone ugly. There’s simply no reason to add that commentary in.

[@luzperras728]

I think we need to stop blaming the budget for the lack of costumes designs and creativity. If movies like Scary Movie 1 and Idiocracy can look damn good after 20 odd years...why can't they do it with this current films?

[@darkreligio8128]

Because those movies didn't use cgi. People don't use sfx anymore they only use cgi.

[@yoogrldude]

I always thought shay and tally were the most interesting relationship in the books

[@jacquelinelugo5518]

They are the most interesting. Shay is the reason Tally learns about the smoke. And she is a big reason why Tally goes against everyone in book 2 and 3

[@ImmortalBroken]

Wait, they cast Joey King as someone whose biggest physical flaw is supposed to be squinty eyes?? The first attribute of her i think of is literally how big her eyes are 😂

[@cosmiccrush22]

I think we all know that in 2024 if they were accurate with that they would be cancelled for obvious reasons.

[@audreydoyle5268]

It was literally commentary on implied racism. That was the point of her nickname. Because she's Asian, she has... what eyes? Not my actual beliefs, that is the point the author was putting across. They called her Squinty because is it implied ethnic features are "ugly" because they are a symbol of division. "Difference is division" is basically the mantra drilled into those kid's heads. Even if her eyes are wider compared to others, it is implied. All of the kid's nicknames aren't just based on defining features. They are based on ethnic ones too. These kids were educated on what different ethnicities look like, like some dystopian phrenology class. What else in the book tells us about what Shay's ethnicity is? Does it say? It's been about a decade since I read it so I'm not sure. But if nothing else in the book says what her ethnicity is, then the author just called the casting crew, and everyone who ever imagined Shay as Asian, out. Yes, even me. We hear Squinty, and what features do we think of? Oh, it said she was tanned skin. White people can tan, biracial people can tan. We constructed what we imagined the characters looked like based on a nickname and a skin tone. They cast an Asian to play Shay. That was the point. She may have big eyes, but in the Pretty world, she still has different, squinty eyes.

[@justadolphin8932]

LMAO i was paused around 14:45 for so long trying to figure out why i recognized the actor's face... finally looked up the cast and realized i've seen him in Nara Smith tiktoks 😭😭

[@paulinaa9205]

4:28 IS THAT LUCKY BLUE SMITH???

[@shesnotallthat]

That’s what I said, it has to be him!!

[@anjalik1136]

That’s what I was thinking 😭

[@mutantx2372]

I remember 12 years ago I watched a youtuber named Polandbananasbooks review the first book and that was thw first time I heard about it. Didn't know it was released in 2005. Despite the movies flaws I loved it and will be grtting the books at some point.

[@BriarMB13]

Please don't neglect The Extras and the story Bible! Worth the read and so fun!

[@mutantx2372]

@BriarMB13 sure. I plan on reading the whole series.

[@chalicealice736]

I feel like this should've been an anime. It didn't need Spiderman into the spiderverse type of animation. But I feel like elements from the books would've translate better in animation then live-action.

[@zeebadeedooda]

Sorry, but I cannot get the image of those tiny little sausages out of my head whenever The Smoke is referred to as "the Smokies"

[@QuestionsIAskMyself]

STOP😭😭

[@ModernGurlz]

the people who live at the smoke are called smokies 😭

[@thecavalieryouth]

How is it that every last one of these dystopian YA book to movie adaptations *always*, and I mean *always*, manages to nab a prestige actor in their cast as the Big Bad. Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Woody Harrelson AND Donald motherfucking Sutherland for Hunger Games (granted, that franchise was actually top tier). Giancarlo Esposito & Patricia Clarkson for Maze Runner. Kate bloody Winslet for Divergent. Now Laverne Cox for this. How do they keep managing to do this!? 🤭

[@90ejb]

The movie studios call the actors agents. If they feel like we'll pay to watch Julienne Moore in a movie, they'll pay big bucks just for her to be present. Like the Borderlands movie. They got Cate Blanchet because they feel they movie won't make any money without her.

[@laurenm3148]

$$$$$$$$$$$

[@societycrumbles]

You said it in the video, but I love how the pretty faces are literally just the tiktok Bold Glamour filter 😅

[@BoringTroublemaker]

I find it to be an interesting commentary on how much filters have warped the minds of people that no one seems to recognize how those filters are a a completely unrealistic and unattainable standard of beauty. Everyone is complaining that they just look like they slapped a filter on but these are supposed to be people walking around in real life and those are faces that only exist on social media with a filter. No one actually looks like that. No one _can_ actually look like that. Y’all are so desensitized that you want people in this movie to be even prettier than already unrealistic beauty standards because you look at people faking it all day long.

[@audreydoyle5268]

​@@BoringTroublemaker yes! Someone who gets it! "Oh, their face isn't symmetrical and alien enough!" As if a medieval person wouldn't take one look at a Pretty in this movie and think "my God! Their face is like a mirror image! So flawless! So beautiful and divine! Almost angelic!". Which was the whole point of the simulation "game" in the book. To filter the ugly, just like we do in this day and age. We live in a voluntarily Pretty world with a price. Uglies was warning us about the dangers of what would happen if total perfection was possible and mandatory. What they used in the movie is a PERFECT rendition, befitting to the issues of our current time period, of a Pretty. I am yet to watch the movie, but based on the clips I've seen, and heard about how the plot was handled, they at least didn't boil sh!t and try to serve it to us as though it's a Michelin quality meal like they did with fcking Maze Runner. Is it missing a few aesthetic features? Possibly, but why is everyone getting hung up about looks in a movie that is philosophically about looks?! It's not about how "good" the movie looks. It's about how well the main plot is portrayed. Maybe my opinion will change after watching it, but it just feels like dogpiling on good movies and praising cliché is the norm now.

[@Papito443]

The point about the actors not being ugly actually fits with the objective of the story, tho? Because these people shouldn't be really ugly, it's just that everyone who hasn't had surgery to to have this specifically "pretty" appearence is seen as ugly no matter what. Like the golden eyes that Tully wants that are not even possible to have naturally

[@lollyberry007]

This was one of my favorite underrated book series as a teen, super disappointed to see it get turned into a Divergent-esque flop. Also I love Laverne Cox, but having a trans woman play the villain in a story about teens being forced into body issues and surgery is uhhhh…..a choice. Did the writing/casting team not think of the transphobic implications of that? 😬

[@audreydoyle5268]

Ever seen Barbie?

[@claracatlady9844]

I think it just sorta missed the mark. It obviously should have been animation but I also think they missed the message completely. It feels like “I’m so different I don’t care about being pretty, I like reading books” rather than actually diving into the complex concept. Because technically the idea of “if everyone was the same level of attractive there would be no discrimination based on appearance” is a valid idea and makes sense. It just feels flat all around

[@chailattemhmm]

Couldve so easily made the info dump beginning into a class fieldtrip to the rusty ruins and show more worldbuulding of how their propaganda influnces the uglies before surgury. I really hated the uniforms they chose for the specials too, it just reminds me of the original Tron movie and not in a good way lol, the specials in general were very lackluster to me. I wish they had kept a few other things from the books like the library in the smoke and the journey there like you mentioned. Tho I do like that they kept the flowers in but the pacing really doesnt allow for anything to actually be thought out 💀 I saw someone else mention that they thought Shay and Tally were going to be love interests which I honestly wouldnt mind since both of her love interests in the book end up dead (tho I think it would make more sense after Zayn dies, but adding a whole Bisexual subplot probably wouldnt end well given the rest of the movie) Overall feels like they watered down all of the characters and modifed all of the parts that made them feel strong and like actual people. I do still hope they make the second movie though, and hopefully get a lil better scripting and cgi 🤞 Edit: wrote this before i saw the end, so glad I'm not the only tron viewer left out there 🙏

[@AlliYAFF]

I don't think the Uglies being "pretty" by our standards is a problem, after all, in the book, they are just normal people. The more difficult issue is to make the Pretties look exceptionally beautiful.

[@Candela115]

I feel like the fact that none of the actors are ugly is kinda the point? Uglies were never actually mean to be objectively ugly. They are just meant to look like normal people. Pretties are meant to be an exaggeration of beauty standards to point of being uncanny at times.

[@audreydoyle5268]

And to a medieval person, the Pretties in this movie would be so uncanny, they'd freak out

[@stephaniewilliams6756]

Oh my gosh someone finally said it! As a kid reading the books with a heteronormative brain I always imagined Shay as a guy Tally was crushing on, that they had romantic chemistry and emotionally intimate moments. I also picked up on that, I am surprised to see Shay as a girl in the movie, but it couldve been a perfect swipe at Normie Pretty society. Having those on the fringes be LGBT, people of color, and "uglies" the "undesirables" What we could have had!

[@BerusJ001]

Im glad that im not the only one who was like...Tally and Shay were in love, in the WORSE ways

[@rhy8336]

I only learned that it came out the day it was out, Netflix must have just own it was going to flop. Along with being 10 years late I am disappointed that they had so much potential but they could have utilized it because of the growth of instagram face and face tune. I liked the books but after these more than scathing reviews I’ll have to forgo it. And if they didn’t include the digital closet then they can definitely miss me with this bullshit… But I will say if it was preformed differently laverne cox casting could have been iconic.

[@devincigirl]

I actually enjoyed it. I think knowing it would be bad allowed me to just take it for face value. I was a huge fan of the books so it was just fun to see something I’ve wanted to be almost half of my life finally adapted. I wish it was made ten years ago when the YA boom was happening

[@youngandrestlessjean3634]

Same! As a long-time fan of this series, I was just happy to get any adaption no matter how cheesy haha.

[@MMMM-ui3ct]

Same loved the corniness of it all

[@winterfromwisthollow]

Yess, I was so sure that it was going to be tragic that I was actually pleasantly surprised.

[@overlookingpluto]

Right. It's not a good movie, but still it's better than nothing. Because it illustrated books and drawn a new group of people to Uglies series. Which is awesome

[@WGasmss]

I turned that shit off cause the first 5 minutes made no sense when you think about it.. If they have an assembly that says “for those of you turning 16 today” that means they have that assembly EVERY day cause everyday it would be someone’s birthday. I dont know man it was so bad..

[@darkreligio8128]

I thought that was weird AF too. Wasting time out of everyone's days for a few people is wild.

[@nixiemartian4658]

Complaining that the main characters are too attractive is crazy. No one said that they're actually ugly.It's just the societal standards in their weird society. Literally, everyone is considered ugly.There is not a single naturally vood looking person to these people, because their standard is unnatural. Therefore making everyone ugly, even if you think that they don't look ugly.

[@rei2684]

Main problem isnt that the uglies arent ugly, more that the pretty arent different to them. They really should more focus it on racism of the beauty standard to get the difference between ugly and pretty. I know this wasn't really a point of the books but i think its still something that effect us and it could have made a much greater point against the beauty standard which just is rootet in white supremacy

[@syd91]

NO YEA, iirc in Bogus to Bubblies, Scott Westerfeld said he was inspired by Romans basing their beauty standard on the Golden ratio, and at another point noted that future California would be a racially diverse area, and... didn't seem to realize the white supremacist implications that had at any point 💀?

[@Ready-ForTheEnd]

No. They really didn't need to add anything to the message the author was conveying. I hate when people put their own spin on someone else's work to fit the current issues.

[@audreydoyle5268]

​@@Ready-ForTheEnd Shay's nickname was literally Squinty. Ethnicity is implied as a bad thing, as one of the main themes was "difference is division". The author was saying no matter how you spin it, people will find problems within and without perceived dividing factors.

[@youngandrestlessjean3634]

It's not that bad. It's a little cheesy at times and too much cgi, but I thought it was a fun and easy watch. I thought Joey King was great and the girl who played Shay. I read the book in one day back in 2005 as a 14 year old, and I still own this book series. Netflix ruined Cowboy Bebop, so I knew before watching this to have the lowest of expectations, and I think that's why I ended up liking it lol. The only thing i didn't like was that they made Peris a murdering monster when he was the chillest character in the book series. I also disagree on the romantic undertones between Shay and Tally. In the book, it's clear that Shay is jealous that David has a crush on Tally as Shay was crushing on him first and that is why Shay was bummed when David gave Tally his gloves. Tally and David were always end game, and Shay has a boyfriend in the books named Fausto.

[@audreydoyle5268]

Better than what they did to Maze Runner. They completely ditched the murk tunnel! That's the best part of the second book!! And it's a little switch up of characters, big deal. You know they took out Haymitch's hilarious line at the end of Catching Fire, right? The line, which when I read it at 13, that made me cackle for a solid half hour. Yeah, Hollywood has done worse to good books. A bit of character dynamics shifting, a little less intense Specials. You know, I always rooted for Tally and Shay to get involved instead of the cliché jealousy love triangle, yuck. Pitting girls against each other didn't jive with me when I read it. So I think I'll be happy with the new character dynamics. You know, Entrapta wasn't always Hordak's girlfriend, and She-Ra wasn't always in love with Catra, but we can all agree, sometimes a little tweaking to an old story changes it for the better.

[@42words]

oh god, i remember reading this book with my seventh grade students and thinking to myself "man, when they inevitably try to adapt this into a film it's gonna be a _DISASTER"_

[@lilwinborne]

Your points about 2000’s fashion and their technology were so good 😊 I was obsessed with the Uglies books and read Imposters to get back into it! Maximum ride was a worse adaptation the books are way better!! Glad I watched the new movie with my family. Had lots of laughs thanks to my brother and dad!

[@Bala_Niranna]

On the bright side, at least we wont have to deal with the cutting subplot in the sequel 😬

[@jacquelinelugo5518]

Shay's mind literally snapped from all the emotions. That girl was on another level in the last part of Pretties 😬

[@TheAbigailDee]

I guess I kinda pictured the Pretties as like... Uncanny? Like so gorgeous that they look almost scary to us? Not just like Instagram filters.

[@BoringTroublemaker]

lol to people who don’t spend too much time on instagram, those filters ARE scary and uncanny. And unrealistic. And unnatural. And unattainable… Y’all need to spend less time on social media. It’s messed up your minds.

[@TheAbigailDee]

@@BoringTroublemaker right...... Ok. The people who think these don't look as creepy as we pictured need to touch grass. Not the person who has spent time defending the UGLIES MOVIE in these comments 😭😭

[@BoringTroublemaker]

@@TheAbigailDee I’m not defending the movie, I thought it was standard YA nonsense - mediocre at best - but the issues raised here were largely aesthetic related not substance. What is obvious to anyone who watches this movie who isn’t chronically on social media, seems to completely fly over the heads of the rest of you.

[@audreydoyle5268]

​​@@TheAbigailDee did it not occur to you that Pretties aren't supposed to be creepy. In our eyes or in the eyes of the characters. Pretties are literally just pretty. Not so "pretty", they're not longing appealing. Uncanny isn't fckable. Pretties still have to find each other instinctually attractive. There's some lizard brain wiring you can't slice away. What is attractive to us, is attractive to the Pretties. I don't know if you've noticed, but most people are so enamored by how "Pretty" the filters make you look, just like the simulation in the book, that is makes sense to make the Pretties look filtered. It is and always has been a social commentary story. This is what the author has been warning us about. Except the only difference is being Pretty is a voluntary choice with a price. Tally had a mandatory decision presented to her like it was voluntary. Instead of the filters being a thing of the distant future, it affects how teenagers see themselves now.

[@RabbiJoeInJerusalem]

My wife objected: "Why are you watching a review instead of the movie?" Then, four minutes in, she said: "This is pretty bad..."

[@emilytretyak2534]

So for those of us that read the books growing up, i gotta know, who was YOUR Dr. Cable? For example; mine was always Angelina Jolie, no questions asked.

[@Nightbat1321]

I always thought maybe Kate beckensale or Angelina bc both are very fierce actress

[@litlblkhouse]

This book? Really? THIS book got an adaptation? I honestly expected someone to adapt Ally Condie's Matched trilogy since that had more potential than this.

[@imaginefun13]

Oh man, I have such nostalgia for Matched 😂

[@dontrelate465]

Crashed series would’ve been a good choice as well.

[@overlookingpluto]

Ohh i have soft spot for Matched, but I can't see it's happening because... it's honestly a weaker book.

[@jacquelinelugo5518]

The first Matched book was great. The other two 😬

[@erikdaniels0n]

17:40 the Specials’ suits look like someone saw the Tron costumes, particularly the ones in Tron: Legacy and the costumes the Kree Space Force soldiers wore in the Captain Marvel movie and were like “let’s combine those!!”

[@JayeKisses]

9:45 o I definitely felt the chemistry between Tally & Shay. The actresses have great chemistry. I really thought that’s where the love story was. Or that I’d be a 3 way between Tally,Shay,& David. I felt like maybe Shay liked him & Tally.

[@justthecoolestdudeyo9446]

The potential is there for something very interesting, but it looks like a let down. Why is nobody fat? The Uglies and the Pretties all are in incredible shape, but fatness is a huge factor in how our society perceives attractiveness. I haven't read the books, but what of sickness or medical condition or injury? Or trans people who might feel alienated from being Ugly for a number of reasons. Idk, it's a story about beauty but it kind of seems like it has nothing to say about beauty, not really.

[@Mansplainer2099-jy8ps]

_"Why is nobody fat? The Uglies and the Pretties all are in incredible shape, but fatness is a huge factor in how our society perceives attractiveness."_ They've "fixed" "fatness". It's a high-tech dystopia. _"I haven't read the books, but what of sickness or medical condition or injury?"_ They fix that. It's a high-tech dystopia.

[@sheyannev2757]

This series could have had a TRUE love triangle if they weren’t cowards. Shay and Tally fight over David but they’re also in love with each other

[@stephaniewilliams6756]

Like others have said, I do think having average faces as the "uglies" is kind of the point but I dont blame you for wanting more out of a visual medium. Especially given that the pretties just look like beauty influencers

[@darkreligio8128]

The uglies weren't even average.

[@wompadillœ]

2:02 oh god don’t remind me of that nightmare 💀

[@mfuentes4961]

God it sucks how bad that this movie was because the subject matter and themes of the book series have become more prevalent with beauty standards changing/evolving rapidly due to the rise of social media and accessibility of apps like photoshop making it easier to manipulate and make unattainable beauty standards. If the people in charge had adapted the books into a tv series and put more care and time into the subject matter, the adaptation could have had the potential to become a cultural phenomenon that would have helped start a public conversation about beauty standards and desirability politics. But instead, we have been given a film that’s just as fake and superficial as the antagonists.

[@ourdestiny_]

"love triangles" more "love angles" aka two straight guy going after one women also i wish tally and shay would have kissed honestlyi ship them together

[@allieyang1935]

i was hoping the pretties wouldn't just look like models. because i remember a passage in the book where tally finds an old rusty magazine in a car wreck and the woman on the cover looks so ugly to her bc she's not used to 21st century beauty standards. i remember specifically that tally finds the woman too skinny so i always wondered what pretties would look like

[@ryanpooley]

I honestly really liked the movie! The books themselves werent very groundbreaking so i wasnt expecting much from the movie but i think it was faithful enough to the books. I really hope they make at least the other 2 books into movies!

[@j.c.jeggis1818]

The Pretties being normal people with the Bold Glamour filter is exactly how preteen me imagined it.

[@audreydoyle5268]

Same here. If the Pretties were taken literally, it wouldn't be an appealing watch. Even if they were supposed to look so ethereally inhuman, they were still supposed to trigger deep, biological instincts of beauty. The ig filter Pretties are exactly that. They appeal. That. Was. The. Whole. Point. Not literally "perfectly symmetrical". Tastefully symmetrical. Pretties are supposed to be breathtakingly, heartbreaking kind of beautiful. They achieved it in this movie. No medieval peasant would look at a Pretty in this movie and think "they're not pretty enough,".

[@daynabailen4331]

I think the biggest problem is that it should have been a tv show and not a movie. There just wasn’t enough time to tell the story properly.

[@hannahnotbananababyyy]

As someone who grew up reading the series, I can definitely agree with a lot of the points you made in the video. However, I will say that when it came to finally seeing one of my favorite books on the tv screen, I found myself nostalgic and excited. I never expected anything to come from the book, so it was good to see the characters that I had always thought about represented. Overall, I thought it was okay. I would watch it again, but a lot could be changed for sure. 👍🏽

[@misti-step]

casting a trans woman as the leader who is forcing children to get surgery is.... not a good look for this movie

[@stephaniewilliams6756]

That is a heinous casting choice. Tally was RIGHT THERE, just make trans people MAIN CHARACTERS cowards!

[@jennyo.]

Honestly that was my biggest issue with this movie. Forget all the other nonsense, why would you cast a trans woman specifically for that role?! Gives me the ick tbh

[@s0_what_n0w]

Because the studio just cared for the superficial brownie point of hiring a trans woman as the Special’s leader, I’m sure. And Laverne Cox looks gorgeous and I totally see why she was cast, but we can tell the studio didn’t do much deep thinking

[@supervamp78]

Was thinking of that but isn't bad if all we see is a trans woman instead of just a woman?

[@Wandervenn]

Yeah it was definitely either a "Let's hire a trans person in this position of power for the brownie points!" And it was as shallow as that, leading to them mever fully thinking it through, which is bad... or... it's more neffarious, done on purpose, and that's even worse.

[@osmanyousif7849]

You know, I think most of us are all in agreement now that Joey King needs to fire her agent……

[@digapygmy70]

This is literally just a YA version of the Twilight Zone episode Number 12 Looks Just Like You, which literally came out 60 years ago and is still way better than Uglies.

[@dulce9466]

they were too afraid of the power of toxic Yuri to make shay and tally real

[@sailormoonie17]

The relationship between Tally and Shae was waaaay more compelling than anything else. Like I remember it being THE source of interpersonal tension in a really realistic way. I’d say it’s their relationship (whether you read it as platonic or romantic) that drives the whole book!

[@shelbybake595]

I loved this book series as a kid. The idea to make it an animated series is such a good idea - it would give the animators the ability to be as imaginative as they want without the budget limits on CGI. Thanks for the video!

[@rtybt]

The biggest problem to me (besides the pacing) was that they cast full grown adults. A huge thing in the books was that tally was shocked when she saw 'ugly' adults in old magazines, because they were past the awkward stage. Since they cast conventionally attractive, fully grown adults, that lost it's effect. They are in no way believably freshly 16. They could've cast actual 16-19 year olds and it would've felt more authentic. since they had a smaller budget, I would've loved to have seen them cast smaller/newer actors that are more.. average people. plus, then, more money for costumes, ect.

[@captainkacke1651]

I think you put it perfectly. The movie felt rushed and simultaneously was so boring.

[@elise9809]

I actually remember being glad the uglies adaptation never took off in the 2010s because I knew it would end up being an underwhelming divergent-esque cash grab. It's unbelievable that they finally DID pump one out ten years later and it's learnt nothing from the fall of that genre.

[@the-berries-and-cream-dude]

I haven’t read the book, so I don’t know how much I might be off but the fact the uglies aren’t even ugly feels like the point. They’re not really ugly, but they have been let to believe that the only way to be pretty is by having an unnecessary procedure that ends up getting them be control, which is the whole underlying point of the procedure. Also Peris after the surgery looks so bad, like botch surgery bad which I think also is the point, no? I took it as a Hunger Games Capitol citizens kinda thing, that they are so weird looking to the point of bad but for them, that is considered “attractive”.

[@audreydoyle5268]

Yep. Spot on. I have read the books and I immediately was thrilled after watching the trailer. The Pretties are exactly how they're described in the books: heartbreakingly gorgeous, brain-missing and non-stop party goers cause the surgery also amps up their endurance.

[@cashmerenerd]

knowing nothing about the book, to me it was the most neutral YA dystopian movie ever. (i have watched it right after emily in paris though, which was probably the worst piece of television i have ever encountered, so it’s possible i was overly generous) i came in expecting to hate it, and i was pleasantly surprised how inoffensive it was. compared to divergent, or god forbid the school for good and evil, it was very okay. i like talia, i love talia and shay, character motivations make sense, i get who is who and what they are about, there is a plot that makes enough sense for it to work. (knowing nothing about jt, the white orchids don’t seem like an afterthought at all, it just felt like a piece of world building that will pay off in later books - i didn’t feel like i needed a resolution for everything.)

[@audreydoyle5268]

Everyone's just buthurt their vision of the books weren't realised. "Not uncanny enough" is the main complaint about the Pretties. Idk, ig filters are pretty uncannily Pretty. I haven't watched it, but read the books, and based on the few clips I've seen, it is everything I ever imagined and more. It is actually better than what I imaged, and I have hyperfantasia. Whenever I read books, I am immersed in movie like thoughts, picturing everything. Every scene I've been presented with thus far is so much more than I've ever conjured mentally. As for plot, I cannot comment on the movie's plot, but it cannot be anywhere close to as worse as what they did to Maze Runner.