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Mickey 17

Mickey 17 is Bong Joon Ho's third English language feature and it has similar themes to his others - Snowpiercer and Okja - absurdities galore, odd creatures, and earnest entreaties for a steadier hand, socially and ecologically. In contrast, his Korean films feel a little more hardboiled, not as fantastical.

Robert Pattinson plays the titular Mickey as a creepy but endearing loser. He and his areshole mate, Timo (Steven Yeun) are on the run from a nasty loan shark, so they decide to billet themselves on a space-going vessel. Said ship is heading to the planet Niflheim to colonise and propagate the human species. This endeavour is led by a proper bell-end, failed senator Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) and his foodie wife Ylfa (Toni Collette).

The chicken twistie here is that Mickey accidentally signs up as an 'expendable', meaning his body is reproduced every time he dies, but his memories and personality are retained (mostly) and uploaded into a newly printed Mickey. This role means that he gets all the shit jobs - radiation testing, exposure to potentially fatal viruses, those kind of gigs. Things then get a bit complicated when a mission to bring back a native critter, a 'Creeper', goes a tad haywire.

This ticks all the boxes for me - Sci-fi, satire, weirdness, off-kilter comedy, great director, solid cast....yet, it doesn't quite hit the mark. I think it's got something to do with Bong working in a second language - Snowpiercer and Okja didn't really succeed either, but his Korean films are fantastic (Parasite, Memories of Murder, The Host). I'd be keen to know if he sees English language films as a surreal way to explore his ideas, and his Korean films as a more prosaic method. Let's see what he does next for more detail - I think his English output is improving, Mickey 17 has more about it than the previous ones.

The supporting cast is a mixed bag. Anamaria Vartolomei (in her English language debut) is fine, despite some ropey dialogue ("Do you just see me as a uterus?"), and Naomi Ackie is saucy and slightly unhinged as Mickey's arse-booting, space-grunt girlfriend, Nasha. Tim Key is, as always, a very welcome addition to any cast. On the other hand, Ruffalo and Collette are way too over the top as the broadly brushed conservative cunts fronting the expedition for a religious organisation (the parallels are all too clear with T***p's U.S.).

The film is based on a novel (Mickey 7) by Edward Ashton, who adapted it with Bong. Some of the dialogue was strained and some was ludicrously pantomime villain-esque, while the odd sub-plot felt forced. Why, for example, was Kai so keen on a bit of Mickey, when she was clearly in a same-sex relationship? Fair enough for open minds but it didn't ring true for her character, it just seemed crow-barred in to illustrate Mickeys fidelity to Nasha. That's really the emotional centre of the film, the fact that Nasha loves every part of Mickey, even facsimiles.

In saying all that, there is a lot to enjoy here. The world building is great and Darius Khondji's cinematography is superb. The creature design is pretty gnarly too. Overall, Mickey 17 is not quite as good as it could have been but still a worthy addition to the Bong stable.

See also:

Bong's Parasite (2019) is one of the films of the 21st Century so far. And I just realised (actually searched) that this has some parallels to Duncan Jones's Moon (2009).

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