Mickey 17 is the newest film from acclaimed South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, with Robert Pattinson as the lead character, Mickey Barnes. On a spaceship expedition to colonize the snowy planet of Niflheim, Mickey is brought on as the crew’s “Expendable”, which is a nice way of saying that with cloning technology, he is reprinted and disposable to the mission. Mickey 17 is an interesting commentary on class structures and ethics, something the film is not remotely subtle about. Once again, Joon-ho uses the big screen to take shots at social injustices and differences.
Robert Pattinson is always a pleasure to watch, especially in Mickey 17
What made this film intriguing was the possibility of seeing multiple Mickeys and, by extension, numerous versions of Pattinson on screen. Pattinson’s choice of accent for Mickey was something I never could have perceived him as doing, but it brought an air of freshness to the character. The innocent and submissive attitude of Mickey 17 (the 17th reprinting of Mickey’s body) is so well contrasted against Mickey 18, who is much more brash and aggressive. Although he’s, in a way, a dummy, you can’t help but love Mickey and hope for the best for him.
Kickstarting his troubles is a failed macaron business, financed by a considerable loan taken from a loan shark out for blood. His choice to become an Expendable is pressured and necessary for survival. This “instinct” to stay alive is helpful in his career as an Expendable, as he has to endure several different awful types of exposure to help “further” the mission. The only true miss was not seeing a few other variations of Mickey, which Pattinson would have played to perfection.
The social commentary in Joon-ho’s film is one of the standouts
If you’ve seen some of Bong Joon-ho’s other works, you’ll know he’s not shy about using his films to express his dissatisfaction with some of the social structures in our world. Snowpiercer and Parasite were heavy on their messages, and Mickey 17 keeps that tradition alive. The need to advance technology and medicine to try and self-insert themselves into the history books is reminiscent of themes explored in Snowpiercer, just not as well executed.
Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) is a twice-failed politician who decides to embark on the entire endeavor to conquer a new land and start a “new era” of superiority. With his wife Ylfa (Toni Collette) in his ear literally and figuratively, he’s a reactionary figure who knows very little but sadly commands a lot. With a cultish following, including a man dressed as a pigeon for their ridiculous and appropriately selected mascot, the followers of Marshall are as brain-dead as him. The ranking of the individual determines food rations and quality of life within the ship, placing Mickey toward the bottom. When an invitation to dine with Marshall in his luxurious quarters arrives, it initially seems like a good opportunity for Mickey. Still, it is yet another experimentation and abuse of the Expendable.
The topic of ethics is explored, noting how the potential for multiples would be an abomination against humanity. There’s a scene where they explore this when one of the creators of the cloning technology uses it to make multiples of himself and commit crimes against the homeless. Due to this situation, cloning is banned on Earth, which is how and why Marshall decides to take the machine into space.
Aside from that, even though there are two Mickeys on screen, Mickey 17 drops the ball on giving us more regarding the dilemmas that the situation would present. This had the potential for Joon-ho to provide a statement on par with his past works, but it’s glossed over in the end.
The supporting cast in Mickey 17 is great, except for Mark Ruffalo’s Kenneth Marshall
Steven Yeun plays Timo, who convinced Mickey to join the failed macaron business. Somehow, Timo manages to become a pilot for the mission, which puts extra strain on Mickey to board the ship and avoid being murdered for their loans. After a while on the ship, Timo starts dealing out pure and uncut “Oxy” and even turns on Mickey when the loan shark somehow manages to get someone caught up with them millions of miles away from Earth.
Aside from Pattinson, Naomi Ackie’s performance as Nasha, his love interest, had to be the best. As a soldier/officer, Nasha is a few rungs up the ladder from Mickey, but that doesn’t detract from her attraction to him and her compassion for others. When the “Creepers,” a native species of Niflheim, are found aboard the ship and about to be tortured, her intelligence and empathy save the lives of everyone in the end.
Mark Ruffalo was easily the worst part of the movie, and not in the sense that he was the true villain. Every scene with him was painful, especially when the camera was close-up on the awful veneers they used for his makeup. Although it keeps being refuted, it’s clear the character was meant to mock real-world politicians with their ridiculous antics and unquestionable followers. Except, it lacks any real bite and feels more like a drawn-out skit from a variety comedy show that was inserted into a serious production. If anything, it would have been much better to put the focus on Ylfa, who was a hundred times more interesting, and a better performance from Collette over Ruffalo.
Final thoughts on Mickey 17
Mickey 17 was longer than it should have been and had the potential to dive into some interesting concepts and subjects. Even though it didn’t, there was still much to love about this film, mostly Robert Pattinson. Another great entry from Bong Joon-ho is to be expected at this point, and maybe, hopefully, he will collaborate with Pattinson again.
Mickey 17 is now in theaters! Have you seen the trailer for it yet? Did you read the novel it was based on, Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton? Let us know on social media @mycosmiccircus or @TheCosmicCircus.com on Bluesky!
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