The first 500 people to use my link skl.sh/crowcaller10241 will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare premium! Thank you everyone! This got heavily delayed but I'm glad I can finally share it
"The moment his neck is snapped is one of the few times we get a close look at one of the hunks" has to be one of the funniest sentences to have ever be uttered.
Disappointed but not surprised that the Specials in the movie are just generic hot people who look sort of annoyed all the time instead of trying to go for an uncanny-valley-on-purpose angle like they're more or less described in the books.
Trying so hard to turn my brain off when Tally's like "it's okay, I'm strong and I know who I am now" regarding the surgery because THAT'S NOT HOW YOUR BRAIN WORKS, TALLY. Like I'm already turning my brain off regarding the surgery anyway - since I don't really get how lesions only on the frontal cortex would make people just like mindless and non-confrontational like at the very least, you still have your limbic system and temporal lobe to consider - so Tally being like "um actually, brain damage won't affect me because I'm different" is the last damn straw.
Yeah it just. Never made sense to me? Like, although I don't have a brain lesion I do have an acquired brain injury and the brain damage described just is not my experience? Especially unmedicated, impulse control is really hard as well as my temper, and me being stressed just makes it all worse. It would take a lot more brain damage to override the temper thing. If anything, my symptoms make me much more confrontational.
I know they get brain brained too but man, I wonder if there’s any whiplash for the people who DONT get a lot of changes at 16 and they sit there questioning their whole upbringing of getting called ugly like “wait a fucking second…”
14:38 i'm so glad you mentioned this bc while i was watching the movie, with no prior knowledge of the book whatsoever, i kept saying that tally and shay were giving off crazy amounts of lesbionic energy. the way they said "you have me forever. you made me brave enough to reach for what i wanted. i want you here. i want you with me" like i was ?????????!!!!!!!
Theory regarding The Hunks: some higher-up at some point in production pitched a notion along the lines of "this movie needs more scenes with hot men in it, to appeal more to the target teenage girl audience!" thus, The Hunks were conceived (not literally). However, some time after filming of that scene had finished, one of two things likely occurred: A) Someone else higher-up went "oh my god, we can't have this much focus on half-naked men in this movie aimed at a teenage girl audience, it's inappropriate!" or, B) while editing that scene together, the filmmakers inevitably came to the realisation that having these two unnamed + inexplicably shirtless men just _standing there_ silently during what is supposed to be a tense scene was... well, probably _weird_ and _unnecessary,_ and maybe contributed to the scene as a whole feeling a bit _silly_ or even actively confusing. Whatever the cause, the decision was made to substantially cut The Hunks' screen time, at least as much as was possible without necessitating a reshoot of the scene. Naturally, this had the opposite of the intended effect, making what little presence The Hunks still had feel even more bizarre.
It is fascinating when circumstances delay a film to the point of getting slapped across the face with a different time period. This was always going to be the sort of Divergent-esque adaptation Uglies would get but it feels so strange having this be the example of a YA dystopia film in the 2020s so far
8:50 yeah I agree with you here, the actors are already very good looking, for their "pretty" version they just slapped some filters and makeup. It would have been more inpactful if they hired average looking actors and then replaced them with good looking ones, or just not put makeup on the actors when they are "uglies"
Oh actually I watched a video (I believe it was Pillar of Garbage’s video on slop) that I think has some insight on why media is getting ‘dumber’! Netflix is making what he referred to as slop, which for Uglies as Avatar are shallower retellings, because they *don’t* expect you to pay attention. They are making “2nd screen” content with the assumption it will be playing in the background while your phone is your primary screen. So basically they double up any visual information with dialogue so you don’t miss anything if you aren’t actively watching, hit each beat multiple times, and otherwise try to be pleasant background noise. It seems a bit foolish to me to turn movies into 2nd screen content, as Netflix also produces a bunch of reality TV now and that is the OG 2nd screen programming. But a LOT of the live action Avatar TLA makes sense if you filter it through being made to not be your primary screen. There are a few flashy action scenes to catch your interest, and otherwise there is little you would miss by looking away. Since you aren’t paying attention they don’t want you to think Aang is bratty, so they make him a weird not-quite-a-kid so you can’t miss the scene of growth. He says what his personality is like so you can’t miss the scene of him playing with other kids before he got trapped. Same with Sokka’s misogyny, what if you were watching a TikTok and missed Suki straightening him out? The silliness is toned down and the general tone is more even, without as much difference between the high and low energy moments. I agree there are probably multiple reasons things come out the way they do, but thinking about if a piece of media was planned to even be on your PRIMARY SCREEN has made the tendencies of made-for-streaming make a bit more sense to me!
I was all over my friend who actually watched this I was like text me Every Time they hoverboard hahaha the only thing here that matters (edit: careful, hunkless angles now matters to me sorry still watching the video should have waited)
I think this is one of those books that did not need a movie, and that's from someone who deeply loved these books in middle school and I'd honestly call them a foundational piece of media for my taste. They were my first introduction to Dystopia which became my favorite genera, and will always hold a special place in my heart despite their flaws. But I think one of their strengths was that you had to imagine exactly what the Pretties looked like for you. I also loved that Talley messed up all the time! It was way more realistic for a teenager who grew up in this society, and I feel like Uglies strength was that it actually had societal critique, which got dulled down as YA Dystopia became more and more popular until Divergent just murdered the genera lol Uglies walked so Hunger Games could run, but Uglies was never going to be the media power house that Hunger Games is
I’ve always said the very act of turning these books into a movie would undermine the message it’s trying to send. A cartoon or anime could have been kinda cool though
Your good relationship with your looks shines through your confidence and outfits in every video and I meant to comment it some day, Uglies vid in which you go on explaining your POV is probably good time. I love your outfits, so creative!
I was watching your vids yesterday thinking "I hope we get another upload soon" Thoughtful review Your talk on the sanitization of YA fiction was so interesting. I agree that it feels like a board room decision, because TikTok births a dozen, NYT bestselling, Colleen Hoover-esque novels a day romanticizing abuse
I feel like a fundamental flaw of an adaptation of this book is its refusal to address racism other than “I can’t believe people used to be racist”, which makes tackling the subject in any adaptation (made in yknow. Current society) extremely difficult as it’s not woven into the story. Not sure if I’m glad the movie didn’t tackle it or not, because I know it would have been done poorly, but I always pondered how an adaptation would have to work within the framework that the book set in that regard. Also - even when I read this book as a 10 year old, I thought the name Tally Youngblood was unfathomably cringe. That was certainly a Choice Mr. Westerfeld
yeah idk that it would've been done well, but at the same time, it's not like you (general you) can talk substantially about critiquing beauty standards without unpacking some forms of racism/colorism
i was absolutely heartbroken that they didn't include more of tally's reactions to like wooden tables and old people. like im sorry, but how could anyone cut out the line about how they're eating off of the corpses of murdered trees (i dont remember the exact wording)😂😂not only is it hilarious, it's also like the SUCH AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE STORY.
After your video on the book series a year ago, I went to read the first book again after many many years. That was both a nostalgic and disappointing experience, and I didn't read the rest of the books. So it was completely unexpected to me that a movie would be released at the present time, it really should have stayed in the past!
Yeah, I think I had a similar experience when I reread it for that video, which is why it was a bit different style of review than I normally do. It was very nostalgic but disappointing, not extremely good or bad but like. Alright enough. Not enough for me to have much of a radical opinion. Revisiting it for the movie though at least let me appreciate it having some themes (especially in comparison to the film lacking them)
Wow I’m early. Seeing the movie being talked about and seeing it recommended on Netflix gave me flashbacks to watching your review of the series. I’m excited to hear your takes on it an a more in depth review!
I don't think that making changes to make Tally a more likeable protagonist is inherently a bad idea - her complete lack of redeeming qualities is one of the reasons I dropped off the series as a teen myself. That being said, it really loses something for not having the protagonist be fully indoctrinated into the system and having her worldview so violently shattered by the Smoke - I think changing the series to have more of a central focus on Tally's struggle to unlearn that indoctrination could have made for a much more compelling film narrative. I also agree that the films really missed out on not cementing Tally's relationship with Shay as romantic - I think, as well as their relationship already being the core focus of the series, it could have led to an interesting secondary theme about being gay in a society that appears to be violently cisnormative and heteronormative. The reveal that Shay has been made a pretty, for example, could have been made to hit harder by the fact that Shay is, essentially, force-feminised - any whisper of gender non-conformity is removed. Then you also have her sexuality and relationship with Tally as a potential anchoring point to help her break out of her conditioning in the hypothetical sequels, as well as a pivot point for Tally to also question her own relationship with the system. It also would have made Tally maintaining her scar as a less silly detail, making it a physical representation of the fact that no amount of brainwashing can fully rewrite her sexuality or remove her love for Shay or something.
Funny thing is, the society coming off as violently cisnormative and heteronormative is probably an accident; Scott Westerfeld was actually trying to write the books so that it WOULDN'T come off that way, since the books are set 200+ years in the future and most knowledge of the hows/whys of old prejudice would be forgotten.
I suppose in that sense it's quite similar to the way the society in the books has "solved" racism by making everyone the same (white) skin tone - when you have a sexual binary of "pretty" with little room for variation that relies heavily on conventional gendered beauty standards (and that participants have no say over), and a high-control pipeline from littlie->ugly->pretty->parent, you have "solved" homophobia and transphobia by eliminating gay and trans people entirely.
@@flop47 Plus it's a post-apocalyptic world where a lot of the old history is lost; chances are they're not gonna have the same exact baggage about genders and sexualities that we have rn
Oh I’ve been looking FORWARD to this video, this movie did the source material so dirty (and that’s saying something bc the source material wasn’t very good to begin with) and the discourse about it has been insane
tbh i actually liked this series as a kid largely for tally, i felt like a lot of YA dystopian novels i read at the time were less engaging to me because the protagonists rarely were as significantly flawed as she was. tally being very judgemental due to her upbringing feels very real to me
I don't know how I did this and am learning in the comments I in fact did. I very much know the difference and my script uses the right word, I am just very prone to weird pronunciation which I can't really explain. Part of it is often that I live in the UK and pick up English pronunciation but just... blend it unconsciously into my American accent, resulting in a puzzle box of sounds. But I'm not sure I can blame the English for orchard/orchid
@@Crowcaller I struggled with it for a long time until I worked with actual orchids. It's kind of an odd word, at least it was for me. (Did you know they thrive as a shower plant. The reason they're so hard to take care of is because they shouldn't be potted in soil. Their little roots should be hanging out everywhere. Which also means you likely wouldn't find fields of them. They typically grow on trees. So an orchard of orchids actually makes more sense than a field of 'em.) Also I really did mean it as a compliment, in case the tone off otherwise.
Nah its fine, I'm just like. How did I consistently mispronounce orchid like that. I slip up words often, but to do it every time is silly. I'm surprised I did it 😅
IMO, making Peris more of character just makes sense. It’s wild that the book starts with this introduction of this character who is portrayed as the most important person in the main characters life yet they kinda disappear from the narrative entirely. And not because of some trauma but just because Tally stops caring about him for no reason
Okay but like truly WILD that they made tally an even MORE unsympathetic main character cuz ima be so real I liked her better when she was just a realistically selfish and insecure person who realized she hurt people and felt bad. Uglies and this series in general is so FUNNY to think about in retrospect cuz I read these when I was like ten years old and I distinctly remember it having ~so much cool nuance~ but like. For a ten year old LOL I made the mistake of trying to reread it in my 20s and like you’ve pointed out it was absurdly ham fisted but dang it’s absurd that the movie somehow is even more obvious like literally how. Truly hilarious that they made a movie about a book that says “dystopia society thinks people are too dumb to understand nuance” by taking the one bit of nuance aka Tally being an unlikeable MC and making her just. Likeable. The ATLA adaptation parallels were spot on cuz it’s exactly what I thought of too like how dumb do these marketing teams think teens are?
Considering how movie media tends to lag a decade behind society in regard to cultural progression, a movie delayed by however many years before finally releasing feeling antiquated isn't a surprise, I guess
Great video!! I remember reading your review of Uglies a while ago and feeling so validated for thinking that Tally/Shay made so much more sense… I’d originally read it right after reading Afterworlds, which made the prospect of a wlw romance much more “actually possible” to me, so I was devastated when David showed with all of his bland love interest flair.
I hadn't read the books but was aware there was a love triangle so when Shay showed up I was like oh that's cool, they gender swapped one of them! Only seems fair, 1 guy and 1 girl love interest... I was so disappointed when that other bland guy whose name I can't remember showed up
21:13 that's also a stupid change (and I haven't read the books) because, from your description of it, that sounds like it's meant to mimic the chyrsalis stage of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, which is an obvious (if cliché) metaphor.
It was supposed to come out a month ago... we spent like a week trying to get the system to learn we were being Fair Use... in the end the claim expired
Love your videos! I've just binged so many in a row 😂 Unrelated, but I feel like your life would be so much easier with a USB teleprompter - you seem to have so many notes to keep track of! It doesn't make a difference to the viewing experience for us, but I feel like it would make the filming process way smoother for you (Sorry for the unsolicited suggestion, perhaps you've already given this thought and didn't want to use one! I just thought if suggest it in case you hadn't considered it before!)
Thanks for sharing another fantastic video! Idk this story at all so I appreciate your summary and interpretations. The idea of the enforced race-changing/whitewashing that you mention at 7:30 ish reminds me of this Chilean stop motion movie called The Wolf House, in which that is a huge theme.
Love the new trend of Hollywood adapting books 20+ years too late so they feel dated and cliché! Adapt books that are popular and well liked now? Nahhhhhhhh.
I don't really like the books that much, I stopped halfway through the second one, I could not take one more second of reading about Tally, but I do like the idea of it, the plot is interisting and I liked the first book enough so I find impressive how they were able do dumb down a story that was already pretty dumb. It was disappointing (but never surprising) they didn't fix the bad love triangle, from the time I read the first book I thought Shay should be one of Tally's love interest (Tally be falling in love with any man she sees and it's so boring), and like the movie somehow made their relationship shallower and gayer at the same time, taking away Shay's feelings for David is a net good but they don't replace it with anything, don't make her be in love with Tally so the tension in their relationship is just awkward. The pacing was weird, like yeah the book is a little too slow with the endless hoverboarding but like the passage of time in the movie was insane, the entirety of Shay and Tally's relationship is a montage with 5 sentences in between, Tally's awful time traveling the wilderness alone happen in a minute, the two days of being with the Smoke, this could have been 2 hours, more talking scenes to stablish relationships would be great. I'm gonna say tho yassified Shay is the best part of this movie to me, the girl playing her did a great job there 10/10 acting. The movie is bad but like I would totally watch a second one if they made it.
I read this series when i was around 12, I remember loving it and it kind of waking me up to my own desire to be "perfect and beautiful" it was a great way to get kids my age to start thinking about this stuff on a deeper more personal level. As a 32 year old woman now, the movie was SUCH a disappointment. I wondered if anyone who worked on this actually understood what was trying to be said.
The lack of respect for viewers is a plague on media these days. Have you seen the video essay on netflix slop, and how they dumb everything down so people don't actually have to watch and pay attention to understand what's going on. (It increases watch time! And as far as netflix is concerned that's all that matters. Not making good content)
What. Huh?? I avoided watching any reviews bc I was working on my own, but. Who is saying that unironically. Hello. Like I'm here to point out "actually this dystopia is extremely utopian compared to most, post scarcity post capitalism most people live long happy lives" but the price is the brain damage guys. Guys. Maybe the process of conformity and loss of self is too big a price because those in this homogenous world aren't really Living, they aren't able to be a Self. Guys. They're pretty so no one thinks too hard about- GUYS!! THE OPPRESSION!
I was the right age when these books were at their most popular. They were literally always checked out at my school library, so I thought they were like…a book about high school cliques and beauty standards. I was about half right, but I didn’t anticipate all the hover boarding.
At least we got a scott westerfeld cameo with him being the older guy with the wheelbarrow in the smoke intro The shirtless dudes are a whole azz mood 😂😂 Also wasn't this movie filmed and like shelved since 2019 or something 😂
I bought Uglies when I was like twelve and for some reason my book had several random blank pages in the middle of it, I've never seen a misprint like that. Anyhow, the book was so bad and the misprint was so annoying that I DNF it on a time of my life where I was capable of reading the worst written fanfic ever and be mesmerized by it. I don't even know where that book is rn, I couldn't donate it because of the misprint so idk what I did with it
What I hate about all these other YA dystopians is honestly how they make people forget how great the Hunger Games was. I also hate when people make fun of YA and teen books (not like you I mean the trolls online) like you weren't like that as a kid and also what do you get out of mocking children? It's important to have media literacy and understand media criticism but it's also okay to just read an escapist book if you want. That being said children and teens deserve great books and great movies too.
I'm glad you made this video but I wish you wouldn't use the "Lost in Adaptation" name. It kinda feels like you're riding on the coattails of other people.
It's kinda one of those generic sounding puns on "lost in translation" that I didn't know was claimed by anyone else specific. Evidently it is, so I changed it this morning when someone else expressed the same thing (you commented after it was changed, so I'm unsure... did the title change not roll out everywhere? Is it still displaying as lost in adaptation for you? It shouldn't! If it is, it must be UA-cam not updating properly... 🤔)
But yes, I basically was struggling to come up with a title and put that in instead of BOOK VS MOVIE bc it sounded better, but I don't want people to think I'm cribbing off someone else and changed it
it's orchid, not orchard - i say this because it's mentioned that there's no trees, but an orchard IS trees, so the difference is significant orchids are the little flowers you find at the grocery store, often dyed colors like bright purple or blue, and they have big green leaves
I assume I just mispoke, because I very much know the difference and my text has the correct word in place. I have a knack for weird mispronunciation and slips of the tongue, which is pretty contrary to my apparent job speaking all the time
The first 500 people to use my link skl.sh/crowcaller10241 will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare premium!
Thank you everyone! This got heavily delayed but I'm glad I can finally share it
Skyshade is out!
"The moment his neck is snapped is one of the few times we get a close look at one of the hunks" has to be one of the funniest sentences to have ever be uttered.
It was maybe my main takeaway from the movie tbh
" no one is ugly when they laugh, everyone is so much lovelier when you befriend them" is such a cute quote.
Disappointed but not surprised that the Specials in the movie are just generic hot people who look sort of annoyed all the time instead of trying to go for an uncanny-valley-on-purpose angle like they're more or less described in the books.
Yes!!! I remember reading that they all looked really creepy/predatory looking with sharp angles and teeth it lowkey freaked me out reading about them
Trying so hard to turn my brain off when Tally's like "it's okay, I'm strong and I know who I am now" regarding the surgery because THAT'S NOT HOW YOUR BRAIN WORKS, TALLY.
Like I'm already turning my brain off regarding the surgery anyway - since I don't really get how lesions only on the frontal cortex would make people just like mindless and non-confrontational like at the very least, you still have your limbic system and temporal lobe to consider - so Tally being like "um actually, brain damage won't affect me because I'm different" is the last damn straw.
Yeah it just. Never made sense to me? Like, although I don't have a brain lesion I do have an acquired brain injury and the brain damage described just is not my experience? Especially unmedicated, impulse control is really hard as well as my temper, and me being stressed just makes it all worse. It would take a lot more brain damage to override the temper thing. If anything, my symptoms make me much more confrontational.
"it's okay, you can cut out my eyeballs, i'm STRONG and i'll know how to see anyways"
on one hand the placebo effect is pretty freakin magic. On the other hand it isn't that magic you can't willpower away brain damage
@@ariannay766it is, people's will definitely plays into some things. But it doesn't overcome literal damage.
“ill got to bat for it but i wouldnt take a bullet” is such a good way to express it!!
I know they get brain brained too but man, I wonder if there’s any whiplash for the people who DONT get a lot of changes at 16 and they sit there questioning their whole upbringing of getting called ugly like “wait a fucking second…”
Probably not, sadly; the brainwashing and the brain lesions are meant to make them all act the same.
This movie really proves that cashgrabs can make a movie as shallow as a puddle even when the source material was not THAT far away to begin with
14:38 i'm so glad you mentioned this bc while i was watching the movie, with no prior knowledge of the book whatsoever, i kept saying that tally and shay were giving off crazy amounts of lesbionic energy. the way they said "you have me forever. you made me brave enough to reach for what i wanted. i want you here. i want you with me" like i was ?????????!!!!!!!
Theory regarding The Hunks: some higher-up at some point in production pitched a notion along the lines of "this movie needs more scenes with hot men in it, to appeal more to the target teenage girl audience!" thus, The Hunks were conceived (not literally). However, some time after filming of that scene had finished, one of two things likely occurred:
A) Someone else higher-up went "oh my god, we can't have this much focus on half-naked men in this movie aimed at a teenage girl audience, it's inappropriate!"
or,
B) while editing that scene together, the filmmakers inevitably came to the realisation that having these two unnamed + inexplicably shirtless men just _standing there_ silently during what is supposed to be a tense scene was... well, probably _weird_ and _unnecessary,_ and maybe contributed to the scene as a whole feeling a bit _silly_ or even actively confusing.
Whatever the cause, the decision was made to substantially cut The Hunks' screen time, at least as much as was possible without necessitating a reshoot of the scene. Naturally, this had the opposite of the intended effect, making what little presence The Hunks still had feel even more bizarre.
It is fascinating when circumstances delay a film to the point of getting slapped across the face with a different time period. This was always going to be the sort of Divergent-esque adaptation Uglies would get but it feels so strange having this be the example of a YA dystopia film in the 2020s so far
Don't forget we got that weird Hunger Games prequel movie last year!
8:50 yeah I agree with you here, the actors are already very good looking, for their "pretty" version they just slapped some filters and makeup. It would have been more inpactful if they hired average looking actors and then replaced them with good looking ones, or just not put makeup on the actors when they are "uglies"
Wow, Dominic Noble is looking different these days! Jokes aside this is a great video!
lmao I was thinking the same thing!! so how do we make a crossover episode happen???
@@darkdreamer871 wow, I love the pan colors Rebel Alliance logo!
Hello beautiful crows :P
"exit, pursued by hunk" had me cackling
when the world needed them most, they returned
Oh actually I watched a video (I believe it was Pillar of Garbage’s video on slop) that I think has some insight on why media is getting ‘dumber’! Netflix is making what he referred to as slop, which for Uglies as Avatar are shallower retellings, because they *don’t* expect you to pay attention. They are making “2nd screen” content with the assumption it will be playing in the background while your phone is your primary screen. So basically they double up any visual information with dialogue so you don’t miss anything if you aren’t actively watching, hit each beat multiple times, and otherwise try to be pleasant background noise.
It seems a bit foolish to me to turn movies into 2nd screen content, as Netflix also produces a bunch of reality TV now and that is the OG 2nd screen programming. But a LOT of the live action Avatar TLA makes sense if you filter it through being made to not be your primary screen. There are a few flashy action scenes to catch your interest, and otherwise there is little you would miss by looking away. Since you aren’t paying attention they don’t want you to think Aang is bratty, so they make him a weird not-quite-a-kid so you can’t miss the scene of growth. He says what his personality is like so you can’t miss the scene of him playing with other kids before he got trapped. Same with Sokka’s misogyny, what if you were watching a TikTok and missed Suki straightening him out? The silliness is toned down and the general tone is more even, without as much difference between the high and low energy moments.
I agree there are probably multiple reasons things come out the way they do, but thinking about if a piece of media was planned to even be on your PRIMARY SCREEN has made the tendencies of made-for-streaming make a bit more sense to me!
At least they included the hoverboard action sequences.
I was all over my friend who actually watched this I was like text me Every Time they hoverboard hahaha the only thing here that matters (edit: careful, hunkless angles now matters to me sorry still watching the video should have waited)
I think this is one of those books that did not need a movie, and that's from someone who deeply loved these books in middle school and I'd honestly call them a foundational piece of media for my taste. They were my first introduction to Dystopia which became my favorite genera, and will always hold a special place in my heart despite their flaws. But I think one of their strengths was that you had to imagine exactly what the Pretties looked like for you. I also loved that Talley messed up all the time! It was way more realistic for a teenager who grew up in this society, and I feel like Uglies strength was that it actually had societal critique, which got dulled down as YA Dystopia became more and more popular until Divergent just murdered the genera lol
Uglies walked so Hunger Games could run, but Uglies was never going to be the media power house that Hunger Games is
I’ve always said the very act of turning these books into a movie would undermine the message it’s trying to send. A cartoon or anime could have been kinda cool though
Two videos covering UGLIES? You spoil us, Crow!
Your good relationship with your looks shines through your confidence and outfits in every video and I meant to comment it some day, Uglies vid in which you go on explaining your POV is probably good time. I love your outfits, so creative!
I was watching your vids yesterday thinking "I hope we get another upload soon"
Thoughtful review
Your talk on the sanitization of YA fiction was so interesting. I agree that it feels like a board room decision, because TikTok births a dozen, NYT bestselling, Colleen Hoover-esque novels a day romanticizing abuse
She's also working on Skyshade! (Lightlark #3)
I feel like a fundamental flaw of an adaptation of this book is its refusal to address racism other than “I can’t believe people used to be racist”, which makes tackling the subject in any adaptation (made in yknow. Current society) extremely difficult as it’s not woven into the story. Not sure if I’m glad the movie didn’t tackle it or not, because I know it would have been done poorly, but I always pondered how an adaptation would have to work within the framework that the book set in that regard.
Also - even when I read this book as a 10 year old, I thought the name Tally Youngblood was unfathomably cringe. That was certainly a Choice Mr. Westerfeld
yeah idk that it would've been done well, but at the same time, it's not like you (general you) can talk substantially about critiquing beauty standards without unpacking some forms of racism/colorism
How is the name Tally Youngblood "unfathomably cringe"?
Yes it literally would be justified to whitewash here if you make it a point that they litereally whitewash
@@serenitymoon825 Tally: a count, as of interchangeable commodities. Youngblood: youth, teenager; sometimes a newcomer with new ideas.
I wish Crowcaller had a podcast. With extra crow sounds as background noise
i was absolutely heartbroken that they didn't include more of tally's reactions to like wooden tables and old people. like im sorry, but how could anyone cut out the line about how they're eating off of the corpses of murdered trees (i dont remember the exact wording)😂😂not only is it hilarious, it's also like the SUCH AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE STORY.
Yep ageism is literally an issue about beautystandards
"I look like me and thats the only standard that matters to me"
I love that 🎉
Face blind aces unite! Didn't think I'd see someone else like me but you're here and you're awesome
After your video on the book series a year ago, I went to read the first book again after many many years. That was both a nostalgic and disappointing experience, and I didn't read the rest of the books. So it was completely unexpected to me that a movie would be released at the present time, it really should have stayed in the past!
Yeah, I think I had a similar experience when I reread it for that video, which is why it was a bit different style of review than I normally do. It was very nostalgic but disappointing, not extremely good or bad but like. Alright enough. Not enough for me to have much of a radical opinion. Revisiting it for the movie though at least let me appreciate it having some themes (especially in comparison to the film lacking them)
Wow I’m early. Seeing the movie being talked about and seeing it recommended on Netflix gave me flashbacks to watching your review of the series. I’m excited to hear your takes on it an a more in depth review!
I don't think that making changes to make Tally a more likeable protagonist is inherently a bad idea - her complete lack of redeeming qualities is one of the reasons I dropped off the series as a teen myself. That being said, it really loses something for not having the protagonist be fully indoctrinated into the system and having her worldview so violently shattered by the Smoke - I think changing the series to have more of a central focus on Tally's struggle to unlearn that indoctrination could have made for a much more compelling film narrative.
I also agree that the films really missed out on not cementing Tally's relationship with Shay as romantic - I think, as well as their relationship already being the core focus of the series, it could have led to an interesting secondary theme about being gay in a society that appears to be violently cisnormative and heteronormative. The reveal that Shay has been made a pretty, for example, could have been made to hit harder by the fact that Shay is, essentially, force-feminised - any whisper of gender non-conformity is removed. Then you also have her sexuality and relationship with Tally as a potential anchoring point to help her break out of her conditioning in the hypothetical sequels, as well as a pivot point for Tally to also question her own relationship with the system. It also would have made Tally maintaining her scar as a less silly detail, making it a physical representation of the fact that no amount of brainwashing can fully rewrite her sexuality or remove her love for Shay or something.
Funny thing is, the society coming off as violently cisnormative and heteronormative is probably an accident; Scott Westerfeld was actually trying to write the books so that it WOULDN'T come off that way, since the books are set 200+ years in the future and most knowledge of the hows/whys of old prejudice would be forgotten.
I suppose in that sense it's quite similar to the way the society in the books has "solved" racism by making everyone the same (white) skin tone - when you have a sexual binary of "pretty" with little room for variation that relies heavily on conventional gendered beauty standards (and that participants have no say over), and a high-control pipeline from littlie->ugly->pretty->parent, you have "solved" homophobia and transphobia by eliminating gay and trans people entirely.
@@flop47 Plus it's a post-apocalyptic world where a lot of the old history is lost; chances are they're not gonna have the same exact baggage about genders and sexualities that we have rn
Oh I’ve been looking FORWARD to this video, this movie did the source material so dirty (and that’s saying something bc the source material wasn’t very good to begin with) and the discourse about it has been insane
I've been waiting for this video since I heard the movie existed!!!
tbh i actually liked this series as a kid largely for tally, i felt like a lot of YA dystopian novels i read at the time were less engaging to me because the protagonists rarely were as significantly flawed as she was. tally being very judgemental due to her upbringing feels very real to me
I was so excited when i saw that you posted a new video
“one of those bad miracles” so a plague?
Disaster, catastrophe, etc.
NOPE REFERENCE!!!!!
A calamity, if you will :V
I learned from Artemis Fowl, I walked into this movie with no expectations
I don't know why but you saying orchid as Orchard is v endearing.
I don't know how I did this and am learning in the comments I in fact did. I very much know the difference and my script uses the right word, I am just very prone to weird pronunciation which I can't really explain. Part of it is often that I live in the UK and pick up English pronunciation but just... blend it unconsciously into my American accent, resulting in a puzzle box of sounds. But I'm not sure I can blame the English for orchard/orchid
@@Crowcaller I struggled with it for a long time until I worked with actual orchids. It's kind of an odd word, at least it was for me. (Did you know they thrive as a shower plant. The reason they're so hard to take care of is because they shouldn't be potted in soil. Their little roots should be hanging out everywhere. Which also means you likely wouldn't find fields of them. They typically grow on trees. So an orchard of orchids actually makes more sense than a field of 'em.) Also I really did mean it as a compliment, in case the tone off otherwise.
Nah its fine, I'm just like. How did I consistently mispronounce orchid like that. I slip up words often, but to do it every time is silly. I'm surprised I did it 😅
"There aren't any trees down there, just the orchards" turned it into a really fun sentence at least!
I’ve been looking forward to this video since I learned they were making an Uglies movie :D Great work CC
IMO, making Peris more of character just makes sense. It’s wild that the book starts with this introduction of this character who is portrayed as the most important person in the main characters life yet they kinda disappear from the narrative entirely. And not because of some trauma but just because Tally stops caring about him for no reason
This was a really good video! Very satisfying as someone who has issues with every movie adaptation of books i like lol. Good stuff.
Any good adaptation recommendations? 😂 I remember being so excited for six of crows and then we got what we got.
So excited tp hear your review!!! I rewatched your uglies video when all the other reviews came out ❤
Okay but like truly WILD that they made tally an even MORE unsympathetic main character cuz ima be so real I liked her better when she was just a realistically selfish and insecure person who realized she hurt people and felt bad. Uglies and this series in general is so FUNNY to think about in retrospect cuz I read these when I was like ten years old and I distinctly remember it having ~so much cool nuance~ but like. For a ten year old LOL I made the mistake of trying to reread it in my 20s and like you’ve pointed out it was absurdly ham fisted but dang it’s absurd that the movie somehow is even more obvious like literally how. Truly hilarious that they made a movie about a book that says “dystopia society thinks people are too dumb to understand nuance” by taking the one bit of nuance aka Tally being an unlikeable MC and making her just. Likeable. The ATLA adaptation parallels were spot on cuz it’s exactly what I thought of too like how dumb do these marketing teams think teens are?
Considering how movie media tends to lag a decade behind society in regard to cultural progression, a movie delayed by however many years before finally releasing feeling antiquated isn't a surprise, I guess
Great video!! I remember reading your review of Uglies a while ago and feeling so validated for thinking that Tally/Shay made so much more sense… I’d originally read it right after reading Afterworlds, which made the prospect of a wlw romance much more “actually possible” to me, so I was devastated when David showed with all of his bland love interest flair.
"The glass cases of medical malpractice" lol
I hadn't read the books but was aware there was a love triangle so when Shay showed up I was like oh that's cool, they gender swapped one of them! Only seems fair, 1 guy and 1 girl love interest...
I was so disappointed when that other bland guy whose name I can't remember showed up
Hopefully the leviathan anime on Netflix goes beter
I love your content ❤
21:13 that's also a stupid change (and I haven't read the books) because, from your description of it, that sounds like it's meant to mimic the chyrsalis stage of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, which is an obvious (if cliché) metaphor.
I haven't read it since a kid but i remember the surgery was explained like, they shave your skin off and smash your bones
Yeah, it is basically a goo vat where you get entirely melted and remade, everything fresh
soooo excited for this video!!
As soon as I saw this movie was made, I knew this video was coming
It was supposed to come out a month ago... we spent like a week trying to get the system to learn we were being Fair Use... in the end the claim expired
Please never call us "gamers" again, that scared me
I'm going to call you epic gamers next and you're going to learn to accept it
Love your videos! I've just binged so many in a row 😂
Unrelated, but I feel like your life would be so much easier with a USB teleprompter - you seem to have so many notes to keep track of! It doesn't make a difference to the viewing experience for us, but I feel like it would make the filming process way smoother for you
(Sorry for the unsolicited suggestion, perhaps you've already given this thought and didn't want to use one! I just thought if suggest it in case you hadn't considered it before!)
I hate to say it, but I think they got the standing up boxes from Doctor Who because that is how they make cybermen.
babe wake up new crow caller video just dropped
41:23 precure mentioned lessgooooooooo loll
Exit left pursued by hunk made me cry send help
The most important appearance in this movie was SpagBol let’s be real
Thanks for sharing another fantastic video! Idk this story at all so I appreciate your summary and interpretations. The idea of the enforced race-changing/whitewashing that you mention at 7:30 ish reminds me of this Chilean stop motion movie called The Wolf House, in which that is a huge theme.
Face blind asexual squad
Face blind but pan/bi neurodivergent
🤜🤛
Here!
Love the new trend of Hollywood adapting books 20+ years too late so they feel dated and cliché! Adapt books that are popular and well liked now? Nahhhhhhhh.
Oh you perfect nameless bros...we could all be like them 🙌🙌 toned, around? I have a lot of thinking to do
Have to sleep but can’t wait :)
i've been waiting for this since i heard the movie came out!!!
I don't really like the books that much, I stopped halfway through the second one, I could not take one more second of reading about Tally, but I do like the idea of it, the plot is interisting and I liked the first book enough so I find impressive how they were able do dumb down a story that was already pretty dumb.
It was disappointing (but never surprising) they didn't fix the bad love triangle, from the time I read the first book I thought Shay should be one of Tally's love interest (Tally be falling in love with any man she sees and it's so boring), and like the movie somehow made their relationship shallower and gayer at the same time, taking away Shay's feelings for David is a net good but they don't replace it with anything, don't make her be in love with Tally so the tension in their relationship is just awkward.
The pacing was weird, like yeah the book is a little too slow with the endless hoverboarding but like the passage of time in the movie was insane, the entirety of Shay and Tally's relationship is a montage with 5 sentences in between, Tally's awful time traveling the wilderness alone happen in a minute, the two days of being with the Smoke, this could have been 2 hours, more talking scenes to stablish relationships would be great.
I'm gonna say tho yassified Shay is the best part of this movie to me, the girl playing her did a great job there 10/10 acting.
The movie is bad but like I would totally watch a second one if they made it.
I read this series when i was around 12, I remember loving it and it kind of waking me up to my own desire to be "perfect and beautiful" it was a great way to get kids my age to start thinking about this stuff on a deeper more personal level. As a 32 year old woman now, the movie was SUCH a disappointment. I wondered if anyone who worked on this actually understood what was trying to be said.
I really didn't mind the movie, but it's been a very long time since I was reading the books in middle school. Eager to see your thoughts!
thank you for the video!!! are we getting a lightlark 3 vid?? i’ve been checking your page religiously for an update lol
Yeah! It's underway, I've been chipping away almost daily but it'll be a long one. Really really aiming for it to be out before xmas
fantastic video as always crow but i'm sorry i can't lie you calling orchids (oar-kids) "orchards" multiple times really threw me off 😭😭
I DONT KNOW HOW I DID THIS I PROMISE I KNOW WHAT ORCHIDS ARE......
I am so excited to watch this, but if you'll permit my selfish tangent: do you have plans to do Skyshade? Please, I need your wit and snark!
Of course I am!! I'm midway through my review text rn. It's. Oh mannnnnnn... it's so bad
@Crowcaller You are a blessing, a saint, a purveyor of the finest yaps. That you do this for us, I am forever grateful 🙏
@@CrowcallerEntertainingly Bad, or Bad Bad?
#ReleaseTheHunkCut
Cowards!!!
Oh Mata Nui we finally did it. Finally got this video out! Praise be to the copywrite claim gods!
The lack of respect for viewers is a plague on media these days. Have you seen the video essay on netflix slop, and how they dumb everything down so people don't actually have to watch and pay attention to understand what's going on. (It increases watch time! And as far as netflix is concerned that's all that matters. Not making good content)
the movie making the messaging feel like theyre looking at the camera and going :) brains are good and love yourself yippee
What. Huh?? I avoided watching any reviews bc I was working on my own, but. Who is saying that unironically. Hello. Like I'm here to point out "actually this dystopia is extremely utopian compared to most, post scarcity post capitalism most people live long happy lives" but the price is the brain damage guys. Guys. Maybe the process of conformity and loss of self is too big a price because those in this homogenous world aren't really Living, they aren't able to be a Self. Guys. They're pretty so no one thinks too hard about- GUYS!! THE OPPRESSION!
@@Crowcaller methinks those commenters are running on "Ignorance is Bliss" :v
I was the right age when these books were at their most popular. They were literally always checked out at my school library, so I thought they were like…a book about high school cliques and beauty standards. I was about half right, but I didn’t anticipate all the hover boarding.
The premise is remarkably similar to an episode of the twilight zone from the 60s😊
I guess watching this twice would be a better use of 100 minutes.
Or maybe this + Crow's review of the Uglies books
impostors?? among us????
At least we got a scott westerfeld cameo with him being the older guy with the wheelbarrow in the smoke intro
The shirtless dudes are a whole azz mood 😂😂
Also wasn't this movie filmed and like shelved since 2019 or something 😂
The moment I saw the trailer I thought of you
Love the vid. Just fyi the word orchid is pronounced or-kid ❤
I knowwwww
I don't know how I pulled that flub off and said it writing every time
I bought Uglies when I was like twelve and for some reason my book had several random blank pages in the middle of it, I've never seen a misprint like that. Anyhow, the book was so bad and the misprint was so annoying that I DNF it on a time of my life where I was capable of reading the worst written fanfic ever and be mesmerized by it. I don't even know where that book is rn, I couldn't donate it because of the misprint so idk what I did with it
31:39 that's how I see it tbh especially as a minority
"Lost In Adaptation" is a pretty (😌) good title
Sadly it's already taken by someone who's been doing this a LOT longer, Dominic Noble.
What I hate about all these other YA dystopians is honestly how they make people forget how great the Hunger Games was. I also hate when people make fun of YA and teen books (not like you I mean the trolls online) like you weren't like that as a kid and also what do you get out of mocking children? It's important to have media literacy and understand media criticism but it's also okay to just read an escapist book if you want. That being said children and teens deserve great books and great movies too.
Why do you pronounce orchids like orchards
A momentary lapse of sanity
Can you please review the other books? If you have disregard my comment.
I did a video where I didn't go all that in depth on them but did cover them
I'm glad you made this video but I wish you wouldn't use the "Lost in Adaptation" name. It kinda feels like you're riding on the coattails of other people.
It's kinda one of those generic sounding puns on "lost in translation" that I didn't know was claimed by anyone else specific. Evidently it is, so I changed it this morning when someone else expressed the same thing (you commented after it was changed, so I'm unsure... did the title change not roll out everywhere? Is it still displaying as lost in adaptation for you? It shouldn't! If it is, it must be UA-cam not updating properly... 🤔)
But yes, I basically was struggling to come up with a title and put that in instead of BOOK VS MOVIE bc it sounded better, but I don't want people to think I'm cribbing off someone else and changed it
Gamers
Yes. Gamers.
it's orchid, not orchard - i say this because it's mentioned that there's no trees, but an orchard IS trees, so the difference is significant
orchids are the little flowers you find at the grocery store, often dyed colors like bright purple or blue, and they have big green leaves
also yes! i'm asexual and faceblind toooooo
it's an interesting experience for sure
I assume I just mispoke, because I very much know the difference and my text has the correct word in place. I have a knack for weird mispronunciation and slips of the tongue, which is pretty contrary to my apparent job speaking all the time
So do we have to read another book to figure out how they have enough energy to do all of this?
Is anyone smart enough to provide and maintain the energy source or any other important work or do robots do it all?
So lobotomies?
In the dystopian future, we will not use safety equipment or security guards. No, seriously, why is this system in place?
So no one has died during surgery?
Why wait so long to introduce the military in a dystopia?
Special Circumstances is the most USSR name for anything ever.
No it isn't?