Writer/director Bong Joon Ho (Parasite) is known for making thought-provoking, out-of-the-box films, and his latest venture, Mickey 17, is no different. Based on the 2022 Edward Ashton novel, Mickey 7, the movie follows Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson; The Batman) as he dies over and over again, only to be continuously replicated and brought back to life. However, when Mickey 17 is presumed dead and Mickey 18 is created, things become complicated as 17 suddenly returns. Co-starring Naomi Ackie (Blink Twice), Mark Ruffalo (Avengers: Endgame), and Toni Collette (Hereditary), Mickey 17 is an engaging look at dictatorship and class divides.
Thanks to his friend Timo (Steven Yeun; Minari), Mickey finds himself on the run from a loan shark and ends up leaving Earth on a spaceship as an "expendable." An expendable is the person on board who must do all the lethal work/experiments since he can be "reprinted" once he dies. When Mickey #17 falls into a ravine on the icy planet of Nilfheim, he is presumed dead, so Mickey #18 is printed and has Mickey's memories downloaded into his brain. However, Mickey 17 doesn't die but is saved by creatures called "creepers." When he returns to the spaceship, he discovers that Mickey 18 is alive, creating a big problem as "multiples" are illegal.
Things on Planet Niflheim become even more complicated when colony leader, politician Kenneth Marshall (Ruffalo), kills a baby creeper and takes another one prisoner. This is seen as an act of war, setting off the creepers and causing them to surround the spaceship by the thousands. Of course, the multiple Mickeys are sent out to try to communicate with the leader of the creepers, but Marshall and his wife, Ylfa (Collette), have other plans and want to kill all the creepers with nerve gas. In the end, the creepers make peace with the humans and try to coexist peacefully on the same planet.
Individually, the cast is very strong, but together, they are excellent. Pattinson plays Mickey as a somewhat dim-witted person with a weird kind of New York accent. Ackie is very good as Mickey's girlfriend, who happens to be a member of the colony's security force. Collette is brilliant as the devious and slightly deranged wife of the colony leader, and Ruffalo is a cross between a smarmy televangelist and President Trump. Honestly, besides Mickey (and occasionally Ackie's character, Nasha), the rest of the characters are selfish and unlikable.
The plot, while somewhat different from the novel, has some of the same tonal elements such as despair, anger, and a somber seriousness. Unlike the novel, there are some very funny moments, with a couple of chuckles thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately, the majority of the movie relies on the notion that people are generally stupid and will believe a 3D printer can spit out a new Mickey every few days.
Stupid is the perfect word to describe Mickey 17, as much of the plot is simply nothing more than that. The movie is way too long and boring and Pattinson's accent is annoying almost from the very beginning of the two-hour and twenty-minute runtime. Nothing is redeeming about the Marshalls, their "assistant" Preston (Daniel Henshall; Ghost in the Shell), or Timo.
While I'm sure Joon Ho had a particular political agenda, he may have relied too heavily on that instead of building the subplot of the creepers or developing Mickey's background story. For those who are fans of Snowpiercer (the film, not the television series), you can see some of the flavor of that movie in Mickey 17, but it can't make up for the slow pacing, dumb plot, and ridiculous "alien" creepers.
Grade: D+
