It's insane to me that we are in the era of film production costs reaching over 100 million dollars but can easily be considered a box office bomb. Modern audiences are weird, and cinemas are a dying concept with the decline of society as it welcomes and accepts all kinds of ridiculous behaviour into the screening rooms. Though earlier today I had the pleasure of visiting a small cinema and watching this box office bomb in the best environment imaginable. There are some films that really do shine on the big screen, and some films which are just best being watched from the comfort of your home. Mickey 17 is a rarity these days, it's something that we should be flocking to and appreciating in its various forms of distribution. It's a title that stands out when cinemas are still relying on the absolute drivel of soulless superhero titles and remakes and reboots. What's more surprising is that even with the famous director Bong Joon Ho at the wheel, this still didn't manage to perform. What happened to all those new fans that were screaming of the importance of international film creations and international film directors due to his success through Parasite? All of this is to say that I'm not entirely sure what went wrong here. While review scores seem pretty good, the world sort of just rejected Mickey 17 for some unknown reason(s).
My cinema experience with the film was lovely. A cappuccino in my hand, sitting in a small independent (and likely pirated films) Russian-owned cinema in an old Georgian house in the historic district of Old Tbilisi in Tbilisi, Georgia. An unlikely location one might assume, and certainly different to the franchise cinema chains that people are throwing popcorn around when they see Jack Black say "chicken jockey". Though the cinema viewing experience wasn't the only thing to enjoy here. Mickey 17 was a wonderful film to watch, and I found that quite surprising since the supposed financial failure of the title alongside a lot of online discussion I had previously seen about the film calling it quite mediocre. I'm not sure what people are expecting from fresh stories these days, and I don't know what filmmakers are even sure to do about releasing something into such a fragile, unknown world. Bong Joon Ho doesn't care, though. With the success of Parasite comes the opportunity to create more fun, unique stories. And the quality of this film really doesn't match the way it ended up being treated. This is no billion dollar earning narrative, and I'm shocked at it costing a whopping 130 million dollars to create, but I consider this to be his passion piece, something to do for fun that is generally quite different to the previous releases of his. It's nothing like Memories of Murder, it's nothing like Parasite, but I'd say in some ways it is a little similar to Snowpiercer.
The passion piece concept is even felt with the appearance of Robert Pattinson, who does have a good number of indie flicks under his name throughout the years, but also more recently a few larger money-bag titles like The Batman. I consider the big budget titles to be the work that funds the fun stuff for actors and filmmakers alike. Mickey 17 is one of those fun films. A dystopian concept in which a man in the future, attempting to escape crippling debt from a loan shark threatening to kill him, joins an off-world colony that'll place him beyond the stars and into safety. Though without reading the fine print, signs up for the role of an Expendable. Not entirely sure what it is, but having plenty of people asking him whether he did in fact read through the entire application and if this is genuinely what he wants. Only to discover that being an Expendable means being a lab rat for the ship. Dying over and over again and having himself uploaded into a new printed body from the ships various recycled goods. Desperate to find safety, he continues on with this role with no manner of going back. To begin with, this leads to him being an experimental body for much of the ship's general needs: finding vaccinations, performing tests on the human body with exposure to deathly amounts of radiation in space, but also just being the go-to person for anything potentially dangerous that could threaten the lives of others. His role in the ship is the most important of all, and it's to help the people survive the harshness of space on their way to a new frozen planet in which humanity aims to colonise.
All of this is under the hands of a highly controversial politician and elite that had lost recent elections, one that was a highly exaggerated version of a present-day politician. Generally incapable of connecting with the people, having a strange relationship with his wife that dives deep into various oddities that expand into power positions and race. His entire plan ultimately to be to start the human race from scratch, a white population on a new planet that doesn't believe in lab-grown foods and the various complications that come with a spoilt society. Earth itself already on the brink of collapse with its harsh weather patterns and intense poverty. Everyone wanting to join the off-world colony for one reason or another. The Expendable application being the only reason Mickey was chosen in the first place: the role nobody else would take. Dying over and over has Mickey seen as the one person on the ship that doesn't matter given he can simply be reprinted. It doesn't matter if his life lasts a week or simply ten entire minutes. This isolation has him falling for a woman that does notice him and give him some attention, some peace and comfort through the insanity of constant death and rejection from others. This gives Mickey something to actually live for, and the real fear of death comes from when Mickey 17 actually survives an attack from an alien species, the workers assuming he had already died and printing Mickey 18. Multiples are a banned concept for ethical reasons, to both be killed if this unfortunate event takes place. Clones being something humanity just can't handle. Though the reprinting at death concept being accepted for the argument of expanding our knowledge of the human race and utilising it to help us discover new things beyond the stars.
The alien species is not something to fear in the end though, and certain people at the ship are the real threat to both people and the aliens. This brings in some of the drama of the film as Mickey 17 and 18 discover each other, and fight for their survival in secret, while also clinging on to their lives now knowing that death for either of them is a likely permanent situation. If one Mickey dies, the other continues on. There's a lot of dark humour to the film through the concept of death, Mickey loves a bit of self-deprecating as a coping mechanism. Some of the other performances are also exaggerated and done in a way that provides a bit of humour to the film. Characters that are a bit careless, the lack of awareness in their situations and what they're pursuing. I quite liked this, and the film handles the more serious moments in a way that still gives them weight. In a way, that shows the humanity in the film. Characters with the worst situations still laughing and finding ways to enjoy life. From a filmmaking standpoint, I think this is where much of that huge budget comes into play. The set design in the film is incredible, everything from interiors to exteriors feels real, especially with the ship. None of that typical generic science-fiction floating screen crap, but more a ship full of real buttons and hardware to it. Most of the film takes place on this ship, so seeing the different areas of it is quite important to create believable atmosphere to which people live in. And Bong Joon Ho does an excellent job there.
Another thing I wanted to mention was the clear influence in other productions regarding costume design. It felt like a mixture of Alien and World War 1 aesthetics. Again none of that generic science-fiction futurism. A nice blend of it all instead, down to the way vehicles and weapons looked. Great costumes and believable interior designs really sold that story to me, seeing how the people interacted within a space and how things felt like they had an actual purpose and some weight to them created an environment that felt authentic. That's quite a difficutl thing to pull off for science-fiction films, especially in this era of intense special effects use and reliance. There was none of that here, though. Everything looked physical, and that really was a highlight. I definitely recommend checking this out, and I ensured I didn't write too much regarding the story so there's no major spoilers here. If you can still see this in the cinema, go and do it!