Mickey 17' review: Bong Joon Ho's sci-fi comedy

Mickey Barnes, played by Robert Pattinson, is the main character. In 2054, he agrees to be an "expendable" for a colonising space mission to the planet Niflheim, which means he would be assigned all the risky tasks and will be cloned anytime he passes away. After his 17th variation unexpectedly survives an "alien" encounter, complications arise, and upon returning to the spaceship, he encounters "Mickey 18" (also Pattinson). The cast consists of Toni Collette as Kennedy's evil wife Ylfa, Steven Yeun as Mickey's friend and pilot Timo, Mark Ruffalo as the mission's evil head honcho and religiously fervent politician Kenneth Marshall, Naomi Ackie as security agent and Mickey's girlfriend Nasha, and Anamaria Vartolomei as fellow security agent Kai Katz in love with Mickey.

Mickey 17

As someone who has recently written about the paths that films take and how rare it is to see something pick up speed after a slow start, Mickey 17 on Afdah is a perfect opportunity to help shed some light on those ideas. In his English-language endeavours, Bong has had difficulty transforming his language and style into something as captivating as his Korean-language movies. As the story progresses, Bong gradually finds the right pieces in his daring blend of sci-fi, dark comedy, satire, and creature feature. Normally, you would smell blood in the water when you get an almost unforgivable amount of narration—which is, thankfully, almost enjoyable at times thanks to Pattinson's enthusiastic voice work—and haphazard character introductions.

Since a lot of the setup is irrelevant until we reach the ridiculousness and numerous concepts and tangents are introduced and then dropped, the film is nevertheless frequently a muddle in terms of structure and flow. Bong and his associates, however, really get into it in the middle part. The concepts that wind up adhering to the wall are about Marshall's god complex, which drives him to manage a "pure" colony, Mickey's young working class, who must confront the disillusioned, genocidal elites in power to prevent them from causing more destruction after they have already done so on Earth, and opposing problematic ideologies, even if it puts them in danger like Mickey puts himself.

These examples may be interpreted as reflecting actual political leaders in other nations, the results of capitalism, or even our relationship with nature and the animal kingdom, but you still get the impression that the film is thinking about more than just its entertainment value. That is not to suggest that those things don't go hand in hand; in fact, they do, as Bong and editor Yang Jinmo skillfully manage the tonal balance between the wackiness, physical humour, and serious subjects. When necessary, it's a joke, but you also get the powerful character moments that are meant to make you feel something.