A fun film about classism, capitalism, exploitation and existentialism! Wheeeeee!
It's the future and a down-on-his-luck Mickey Barnes (played by Robert Pattinson) chooses to be sent to an alien ice world to escape his creditors. It should be the end of his woes, except Mickey opted to be an expandable, where he is tasked with life-threatening jobs—when he dies (and he often does), a clone of himself is printed out with most of his memories intact and that iteration is sent out on another dangerous assignment. Repeat ad nauseam.
But life on the ship that's travelling to Niflheim is still filled with pockets of joy. Mickey found love in Nasha Barridge (Naomi Ackie); his buddy Timo is onboard (Steve Yeun) with him; the expedition is led by Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), a failed politician and his Lady Macbeth, Ylfa (Toni Collette) and Mickey keeps dying for the betterment of mankind.
All is well until the 17th copy of Mickey finds that there's another duplicate of himself on the ship...
This is Bong Joon-ho's first feature after his Oscar-winning film, Parasite and he returns to form by tackling social issues through his signature satire lens. Adapted from Edward Ashton's novel Mickey7, Mickey 17 (in an interview with Stephen Colbert, Bong said that he changed the title because he wanted to "kill [Mickey] 10 more times") is a darkly comic take on identity and existentialism.
Pattinson is known to be an actor who chooses roles that are not your traditional leading men. Since his stand-out performance in Good Times, Pattinson made some interesting choices with his Mickey character. Incorporating Johnny Knoxville's speech pattern, Mickey behaves with the hapless resignation of Eeyore—unwilling to resist being gassed, breathing in airborne viruses; being exposed to cosmic radiation—how do we kill thee? Let us count the ways—), in short, dying. Dying for the betterment of humankind as results from his deaths are used in making vaccines and weapons.
Mickey's voiceover dominates the film. I mean, if you're fatalistic, why wouldn't you have a lot of internal monologue debating how you ended up in the situation? His voiceover sums up a lot of the movie's universe that would normally take an entire season—sans exposition—to explain. Mickey being the brunt of a lot of bullying, ostracisation and indifference will get you to root for this sad sack. Pattinson stretches his acting chops with little variances to his clones, adding habitual traits and actions. When Mickey 17 doesn't die as expected and a new clone is printed out, that's when the stakes are raised as it is verboten to have two clones alive at the same time. Something about souls, a talking point often used about cloning but you sort of see how that debate pales in Marshall's foolhardy approach in an all-out war with the natives of Niflheim.
Despite the comedic aspect, some of the topics tackled prompt philosophical discussion—the legalities of cloning; American exceptionalism; colonialism. Some might argue about the bluntness of the message in Mickey 17 but I'm okay with it. The bluntness of the tool can still be a hand weapon to get your point across. (Anyway, not a lot of people can read between the lines. Hell, if more humans were critical thinkers, maybe we wouldn't be in the shit-lined bed that we've made.)
The production design is a thing of beauty. From the grimy urban areas on Earth to the cramped quarters of the ship to the chilly blues of a Niflheim ice cave, the sets feel alive and realised. It is a world-building that gives Mickey 17 a scope that's beyond one's ken; where the visuals—both grand and intimate—echo Snowpiercer’s stark contrasts.
It's hard to nitpick. Perhaps the film’s pacing and structure could be divisive. Bong is cooking with a lot of themes and Mickey 17 sometimes gets lost in its own cleverness. There were some plot threads that I wanted closure to (his childhood accident) and more meat to some of the backstories of certain characters like Nasha—why the unhealthy obsession with Mickey?—or with Ylfa—why the unhealthy obsession with sauces?
There were a few scenarios that were readily resolved by a couple of deus ex machina devices. Like the final act, for instance, where a translator was readily invented so as to communicate with the creeper queen. It's these sorts of happenstances reduces our investment in our characters.
And sometimes, the antics of characters like Kenneth Marshall can be a bridge too far; his buffoonery can sometimes take you out of the story (or sometimes it can be a little too "real-world" for my liking).
When the film shifted attention to Alan Manikova (Edward Davis), the first perpetrator of having multiples—I could be wrong (although I doubt it)—but when the cops arrives at Manikova's house to arrest him, the abode shared many similar traits to the interior and exterior of the Parks' house in Parasite. Also, can Warner Bros launch a merch store and sell the baby creeper plushies?
I mean, look at it!
LOOK AT IT.
Mickey 17 is now out in theatres.
