In some ways it’s unfair for Mickey 17 to use director Bong Joon Ho‘s Oscar-winning Parasite in its marketing, as this bonkers sci-fi effort is quite far removed from that aforementioned satirical thriller, and may lure audiences into a false sense of security.
Of course, being a Bong picture, satire is still utilised, but waiting 6 years for Mickey 17, following such a historical theatrical and award-season run as Parasite, puts it at something of a disadvantage, but more so from the perspective of expectation. There’s a heft of fascinating world building at bay, it’s beautifully ambitious in scale, and it features some truly inspired turns from the likes of Robert Pattinson and Mark Ruffalo, but it perhaps bit off more than it could chew by the end of it all.
The titular Mickey is that of Mickey Barnes (Pattinson), who, in the not-so-distant future, plans to escape his financial troubles on Earth by agreeing to work as an expendable clone worker for the human colony of Nilfheim. Expendables are those who get sent out for whatever dangerous task the colony see fit, before they are recreated to do it, well, all over again. Mickey’s 17th edition is who we meet at the offset of the film, where his likeable worker has fallen into an icy crevasse and, as is custom, is awaiting his expected death.
Only, death doesn’t seem to come for the confused lad, and Mickey makes his way back to the prison-like setting he calls home, only to find the 18th iteration sleeping not only in his bed, but with his lady friend, the enthusiastic Nasha (Naomi Ackie). Two clones existing at the same time is a major no-no, and if they are discovered they will be permanently deleted, so, not wanting that for either (despite 18 not jiving to 17’s more straight-laced personality) they opt to work together. Initially it’s about helping the other survive, but there’s bigger stakes at play, and soon the Mickeys are playing hero in their bid to take down Kenneth Marshall (Ruffalo, campy and unhinged), a bronzed dictator of sorts (too on the nose?) with sinister designs on Nilfheim.
There’s a lot of thought-provoking notes on hand here, maybe too many, and to get the most out of Mickey 17 it truly needs to be digested on its own accord, separated from the expectation of what we assume a Bong picture looks like in a post-Parasite landscape. Tonally, it can feel at odds with itself, especially when looking at the more vampy performances from Ruffalo and Toni Collette, as Marshall’s puppet-pulling, sauce obsessed wife, against Pattinson and the underused Steven Yeun.
There’s an inconsistency that takes away from the philosophical questions the film asks, especially in its final act, but, in spite of this, it’s still difficult to write Mickey 17 off completely, if for nothing else than the fact that its ambition is truly awe-inspiring. Look at it less as missing the high standard we have unfairly set for it, and more as the wild, entertaining, thought-provoking science fiction romp it is.
There’s a wealth of conversations to be had around identity and autonomy here, as well as the political aspects that, despite Bong insisting no one was based on any real person, feel uncomfortably familiar in this current climate. And it’s facets like that, as well as its clear championing of being an original movie on the big screen in a time where streaming is unfairly favoured and remakes and sequels are the norm at the box office otherwise that assist in Mickey 17 proving a winner in the face of its irregularities.
THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Mickey 17 is now screening in Australian theatres.
