MICKEY 17: Double The Pattinson, Double The Fun

What happens when you pair one of cinema’s hottest auteurs with one of Hollywood’s quirkiest actors, and a hefty amount of creative control? You get one of the most distinctly strange sci-fi films to ever grace the big screen.

Don’t get me wrong, Bong Joon-Ho made a name for himself stateside by bringing the trademark tonal whiplash of South Korean sci-fi to American audiences in 2014’s Snowpiercer. Fresh off a few Oscar wins, Joon-Ho’s latest feels much less tailored to mainstream audiences, wandering into surreal tapestries of sci-fi rather than sticking to a clear-cut narrative.

Luckily for him, the ensuing results are so endlessly fascinating that Mickey 17, while perhaps not the auteur sci-fi tentpole blockbuster casual audiences may have expected, is nevertheless a supremely entertaining addition to the director’s canon.

Let’s review:

Double Trouble

Broke Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) signs up to be an “Expendable” for a space mission to colonize the planet Niflheim. Mickey will be sent out on lethal missions, with the company regenerating him after his inevitable death. During these missions, Mickey develops a romantic relationship with Nasha (Naomi Ackie), a security guard.

On one mission, Mickey 17 (the 17^th Mickey) is presumed dead after a run-in with dangerous animals called “Creepers”. However, the non-violent Creepers save 17. Returning to the spaceship, 17 is shocked to find Mickey 18 has already been created. The two eventually strike an uneasy alliance to both survive, despite the efforts of the ship’s corrupt politicians Kenneth Marshall and Ylfa (Mark Ruffalo and Toni Colette). During a scuffle, Marshall takes a Creeper named Zoco hostage.

The Mickeys are eventually pitted against each other on Niflheim. However, with Nasha’s help, they double-cross Marshall and strike a deal with the Creepers to return Zoco in return for stopping Marshall’s plan to eradicate the Creepers. In the final battle, 18 sacrifices himself to kill Marshall and establish an alliance with the Creepers.

In the aftermath, Nasha is elected as a government official, successfully colonizing Niflheim, while 17 ends the Expendables program permanently.

A Narrative That Wanders Down The Rabbit Hole

Mickey 17’s most immediate impression is that of tonal variety. Like Joon-Ho’s best, the film has the ability to go from uncomfortably funny to strangely heartfelt in a millisecond. More steeped in satire than his other works, much of Mickey 17’s early magic is found in Joon-Ho’s ability to cast the light on American capitalism, individualism and colonialism with a sci-fi sheen. The uniqueness of cinematographer Darius Khondji’s cramped sci-fi vistas mixed with the disturbing familiarity of the film’s villains (analogues for many of America’s world leaders) makes for a strange cocktail of emotions. Audiences find themselves amused at co-star Mark Ruffalo’s Trump-esque politician, before growing a pit in their stomachs witnessing him wreak havoc on innocents through sheer incompetence.

It’s the willingness to explore these analogues, sometimes at the expense of the wider story, that allows Mickey 17 to stand out from the spotlight. While more conventional films might focus more on the film’s central conceit of duplication, Joon-Ho is almost unconcerned with that. Instead, he wanders down side avenues, letting tableaus play out lampooning various other societal issues with a sci-fi background.

While the story suffers from all these sidetracks, Joon-Ho’s directorial hand is stable enough to guide audiences back to the meat of the story in time.

Too Many Tools In The Toolbox

However, Mickey 17’s worldbuilding often feels overstuffed, with various sequences suffering from janky pacing and awkward buildup. With so many ideas to explore, the middle section of the film begins to feel bogged down as the story becomes secondary to the world. A lengthy sequence of 17 being fed experimental painkillers is disturbingly surreal, but abruptly ends without a smooth segue to the film’s next story thread except a one-line romantic connection that isn’t brought up again.

Mickey 17 contains many instances of this, beginning to feel like several short films stitched together a la Lovecraft Country rather than a cohesive whole. The characters feel like vehicles for Joon-Ho to explore his ideas, but that time could instead be spent more fully exploring the central relationships between 17 & 18, or spending more time fleshing out the environmental struggles of the creepers (who have an appropriately menacing design, but become humanized slightly too quickly in an effort to zip along to the film’s finale).

Robert Pattinson is Takin’ The Mickey

But the true heroes of Mickey 17 are the cast. It’s rare to see a film so impeccably cast, where each actor fits their character like a glove. There’s an air of theatricality behind the performances, particular co-stars Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette as a pair of dastardly politicians, but it all works harmoniously with the film’s quirky aesthetic. Even bit parts with little to do, like Steven Yeun as a pilot running from his creditors, let their honesty and warmth bleed through the screen even with limited lines.

And even with a cast firing on all cylinders, lead actor Robert Pattinson outworks them all. In a film of strange choices, Pattinson leads the charge, playing 17 & 18 with a comical pair of Ren & Stimpy-esque voices and an aw-shucks charm that would veer on parody in other films but somehow feels raw and honest here. Despite the film largely speed-running 17 & 18’s conflict, Pattinson sells 18’s skepticism and growing love for his weathered counterpart perfectly. 17’s romance with Nasha (played to perfection by Naomi Ackie) feels both passionate and defined by its world. It’s not over-the-top, but there’s a comfort and familiarity between them that grounds the characters amidst the absurdity.

Conclusion

Mickey 17 is a movie that defies categorization. Too absurd to be a drama, too serious to be a comedy, too unabashedly strange to be an Oscar contender and yet so grounded in real-life themes of human kindness and existentialism. In the hands of another director, the film would be called “confused” or “unfocused”. But Joon-Ho’s steady hand manages to make this strange collection of fables feel just cohesive enough.

Joon-Ho has played in the Hollywood sandbox multiple times before, but often it felt like his signature directorial eye was the seasoning to an otherwise standard Hollywood action movie, or environmental family. This time around, he’s the whole damn meal.

Mickey 17 ripped apart the rule book for a Hollywood sci-fi movie, and its box-office success will hopefully lead to Joon-Ho getting even more runway next time around. Check out this movie, you won’t regret it.

Mickey 17 is now playing in theatres nationwide.