The Reel Review
Set in the year 2054, a disposable cloned human known as an expendable leads an unlikely revolt on a soon-to-be-colonized ice planet after encountering another 3D-printed version of himself, where under the authoritarian regime, “multiples” are not allowed. Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Mark Ruffalo and Toni Colette star in this satirical sci-fi/comedy from Oscar-winning director Bong Joon Ho (Parasite).
Mickey 17 is a wildly creative, swing-for-the-fences satire, much in the same vein as 1997’s The Fifth Element. Sometimes it works, other times it does not. Pattinson is solid as the initially clueless Mickey, an expendable who is re-printed with his life’s memories re-installed after repeatedly dying during such colonization experiments as creating a vaccine to protect people from the ice planet’s pathogens. Naomi Ackie (Blink Twice, I Wanna Dance with Somebody) is his girlfriend, with Ruffalo and Collette as the villainous, Trump-like fascist and his loathsome wife, more concerned with making good TV than in taking care of their people.
While Mickey 17’s daffy absurdist humor is certainly an acquired taste, those with the patience to endure the silliness and some of the more puzzling, throwaway scenes with Colette as the sauce-obsessed wife and Steven Yeun as Mickey’s friend and shuttle pilot Timo will be rewarded with enough chuckles and thought-provoking moments about identity, consciousness and the value of life to make this a strangely entertaining social commentary.
REEL FACTS
• Mickey 17 is an adaptation of Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel “Mickey7*.” Bong Joon Ho says he changed it to 17 to get in 10 more kills of the main character.
• Bong Joon Ho insisted on filming certain key scenes without Robert Pattinson knowing which version of Mickey he was playing until just before shooting, to capture the confusion and existential dread of a clone struggling with his own identity.
• Bong Joon Ho and Steven Yeun (Minari, The Walking Dead), also worked together in 2017’s Okja.
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