HHJ Movies: Mickey 17

3/5

On Sunday, March 9, I saw Mickey 17, written and directed by Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho. This is his next feature film after the award-winning Parasite, a film I highly recommend seeing if you haven’t. The film just recently came out and I was looking forward to it. 

This Sci-fi Dark Comedy stars Robert Pattinson, Mark Ruffalo. Toni Collette, Steven Yeun and Naomi Ackie.  Robert Pattinson plays the role of Mickey Barnes, the bumbling protagonist. 

Pattinson puts on an interesting accent for this role, definitely a 180 from his previous role as Bruce Wayne in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, much less serious and more comedic.   

Due to being in debt by the roughest loan sharks imaginable, Barnes and his friend and business partner Timo (Steven Yeun) decide to try and sign up for this new space colonization attempt led by failed politician Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) and his wife Ylfa (Toni Colette). They are traveling to this ice planet called Nifelheim. 

When Mickey decides to join as an expendable, people are surprised he would apply. Barnes did not read the entirety of the application and had no idea what he would be signing up for. 

As an expendable, Barnes is tasked with dying over and over again. For example, he was exposed to the environment of the new planet, acting as a catalyst of making a vaccine, and was also subjected to the many experiments made by the scientists. His whole body is then printed back out with his memories still intact. The job takes a toll on Barnes as he is repeatedly getting questions asked, like ‘what’s it like to die?’ 

The movie mainly follows the seventeenth version of Mickey, hence the title. He survived a fall, and without knowing his status, scientists made another clone of Barnes. Once Mickey 17 finds out, calamity ensues. Pattinson plays two versions of himself, which was pretty impressive. 

Going into the movie, I kind of had high expectations, given it was written and directed by Bong Joon Ho. While Parasite is a five-star movie for me, I also enjoyed his American film debut with 2013’s Snowpiercer. I do also need to delve into more of his Korean films that have reached critical acclaim, like The Host and Memories of a Murder. 

Mickey 17 is not Parasite and is more on par with Snowpiercer. I may prefer Snowpierecer more because Mickey 17 has less compelling characters than those two films. 

The movie is highlighted by the acting performances and the comedy, first and foremost. I’m mostly a fan of dark comedies, so the comedy was right up my alley and the performances by Robert Pattinson, Mark Ruffalo, and Toni Collette kind of carried the movie for me. 

Pattinson as the lead playing two different versions of himself should be very tricky, but he pulls it off for sure. He is truly one of my favorite actors working today. 

Ruffalo’s over the top politician shtick can get a bit much sometimes, but I found it quite hilarious, driven mostly by his fake teeth. Toni Collete’s brilliance as an overbearing wife obsessed with weird and futuristic food, (sauces to be specific,) was very believable too.

The movie also has themes regarding immigration and colonization. Specific scenes in Mickey 17 show that history can repeat itself even on an ice planet.   

Mickey’s love interest Nasha (Naomi Ackie) played her role well, but their relationship didn’t seem that believable. It was more of a love at first sight type deal. They didn’t really have much chemistry and there wasn’t any reason why they were together, not every movie needs a love interest.

Their relationship all kinda dumbly made sense at the end, but I’d rather not spoil a movie that literally just came out last Friday.   

I liked the concept, performances, and comedy, so why, after coming out of the theater, do I sort of feel meh? I guess I was expecting this movie to be great and more serious, in reality, it was just ok and a bit wacky. 

I went into the movie with higher expectations than I should have, but that’s not me saying not to go see it. If you love dark comedies and still have love for former teenage vampire Robert Pattinson, I would consider giving it a watch in theaters.

If not, then I would probably wait until it is available to stream if you’re looking for your sci-fi comedy fix.  That said, I’m still happy I saw it in theaters; I’m all for supporting our local businesses in the age of streaming.