Film ● Review: Mickey 17
- Very Average Joe
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Title: Mickey 17
Director(s): Bong Joon-ho
Screenwriter(s): Bong Joon-ho
Studio: Plan B Entertainment, Offscreen, Kate Street Picture Company
Released: 2025
Runtime: 2h 16m
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Anamaria Vartolomei, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette, Daniel Henshall
My Verdict: Good production. Looks good. Amusing. But the satire is not clever enough and for a black comedy, it is not black enough.
● Based on the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, this is a sci-fi black comedy that follows the titular character’s journey on an expedition to colonize another planet.
● I have not read the novel so this brief review is of the film only.
● Set in 2054, the film begins with a “cold start”. Mickey 17 (Robert Pattinson) is left to die after having fallen into a cave on the ice planet Niflheim.
● The narrative then flashes back to over four years earlier. Mickey Barnes and his friend Timo (Steven Yeun) borrowed money from a loan shark for a business which failed. They are unable to repay the loan and so join the colonizing expedition ship in order to escape.
● Mickey signs on as the sole “Expendable” onboard in which he is expected to perform dangerous duties. His memory is regularly backed up and he is “reprinted” every time he dies.
● The opening act goes through the history, covering some of his deaths as well as meeting and developing a relationship with security agent Nasha (Naomi Ackie). The opening act is long, setting up the world, characters and relationships at an unhurried pace.
● Mickey 18 is then mistakenly printed on the assumption that Mickey 17 has died. Having “Multiples” is illegal and the rest of the film follows Mickey 17 as he tries to survive, not just his unique predicament, but also the escalating situation between the ship’s inhabitants and the indigenous life on Niflheim.
● The film is obviously satirical as Mickey is experimented on by the science department just for the sake of it, as if there are no standard procedures to safely deal with the problems.
● Even though resources are tight on the four-year trip, Mickey is literally abused to death and reprinted, which is inefficient. The audience is obviously expected to just accept this as part of the satire.
● The ship is basically a microcosm in order to do the satire. In addition to the above, there is the political sphere as the ship is commanded by failed politician Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) and his wife, Ylfa (Toni Collette).
● Despite the relatively long runtime, the political satire is not complex which is a lost opportunity. It is mostly Marshall being an idiot dictator who relies heavily on his wife and his advisor Preston (Daniel Henshall). Marshall’s association with some religious cult and their abuse of their religious card is pretty funny.
● Some have noted that Ruffalo’s performance as Marshall is simply imitating and mocking President Trump. The director claims that he based the character on various figures. And to be fair, whilst Trump’s mannerisms (not so much the content) are clearly recognizable at times, that is not always the case as there are others in there as well.
● Regarding Marshall’s appearance, just to mention one example, his hair sometimes looks like Newsom’s. And Ylfa’s appearance and ruthlessness, whilst not a close imitation, have a bit of Hillary Clinton to it.
● The set designs are deliberately a little rundown and filthy, with a glimpse of the arty French approach. It could go further in that direction. Either way, the interiors are mostly cramped and actually feel like a spaceship.
● Visually, it is shot and edited nicely. It is arguably too conventional as it could play with camera angles more. The color saturation is not too intense; again, with a South Korean director, one expects a bit more and it could without being pretentious. Nonetheless, on balance, it looks good.
● Patterson’s performance is solid. It’s great that the film does not merely rely on a visual element to distinguish between Mickey 17 and Mickey 18. The latter is clearly more confident and aggressive, and Patterson also changes his accent. In other words, it is Patterson’s performance that makes the distinction.
● Overall, it is a well-produced film that is amusing. Despite the length, the pacing is not bad even if it can be tightened by at least five minutes. The main problem is that in both the political and scientific spheres, the satire is not biting enough as it barely touches on the issues, and the black comedy is simply not black enough.
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