I don’t want to slander Ugly person Not fair. However, the surface issues this 2024 youngster brings are truly irritating. Honestly, this seems to speak volumes about the real-world focus on appearance being the end of all existence.
I expected more from McGonagall. The man who brought us Charlie’s Angels: All Out, and my personal guilty pleasure; The Nanny: Killer Queen. Apparently Scott Westerfeld wrote this book, admittedly I haven’t read it yet.
Don’t get me wrong, I love a lot of YA (young adult) books. me meOvid Michael Grant’s Gone series. The literary world of “Ugly” is likely to be much better than this Netflix offering.
story
The world has moved on, like a watered-down version of the Mad Max verse, without the “guzzoline.” Flowers power the planet, and war has been eliminated by making the world undergo plastic surgery at age 16.
Part of the process includes removing anything that even remotely resembles a personality. It also provides participants with a semblance of artificial intelligence. Ugly person Start with two good friends; squinty eyes and nose. Both teens are excited and eager to change their lives.
The nose comes first, and Squirt’s world changes. Nose has moved on, and the story then turns to Tully (aka Squint) and Shay and the Big Smoke.
main cast
Joey King plays Tully/Squirt, the “hero”.
Brianne Tju plays Shay and is probably my favorite character.
Keith Powers plays David, the savior of this dystopian world.
Chase Stokes as Peris, aka Nose forward his surgery.
Laverne Cox plays Dr. Cable, the big bad.
After all, it’s a small world (of thought)
To be fair, any movie that uses the superficial premise of “looks can change the world” and the power of flowers (any old hippies out there?) is going to run into problems. The shallow two-dimensional plot line and fairly simple backstory make Ugly person down.
This book does a great job of explaining why living in the woods and eating home grown food is called “smoke.” This is not mentioned in the movie. Not to be too dismissive, but classifying it as young adult might be a bit insulting to the target audience.
some things really work
To a certain extent, this relationship works. I love Rebels; Shay and Tully. While the two don’t get much character development, they are likable.
Ugly person has been compared divergent. I personally can’t see any connection beyond the simple plot. It has more in common with The Twilight Zone. Apparently, Season 5, Episode 17, “Number 12 Looks Just Like You,” is the basis for this story. It works, but we can assume that Rod Serling, Charles Beaumont, and their colleagues were a little annoyed by this blatant plagiarism of their story.
Even though adults are the real movers and shakers of this world, they are pushed to the back of the stage. Dr. Cable is a ghostly menace, while David’s mother is a one-note hero.
Yet: the action scenes work. Of course, it’s all green screen and CGI, but they still work. In fact, these are the only truly interesting parts of the movie.
judgment
Ugly person Only got 2.5 stars. The show is currently streaming on Netflix. Fans of the original book may want to check it out.
trailer
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