Mickey 17

 “Even on my seventeenth go around I hate dying.”

Quirky, messy but endearing, Mickey 17 is an entertaining sci-fi romp that’s overstuffed with themes but never overwhelmed by having too many Robert Pattinsons in a broadly engaging exploration of scientific pursuit and political ambition and the impacts it has on the communities involved. 

Discussion Points:

I’m glad that a movie like Mickey 17 exists. After winning Best Picture (and Director) for Parasite, Bong Joon-ho went and made a wacky lil sci-fi romp that’s full of thinly veiled allegory and shallow philosophical questions about identity, personhood and the soul and two Robert Pattinson’s doing silly voices. It’s definitely overstuffed and messy and should’ve picked one issue to focus on rather than attempting to make a comment on everything - but it’s also just a really entertaining sci-fi blockbuster with fantastic performances from a stacked ensemble, plus great craft techs and visual effects. Whilst Snowpiercer focused just on issues of class, and Okja focused on animal rights and genetic ethics, Joon-ho’s third English language film crams in comments on autocracy and political fanaticism, genetic ethics, colonialism, gender equality, religious cults, toxic media and class structure - with a bit of drug addiction, blackmail and fraud to mix in. Then add the “Creepers” - the insectoid species that calls the planet of Niflheim their home who come into conflict with the settlers and their colonial ambitions. It’s a lot! But when the film is solely focused on the plight of the 17th print-out of expendable Mickey Barnes and his hapless existence, made immensely brighter by his love Nasha, it soars. Their bond is the heart of the film and becomes ever the more complex when Mickey-17 doesn’t die when expected and returns to their spaceship home to find Mickey-18 printed out. Everything revolving around the multiples and their predicament is fantastic. But the broader setting aboard a colonial vessel populated with political and religious fanatics and socially-awkward scientists muddles the main message of the story. It’s a messy but entertaining time with a fantastic dual Robert Pattinson at its core. Definitely recommend despite its flaws.