PalCinema Review: Mickey 17
The latest from Oscar winner Bong Joon Ho doesn't live up to his previous work
March 7, 2025
FILM: MICKEY 17
DIRECTED BY: BONG JOON HO
STARRING: ROBERT PATTINSON, TONI COLLETTE, MARK RUFFALO
RATING: 2 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
There has been high anticipation for the new film from Bong Joon Ho. You might remember him from a few years back when his last work, Parasite, made Oscar history becoming the first foreign language film to win Best Picture. So, when his latest, Mickey 17, got pushed around for a release date, the thought was that there must be a problem with it. When a new film gets put on the calendar for March, it’s typically not expected to be an Oscar contender for the following year. If it was, it would get released later in the year. That’s the reality of how the awards game works. (There have been exceptions: The Silence of the Lambs, Everything Everywhere All at Once both won Best Picture Oscars despite their early in the year releases.) Maybe he was going for some broader entertainment here. However, Mickey 17 is an unusual and at times confounding work that attempts to mix science fiction with some humor and thought-provoking messages and doesn’t quite live up to its potential.
Robert Pattinson stars as the title character. Mickey is on a mission to an ice-covered planet where a new race is planned with the help of a machine that essentially clones people. The Mickey we spend the most time with is the 17th version of the character in the four-year journey. Apparently, he has died several times. Through something of a loophole an 18th copy is made while 17 is still alive, leaving the two Mickeys to interact with each other.
The leader of this mission to the planet is failed politician Kenneth Marshall, played by Mark Ruffalo and his wife Ylfa, played by Toni Collette. Both are clearly power hungry and have no issues being on the new planet for their own purposes, including Ylfa’s desire to make a sauce out of the tails of the planet’s species, referred to as Creepers. They have no respect for the armadillo-like creatures but then that is par for their course as wannabe political leaders.
The first hour or so is filled with a variety of characters and plot developments that I found a bit hard to decipher. Steven Yuen turns up as Mickey’s friend Timo with whom Mickey had developed a business that would make macaroons more successful than hamburgers. (Really? Macaroons?!) Timo must have played a bigger role in the novel from which the screenplay is based. But he’s underwritten here and for an actor as accomplished as Yuen has surprising little screen time.
Bong Joon Ho seems to want some of the plot to play out like a bit of a screwball comedy. The problem is that not much is very funny. Ruffalo and Collette play their parts rather broadly which feels off with some of the rest of the film and characters. Pattinson is the most interesting as Mickey 17 and 18. As the former he’s a bit of a goofus, while the latter takes more charge over the situations that unfold around him. This duality is inconsistent with the purpose of the clones which are supposed to have the same memories and personalities. So, it’s not clear why these two are so different from each other. That said, the special effects used to put two Pattinson characters side by side for so many scenes is impressive.
Watching the film and thinking about Parasite, it is almost hard to tell that both films were made by the same writer/director. It is not until some of the later sequences when Bong Joon Ho’s common thematic ideas begin to surface. Both films address power structures; the haves and have nots. In Mickey 17 he suggests that those in power can push buttons, changing the direction of those most closely in the path of their intentions. Is it right to assert power over another race because we want something from it? Shouldn’t we have more respect for life in whatever form it takes? It’s a serious perspective which makes some of the more attempted comedic elements feel unearned. Bong Joon Ho has more to say than that. He also asks the age-old question, “what does death feel like?” given Mickey’s multiple incarnations. I’d have liked to see him focus more on these questions rather than develop such a convoluted narrative. Parasite hit all the right buttons for solid entertainment, character development, and philosophical ideas which is why it became such an international success. Mickey 17 doesn’t quite hit those same levels.
Mickey 17 is now playing in theaters everywhere.
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We went to the cinema last night and saw 'Mickey.' I agree with your review. I quite liked the premise and the first third or so of the film, but it just went a bit too overboard and felt very convoluted. It was also too long. I don't say that because of any lack of attention span; I seriously felt the end of the film went on for quite a while and needed better editing (the snow scene with all the rolly-polly things). I also found some of its acting quite hammy and overacted (Ruffalo and his wife, for example). It was a good idea (I've never read the book), but it felt unfocused and scattered. Nothing I will remember, and other than this comment, I haven't even given the film much thought since seeing it. 2/4 stars for me.
It was, however, good to see a packed cinema on a Saturday night.
Still on my queue. Might wait for streaming now.
Thanks