Mickey 17, Bong Joon-ho’s hotly anticipated follow-up to Parasite, sits at the lower end of the filmmaker’s oeuvre, but is still an entertaining, crazy rollick through space.
★★★☆☆
Let’s get one thing clear: Parasite is nothing short of a miracle. It is a momentous work that shook up the Oscars in a way that will never be forgotten and also swept into the top 100 of Sight and Sound’s Greatest Films of All Time list. Prefacing a Mickey 17 review with this is important, because as the follow-up to Bong Joon-ho’s 2019 masterpiece, comparisons are inevitable. All this to say, whilst Mickey 17 is by no means a bad film, it is no Parasite—but it was never going to be.
Mickey 17 (Robert Pattinson) is an “expendable” and, as his name suggests, the seventeenth iteration of himself. Each time Mickey Barnes dies, he is brought back to life within 20 hours, physically accurate and with the same memories, although sometimes with different personality traits. Financially destitute and owing money to a loan shark on Earth, Mickey had no other choice but to sign up to this clone programme. Thus he became part of the crew on a spaceship heading to the planet Nilfheim, which humans are in the process of colonising.
From the start, Mickey 17 is wonderfully offbeat, not least thanks to Pattinson’s high-pitched, slightly whiny voice and performance. This Mickey is awkward and a bit of a pushover, but inherently kind. Bong swiftly takes us through the previous iterations of Mickey, and their unfortunate but obligatory deaths, which all point back to the cruel leaders of the colony, the Trump-like Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) and Ylfa (Toni Collette). The crew of the ship are just sacks of meat to their two deeply religious, grossly wealthy leaders, and Mickey is the most potent and useful sack of them all.
Bong has never been subtle in his scathing satire, taking aim at the abuse of workers in Snowpiercer, stark class divides in Parasite, or the dangerously incompetent nature of police in Memories of Murder. Mickey 17 is no different—Kenneth Marshall is a carbon copy of Donald Trump in all but name—but whilst it definitely hits the mark of truth multiple times, it doesn’t quite have the same cut and thrust, the same ferocity, as Bong’s previous films. That being said, it’s hard to resist such a concentrated, prolonged swipe at the likes of Trump, even if Ruffalo’s over-the-top acting wears a bit thin.
Clocking in at 138 minutes, Mickey 17 overstays its welcome—it’s overly long for a plot that doesn’t warrant such a runtime. There are some grand spectacles and stunning production design along the way, but little context to anything. Where Snowpiercer had eagle-eyed worldbuilding behind its dynamite concept, Mickey 17 most certainly does not. It is surprisingly scattered. Nevertheless, Bong’s zinging black comedy style is still there to be admired, and Pattinson is the perfect conduit for it, especially when he takes on the role of Mickey 17 and 18.
Mickey 17 feels very much like Bong’s feature debut, Barking Dogs Never Bite, in its whacky energy and admirable thematic work, but it also shares that film’s lack of cohesion and underwhelming story. Amidst the messy conclusion, Bong loses control of what makes Mickey 17 tick, and the film even ends with a bit of a whimper, much less an enraged scream against the system. What Bong does next is anyone’s guess, but whilst we’ll wish it is better than Mickey 17, hopefully it will still contain the same irresistible sharpness and outlandishness that he is so renowned for.
The Verdict
Mickey 17’s political and societal commentaries are founded on truth yet don’t land as brutally or as stingingly as Bong Joon-ho’s previous films. It is still worth watching though, for Pattinson alone as well as for Bong’s irresistible energy and style.
Words by William Stottor
Mickey 17 released in UK cinemas on 7th March
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