Mickey 17 review

 

Bong Joon Ho’s successor to his Oscar winning Parasite proves a timely release with its depiction of technology getting ahead of ways to control it and also portraying a somewhat unhinged but powerful politician let loose. It’s a lively if overlong story originally intended for release a year ago and it seems to have already been written off as a box office failure. At times it feels like the script writers have made a simple idea complicated with too much extraneous material. Like last year’s Megalopolis though it is not short of ambition and something to say, it’s just that the delivery is not always as concise as it could be.

 

We’re in a future where technology that exists to make copies of people is being safety tested on a remote icy planet following an incident when so called `multiples` of the same person conspired to commit murder. Unwittingly having volunteered to be a tester known as an Expendable Mickey Barnes is subjected to a variety of viruses and extreme conditions, each time he perishes being revived as the next version. By the time we meet him he is Mickey 17 and after an accident in which he is believed to have died once again, Mickey 18 is printed. Only 17 has survived, saved it seems by the strange inhabitants of the planet.

The two versions of Mickey are dissimilar; whereas 17 is somewhat gullible and clumsy, 18 is confident and ambitious; enough to try and steal girlfriend the feisty Natasha for himself. She by the way is happy to have both of them!  Meanwhile Kenneth Marhsall, the expedition’s’ egotistical politician with links to a shady Church has nasty designs for this planet and its inhabitants.

The film is something of a black comedy though rarely laugh out loud funny; the most amusing moments are largely in the opening sections. There’s definitely a case for some trims to be made- some of the opening scenes are repeated later with the events also covered by Mickey’s voiceover, a coda at the end when Mickey falls asleep seems superfluous given we’re already past the two hour mark. There are bits involving a man dressed as a chicken whose purpose goes unexplained. Several sequences would also benefit from sharper editing.

Even so there’s much to enjoy. The aesthetic is drawn from various sources- the living environment has a faded second hand, lived in feel that seems incredibly solid (those sliding doors look heavy) while the machine that produces the clones resembles a photocopier complete with similar operating noises. The person’s details are held on what looks exactly like a brick. There are moments of old fashioned jeopardy over a fiery generator or between prison bars that lean into traditional action films while the technology is less shiny and more practical. The ice covered planet looks great and a lot of the large budget presumably went on the army of creatures- called creepers- which swarm over its surface.

Robert Pattinson gives good value as both Mickeys- the scenes where he interacts with himself are seamlessly achieved and the actor draws bold distinctions between the two. As Natasha Naomi Ackie is excellent- fiery, passionate and smart she almost steals the film at times. Mark Ruffalo as Marshall is a little too over the top though his vain, ill informed and childish portrayal does conjure up a certain American president. Had this character been written with less extreme behaviour it might have had more impact though- by the end he’s chewing all the scenery he can find. Toni Collette has fun too as his wife who for some reason is obsessed with making sauces, one of several quirks that give the film a distinctive personality. Mickey’s self serving friend Timo who gets him in a lot of trouble is somewhat underwritten and used very much to drive the plot.

The film climaxes with a scene so noisy, chaotic and lengthy that its impact is diluted somewhat even if there is a sense of being in a wholly alien and very dangerous environment. It makes maximum use of the heavy technology but again more editing would have given this sequence added impact. Like the film as a whole it’s enjoyable but overstays its welcome.