UGLIES is a dystopian science fiction movie on Netflix. Tally, a teenage girl, lives in a sprawling futuristic city whose technological advancements make it seem like a refuge of civilization. However, this advanced society mandates that citizens undergo whole-body cosmetic surgery at the age of 16. Before the surgery, people are “Uglies”; afterward, they transform into “Pretties.” This suppression of individuality and enforced hedonism is the price of “civilization.” However, some resist such “civilization.” Tally meets a character who sympathizes with the resistance, and she must choose to be “Pretty” or free.

This wanna-be Brave New World and Atlas Shrugged fusion of a movie is only occasionally effective at depicting aspects of Aldous Huxley’s dystopian masterpiece. Except for the John Galt Society, which appears halfway through, Ayn Rand’s novel remains overlooked. Central to the plot, the environmentalist message is politically correct in a way that neither Huxley nor Rand was. Therefore, UGLIES doesn’t do justice to its source material.

The movie focuses on the suppression of individuality, emotional brainwashing, and enforced hedonism of Huxley’s novel without making viewers feel the effects of these evils. Huxley wasn’t foolish enough to think that these elements, sprinkled over a structure of “Pretties” and “Uglies,” were enough to make his book of lasting import. The never-ending pleasure play world of the Pretties here is sufficiently off-putting, but the movie’s John the Savage characters, Tally, Shay, and David, are pale compared to Huxley’s literary hero.

UGLIES lacks the depth of the literary source material it draws from. The soma epidemic in Huxley’s work is only part of the overall picture. The movie can’t stand alone, especially when a Big Brother state imposes it, which is much less frightening than Orwell’s Big Brother. The writing is alternatively bland, poor or downright silly. For example, the line: “My story today began in the past.” The teen drama aspect is annoying, and the teen acting (most of the cast is in this age bracket) is just as bad. The female protagonist, Tally (Joey King), seems painfully aware throughout the movie that she’s “acting.” The only compelling performances come from Shay (Brianne Tju) and David (Keith Powers).

As far as the quality of the movie is concerned, some hoverboard sequences are exciting. Unfortunately, the CGI used in the futuristic chase scenes echoes late ’90s movies. The addition of rap songs doesn’t help the movie’s score. Finally, UGLIES takes too long to become interesting. It eventually hits its stride about halfway through the movie and becomes a slightly compelling “fight the system” story with a surprisingly Christ-like act of self-sacrifice at the end.

The movie’s dominant worldview is politically correct Romanticism with a few biblical moral elements. Heroic characters protect each other and act self-sacrificially to fight villains. Evildoers attempt to stop heroes from foiling their plan to decimate Earth’s resources and force dangerous surgeries on their citizens to turn them from “Uglies” to “Pretties.”

However, from the introduction to the conclusion, the story is about humans destroying their natural environment, playing right along with the environmentalist movement. It also seems that few of the good characters following David—the John the Savage type character—are motivated by anything other than living free and being who they want to be. Remarkably, the movie lacks foul language. Due to peril, brief action violence, implied malevolent surgery, heavy environmentalism, some sexual and homosexual elements, and Romantic assumptions, MOVIEGUIDE® suggests caution for teens and adults.