If you love writer-director Bong Joon Ho’s movies about class and how the rich exploit society’s most vulnerable people, go see Mickey 17 in a theater. The same is true if you love sci-fi comedies rich in deep, thought-provoking ideas and themes. And if you think Robert Pattinson is one of the most interesting actors working in Hollywood today, then you’ll want to be there opening night. But whether you belong to one or all of those groups, just make sure you don’t go in expecting the kind of greatness Joon Ho delivered with Parasite. Because while the very funny, very sad, very thoughtful Mickey 17 is very good, it has too many problems to be truly great.
What works in Mickey 17 works so well that it’s easy to take it for granted. The first is that the film—which is primarily a comedy—is incredibly funny. It features the kind of humor that feels totally effortless even though it’s anything but. From old school physical comedy and clever dialogue, to absurd performances and inherently ridiculous situations, Mickey 17‘s humor alone is enough to entertain audiences from start to finish.
The same goes for the emotional aspect of the story. Based on Edward Ashton’s novel Mickey 7, the movie takes place on colony ship. It’s led by a politician/cult leader and his church. This movie is essentially about the exploitation of a person in great pain. (It shares a lot of the same DNA as Apple TV+’s Severance.) Pattinson’s Mickey Barnes voluntarily signs up to be an “expendable”” on a four-and-a-half year long space mission. No one else involved can believe he signed up for this job. It’s one literally no one else wants. He gets paid to die in the name of science and service again and again. Mickey is the ship’s guinea pig, appreciated yet looked down on. Each time he dies he gets reprinted. That process has its own inherent issues. But the real problem starts when Mickey 18 gets printed before 17 is actually dead.
What kind of person would freely take on this task? The kind of person who others should protect from themself. Mickey isn’t very smart, and he’s so sweet that he’s especially vulnerable to others taking advantage of him. (Including himself!) That’s partly how he ends up on the ship. His friend Timo, played by the typically excellent Steven Yuen, gets Mickey mixed up with a killer loan shark on Earth. Their pending death causes them to flee the entire planet. Mickey also has a gutting personal reason for believing he deserves to die repeatedly. It only makes you want to protect him more. It also makes you hate those treating him as a biological testing pad even more. But like in so many of Bong Joon Ho’s movies, the rich only see those below them as biological tools to exploit. It’s hard to watch in the best way, especially during his more brutal deaths.
Mickey’s heartbreak and pain, which connects to the film’s commentary about the treatment of workers, is the best part of the movie. And I wish it had been a bigger part. Mickey 17 is definitely a comedy more than a drama, but for as much as the film made me laugh, its moments of pathos were more effective. The personal human drama also gets slightly obscured by just how many ideas the movie has. Mickey 17 touches on colonialism and sovereignty, scientific ethics and the human soul, and the very nature of life and death. It’s a lot, in ways both good and bad.
It’s politics are also timely in an unexpected way. While not being overtly presented as the exact same person, there are clear parallels between Mark Ruffalo’s Kenneth Marshall and the dominant political figure who inspired the character. Ruffalo is a total buffoon in ridiculous capped teeth. He looks as dumb as he is. Marshall is the kind of person you can’t believe others would vote for, let alone swear allegiance to. Yet he’s more religious figure than politician to his zealous followers. They eagerly go to another planet with him to serve him. They also honor him by throwing up their right arm to give a number one finger sign. And just in case there’s any doubt who Marshall is based on spiritually, he also turns himself into a TV star on the ship.
The problem with Ruffalo’s Marshall is that while I completely understand his character’s purpose and how he contributes to the film’s themes, his performance just doesn’t work. It feels like he’s in a totally different movie than everyone else. Marshall could be the brother of Ruffalo’s character Duncan Wedderburn from Poor Things. But unlike Duncan in that film, Marshall feels out of place. Everyone else in Mickey 17 feels like a real person in an absurd situation. Kenneth Marshall feels like a cartoon character. It’s worse than distracting. Ruffalo’s Marshall constantly took me out of the film. That was a constant problem since he’s in it a lot.
What makes his performance, which in fairness to Ruffalo is almost certainly what his director wanted, is that Toni Collette succeeds in a very similar role alongside him. She plays Marshall’s wife Ylfa, his slightly (slightly) more intelligent, yet equally amoral other half. Collette feels like a real person who is a totally absurd human. She walks that fine line between character and caricature perfectly, delivering one of the film’s best performances.
Naomi Ackie is also really good as Mickey’s on-ship girlfriend Nasha. She’s the one person who truly treats Mickey like a human being. Ackie shines because the movies lets her show off a full range of emotions. (This is highlighted during an amazing sequence where she meets 17 and 18 at the same time.) Nasha also serves as the much needed moral compass of the film. But both her character and the movie would have benefitted from more development. We never really learn why she loves Mickey in the first place. Since their relationship is a major part of the story their romance feels incomplete.
As do some of the science fiction elements. There are some obvious plot holes in the movie that wouldn’t matter if not for the fact the flm does a great job explaining most of the other sci-fi elements. Mickey 17 either needed less sci-fi techno babble or more. The script also holds back some exposition that should come earlier in the story. Some very important developments feel rushed or completely unearned in the moment, and there’s no good reason certain information is held back until later.
The movie also very intentionally looks dark and muddy. At the end you can see why Bong Joon Ho shot it that way. There’s meaningful thematic purpose to the film’s aesthetic. But like Ruffalo’s Marshall it doesn’t work. It’s not a very fun movie to look at, and the payoff simply isn’t worth the two hours of unpleasing visuals it takes to get there. At least the alien “creepers” look great.
The single best payoff in the film is Robert Pattinson’s performance. He makes some really interesting choices you can’t fully appreciate until Mickey 18 shows up. Before his “multiple” arrives it’s not clear why Pattinson is doing what he’s doing. He gives a weird, overly affected performance that involves speaking with a voice that will definitely annoy some. (Mickey’s heavy narration, which would be more effective/less cumbersome if cut in half 50%, doesn’t help with that possibility.) But when two Pattinson’s share the screen everything he does until that point makes sense and it’s genuinely brilliant. I want to rewatch this movie mostly so I can simply enjoy Pattinson’s performance the whole time versus spending half the movie wondering to myself, “Why do it like this?” The “why” is because it’s great and wholly serves the story.
I don’t know if I’m going to like Mickey 17 more or less with time, but my appreciation for Robert Pattinson’s performance is only going to grow. And despite its flaws, there’s plenty else to enjoy here, too. Because while Mickey 17 isn’t Parasite, it’s another fun, engaging film from Bong Joon Ho.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. He’s going to be annoying about Pattinson deserving an Oscar nomination all year. You can follow him on Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.