Continuing his cinematic exploration of themes of class and inequality, Bong Joon Ho's latest features his signature blend of dark humor and social commentary.
Robert Pattinson plays Mickey, a guy so desperate to escape Earth that he signs up for an interstellar colony in the only position he could get: “Expendable”. The job involves a controversial technology that scans a person's body and mind and is then able to print out exact copies of them, complete with memories. Banned on Earth, the tech is allowed in space because it makes someone like Mickey, well, expendable. He can be sent out on a task that means certain death, and then after he dies, he can be printed out again for another mission.
This job makes Mickey extremely valuable, but it also marks him as the least skilled member of the expedition. Despite this low status, a dweeby personality, and a whiny voice, Mickey manages to score a smokin' hot girlfriend (Naomi Ackie) and to have another hottie (Anamaria Vartolomei) interested in him. Despite the pain of repeated deaths and the terrible food aboard ship, a guy like Mickey could do worse.
Things do get worse when Mickey 17, the seventeenth version of himself, is left for dead in a crevasse, but manages to survive with help from the tardigrade-esque life forms on his new planet. By the time he makes it back to the ship, another copy, Mickey 18, has already been printed, and the trouble starts.
With the sensibility of a young-adult novel, “Mickey 17” explores the usual sci-fi themes. Things on Earth are so crappy that the hoi polloi are desperate to leave and start over somewhere. Of course, they bring with them all the same prejudices and power imbalances that made Earth intolerable. This includes a healthy dose of hypocritical religious fervor, which dictates that “multiples” like Mickeys 17 and 18 are an abomination and must be destroyed. The same dogma dictates that the life forms on the new planet are to be viewed merely as meat, and the young women of the expedition primarily as walking uteruses (uteri?).
I've only seen two other films by Bong Joon Ho. 2013's "Snowpiercer" was a visual spectacle, but I found it hollow, all light and no heat. 2019's "Parasite" on the other hand, is a masterpiece, a dark, funny, social satire. “Mickey 17” falls somewhere in between for me, entertaining enough, but definitely not a classic. The whole production feels like it is aimed at the PG-13 crowd, meaning teens young enough that the movie's themes will feel new. Presumably, teens will find the affected performances by Mark Ruffalo and Robert Pattinson humorous and endearing respectively, rather than just weird and annoying. Teens will presumably find the aliens, who look like water bears (tardigrades) adorable, whereas I found myself making unflattering comparisons to Ewoks. The film's biggest flaw, however, is its length. The quality of the storytelling here simply does not justify a runtime of 2 hours and 17 minutes. It would have been a better film if it were about 30% shorter. I don't want to have to look back and think the same thing about my review, so that's all I will say about “Mickey 17”.
2.5 stars out of 5
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