Mickey 17 (2025)
Directed by: Bong Joon Ho
Premise: Based on the novel by Edward Ashton. Set in the future, a spaceship of colonists heads for a distant planet. Mickey (Robert Pattinson) volunteers to be an expendable in which he is sent on suicide missions and then his body is recreated in a lab.
What Works: Mickey 17 was written and directed by Bong Joon Ho who also helmed Parasite, Okja, and Snowpiercer. His films have a specific political point of view and that’s evident throughout Mickey 17. Its political leanings aren’t exactly subtle; Mark Ruffalo plays a politician with a rabid fanbase who wear red baseball caps. He’s leading them to a new world where the passengers will set up a new civilization by wiping out the indigenous creatures. Much like Snowpiercer, Mickey 17 creates a vivid world inside the ship with a whole economy and social structure among the crew. The focus of the story is on a low-level member of the crew who is constantly sent on suicide missions and is resurrected through an organic 3D printer. The filmmakers approach the story and its themes with a great deal of comedy. Mickey 17 has a strong satirical streak and the filmmakers approach the material with a dark sense of the absurd. This comedy enhances the politics, making everything more palatable. Actor Robert Pattinson is in on the joke and he gives a great performance as a shifty and not very bright protagonist. But there is also a resignation and exhaustion in Pattinson’s performance as he’s repeatedly maimed and killed; it’s funny but also humanizing. Pattinson appears in multiple roles as Mickey’s various incarnations and he differentiates them with subtle but effective choices in his gait and voice. In addition to Pattionson and Ruffalo, the rest of the cast is quite good including Toni Collette, Naomi Ackie, Anamaria Vartolomei, and Patsy Ferran. Mickey 17 looks great. Spaceship movies are quite common these days but the level of detail in the sets and the visual texture of the digitally created creatures is impressive. The opening half hour of Mickey 17 is impressively edited. This part of the story is nonlinear and the filmmakers use that organization to their advantage to streamline the exposition.
What Doesn’t: Mickey 17 runs a bit too long especially in the ending. The picture reaches its conclusion and then continues on with coda sequences that are not necessary. They don’t add anything more to the theme or the plot. Instead, these final sequences prolong the conclusion and introduce new ideas that the filmmakers don’t have time to explore. It’s a minor hiccup in what is otherwise a well produced and generally disciplined story.
Bottom Line: Mickey 17 is consistent with Bong Joon Ho’s other science fiction films. It’s well made and satirical but also has a humanist streak that makes it very appealing.
Episode: #1040 (March 23, 2025)