Mickey 17 ★★★
FOLLOWING the success of 2019’s Parasite the anticipation for Bong Joon Ho’s next film has been palpable.
The eclectic social drama won the Oscar for Best Film, was a widespread critical hit and introduced more audiences to the South Korean film-maker.
Mickey 17 is a little disappointing due mainly to the fact it mines much of the same material and themes of inhumanity explored by Joon Ho in his 2013 film Snowpiercer and the television series of the same name.
Both films and the TV series are also science-fiction based which adds to the familiarity of the material.
This criticism doesn’t mean that Mickey 17 is a bad film; it has an interesting premise, is entertaining for most of the running time, contains some nice visuals and features a good performance from Robert Pattinson.
But it just doesn’t have the same impact as Parasite achieved with its handling of social commentary.
Parasite also focused to a degree on the experience in Joon Ho’s own country as well as universally, whereas Mickey 17 keeps its commentary wide.
Granted Mickey 17 has more comedic moments, but the biting edge you are hoping for isn’t there.
In its place you get much broader, farce-like moments from the likes of Mark Ruffalo playing an unhinged, Trump-like billionaire entrepreneur seeking to colonise another planet and Toni Collette playing his manic wife.
The film is based on the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton and set in the year 2054.
Pattinson plays Mickey Barnes, a hopeless bankrupt who, along with friend and business partner Timo, decides a trip to space is the only way to avoid their debts and a vengeful loan shark.
Even at the spaceport Mickey runs into problems. Timo is fine to board a flight to colonise the planet Niflheim because he can pilot a shuttle. But Mickey isn’t much good at anything and is sent to the end of a long line.
The opportunity then arises to join the trip by working as an ‘Expendable’. In his haste Mickey doesn’t even bother to find out what he is signing up for.
It turns out that Expendables are basically lab rats, used to test dangerous situations and dying in the process.
Technology banned on Earth is then used to clone the dead body and restore its memory so the Expendable can be used over and over again.
On Niflheim, Mickey version 17 is sent out to capture one of the planet’s indigenous, giant bug-like lifeforms.
A problem arises when Mickey 17 is left behind for dead but returns and has to contend with Mickey 18.
In addition to Pattinson, other cast standards are Steven Yuen as Timo and Naomi Ackie as a security agent with whom Mickey 17 has a relationship.
Watched at the cinema.