The movie Mickey 17 is an ambitious, and visually memorable sci-fi satire. While it may not hit the heights of the movie "Parasite" also directed by Bong joon-ho due to its uneven pacing and wild tonal shifts, Robert Pattinson's lead performance and the clever premise make it a worthwhile watch for fans of dark, high-concept science fiction. Directed by Bong Joon-ho, who fuses corporate absurdity, clone ethics, and comedy.
The trailer
The setting of this movie takes place on a frozen, unforgiving exoplanet called Nifflheim. The environment here is icy and harsh and is inhabited by aliens called creepers. Humans here live in isolation and are governed by bureaucratic zealots. Human lives are made cheap through a program known as "expendable." An expendable is sent on a suicidal mission, and when they die, they're replaced with a new body with their memories printed into it.
The plot of the movie goes like this: To escape a debt collector on Earth, Mickey and his friend signed up for the colonization expedition to Nifflheim. Mickey, who was ignorant, signed up as the colony's expendable. Over the course of his expendable service, Mickey dies 16 times in dangerous and sometimes comical ways. When Mickey 17 falls into an ice crevasse, he is presumed dead, and the base prints Mickey 18.
However, Mickey 17 survived and crawls back to the base only to discover that Mickey 18 was already occupying his room. Under colony law, multiple clones are an abomination and must be exterminated immediately. To avoid incineration, Mickey 17 and Mickey 18, who possess different personalities despite sharing the same memory history, must keep each other a secret while navigating the colony leader's politics.
Mickey 17 in this movie delivers a brilliant lead performance. He plays the character as weary, meek, and exhausted by death, while portraying Mickey 18 as volatile, aggressive, and unpredictable. The film treats human life as a literal subscription service and a disposable corporate asset, skewering extreme bureaucracy and workplace exploitation.
The movie also falls short in certain ways despite its appeal. The director tried to balance comedy, sci-fi, and horror, making the tonal shifts feel cartoonish. Again, at over 2 hours and 15 minutes, the second act drags as it tries to juggle the "multiples" comedy alongside political subplots and creature diplomacy. Also, because the protagonist can continually print new bodies, death initially carries little emotional weight.
What makes the movie great is its unique take on the sci-fi identity crisis and Bong Joon-ho's signature unpredictability.
Mickey 17 is worth a watch because it takes a heavily used sci-fi trope: cloning and human reproduction—and turns it on its head through dark comedy and eccentric acting.
Rating: 70/100
