Mickey 17 Review

I saw Mickey 17, and despite not seeing Mickey 1-16 lol, here are my thoughts on the film.

After being talked into borrowing too much money from gangsters, Mickey Barnes and his buddy flee Earth on a space mission to a new planet, where he becomes an expendable (unfortunately not teaming up with Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham to fight space bad guys) where he performs dangerous or lethal assignments to further the mission, dies, and then is cloned/printed out of a new machine… Until one day he survives and goes back to the ship and finds he’s already been cloned, so he has to interact with his clone.

I would describe this movie as Starship Troopers meets Anora.

I think the best thing about this movie is Robert Pattinson; he’s one of these actors who loves to disappear into a character and will change how he talks, walks, and has little mannerisms that make him feel like he’s a different person. Plus, when he’s interacting with himself as the two different clones, he’s fantastic at making them both distinct; you forget it’s the same actor and just buy that these are two different people talking to each other.

I like how the idea of the movie coincides with the main character's arc… Mickey is a very passive and shy person who just kind of lets people and things take advantage of him; he just sort of lets Things happen, which makes his life harder. So in order to change, he literally has to confront himself, a.k.a. his clone; I thought that was a pretty clever conceit.

I like the look of the movie; the special effects were, for the most part, pretty convincing and had a nice distinct look. I also liked the use of blues and gold as the color palette, and the overall world had a very unique and creative design.

Bong Joon-ho did a good job with directing. He has a good eye for shot framing; everything had a nice mix of color and shadows, he got good performances out of everyone, and he had some nice reoccurring motifs, which helped push the story in a visual way.

There are some alien creatures in this, which I thought had a very imaginative design, the kind of look like woolly mammoths mixed with insects mixed with HP Lovecraft creatures. Plus when you looked at them, there was always something new you were discovering about them, like “Oh, I didn’t realize the vertebrae was so detailed.” lol.

I have to give credit to Mark Ruffalo; he did a great job playing a very unlikable and punchable bad guy. Unfortunately, I think he did too good a job… Like, his character has these big-ass false teeth that every time he speaks, he sounds like a hillbilly trying to sound proper, and he’s just so slimy and an attention whore that after a while, every time he came on screen, I’m like, “Can somebody shoot this guy already?”. Toni Collette is definitely hamming it up too; she and Ruffalo were definitely giving Jess and James vibes from Team Rocket in Pokémon. Now sometimes it was funny and sometimes it was a bit much, it’s When decisions that I can see different people feeling different opinions.

Naomi Ackie did a good job as Mickey’s love interest. Her character is like a quirky, strung-out badass, like if Ellen Ripley was a big punk rock fan and smoked a lot of weed, which made her character feel unique. (Also, I didn’t realize I had seen her in 2 other movies before, so I have to give her credit for disappearing into the role as well). I will say they don’t really go that much into her character, like why does she love Mickey so much? Plus, if she’s not one of the senators sycophants, why is she here? Is she on the run like Mickey and Timon? Also towards the end, a lot of stuff happens with her character that’s explained to us and not really shown, and there’s just a lot going on with her character that isn’t really explained, which I wish it was; she’s mostly there to be a loving force to give Mickey hope.

Steven Yuen did a great job as Mickey’s buddy Timon. His character is very shady, slimy, and easily could’ve been unlikable… But Steve Yuen brings a charisma and humor to the role that makes him fun to watch on screen.

Holiday Granger is an actress I like; she shows up in a small role, which was nice to see. Also, there was an actress I had never seen before (Anamaria Vartolomei), who I thought did a good job. I hope to see more of her in the future.

This movie definitely has some political allusions, which was kind of expected because in Bong's other two films I've seen, he makes allusions to politics and society and class and all that jazz… For me, I think it was a little too on the nose in this one, because let me get this straight… We have a controversial leader who makes a lot of speeches, has loyal followers who wears red hats, and he wants to make things… Great, for the people… Hmm, now where have I heard that before? Lol, I just thought there was a way to do the social and political satire without being too on the nose with it… Like, it’s so on the nose it’s practically a nose hair lol.

So there are multiple plots going on in this movie, like Mark Ruffalo & Toni Collette chewing up scenery and making sauces, Mickey and Timon being on the run from gangsters, discovering the alien creatures. The scientist studying Mickey, Kai and Nasha have their own stuff going on. I would say for the most part it all congeals pretty well, like the director is able to mostly balance all the different tones and storylines… But the movie does feel a bit long and uneven at points, like you’ll be watching one thing go on, and then it pretty much stops for this other storyline to take over, and then when that reaches an impasse, another storyline will take over. This might not be as big of a thing for others , but for me, I thought it could’ve been tighter, a little shorter, and more cohesive.

I like the world-building, like how government, industry, and religion are three separate entities that both work in tandem but are also kind of working in their own self-interest on earth and in the space pod; it definitely had a Paul Verhoeven feel, which I always enjoy.

So this movie has three distinct acts, I would say… The first half is an interesting sci-fi character piece/love story. I think this is the strongest, hooking people in and wanting to see what happens next… The middle half turns into a satirical comedy, which reminded me of the middle half of Anora. This was my favorite part because it was funny, creative, and most impressively unpredictable… Like the story kept going interesting and unexpected places that I couldn’t tell what was going to happen next, it also had some light “The Big Lebowski” vibes, which is one of my all-time favorite movies, so I definitely dug that.

The third act, without going into spoilers, turns into a very specific type of movie that was big in the 90s. I don’t want to spoil anything because then people will be “whaleing” hint hint at me, but it was very sort of by the books, sci-fi action “trying to pull the heartstrings” type stories telling him, and some of it really worked. Some of it didn’t; there’s definitely a “we’re running out of runtime, so we have to wrap everything up in a neat little bow” type of storytelling, which felt a bit unearned and just too much for me personally.

So overall, the movie is very creative with great performances, visuals, and humor.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t always come together in the most satisfying way; the political satire can feel like the filmmakers are hitting you over the head with it, and the pacing could’ve been tighter, but it’s definitely a movie you’ll enjoy watching the first time around. I am just unsure how much rewatchability it has. That’ll definitely be up to each individual viewer, and it could spark some interesting debates, but again, you’ll have to make up your own mind on that. I give it a high three stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️. I have my issues with the movie, but overall I had a good time watching it.