We missed Mickey 1 – 16 primarily because they don’t exist but ‘Mickey 17’ is the latest after a six year absence from director Boon Joon Ho since his Oscar winning glory with ‘Parasite’ and this new film is based on the novel by Edward Ashton.
A near future 2054 sees Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes a man who’s involvement with his friends Timo (Steven Yeoh) dodgy deals and make a quick buck scheme go South and sees them both pursued by sadistic loan shark Darius (Ian Hanmore). It’s going to end very badly for them both if they don’t pay him back and desperate times call for desperate measures and the pair sign up for a space trip to colonize the planet Niflheim. It’s all been organized by egotistical buffoon Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) and his equally awful wife Yifa (Toni Collette) intent on starting ‘a pure, white planet full of superior people like us’.
So whilst Timo saves his own skin Mickey sees himself segregated into the ‘expendable’ category assigned for jobs that are likely to see him dead and sees him contract and die from an air borne virus. And he dies, repeatedly. Because Mickey has unwittingly signed himself up for a programme that sees his body and DNA able to be reprinted identically and hence we find him as the Mickey 17 of the title with previous incarnations having been used to test vaccines for the virus. And it would seem that Mickey 18 won’t be far away when he finds himself isolated, injured and seemingly about to meet another end at the hands, or more accurately legs, of ‘creepers’ an indigenous grub like species. But it turns out that the creepers are not vicious parasitic killers but instead help him back to the ship where the crew have assumed he is dead and have reprinted him as Micky 18 who now exists against company rules that prevent duplicates co-existing. More problematic for Mickey 17 is that Mickey 18 is out to assassinate Marshall.
It’s easy to see the appeal of the novel for Boon Joon Ho with its themes of climate disaster, oppressive power, and capitalism at the expense of the powerless nearly all personified by Ruffalo and Collette’s cartoonish characters. It’s an intriguing set up set around cloning and a load of other ideas too but as the film goes on it becomes less cohesive and a little bit daft with blunt and obvious political swipes with Ruffalo allowed to go full OTT. There’s awkward slapstick, blunt satire and an appearance by our own Tim Key who is increasingly proving to be a compelling actor ( see his cameo role in Ricky Gervais’ ‘After Life’ as an unhinged controlling suitor on a dinner date) but here he inexplicably parades around in a giant pigeon costume to no comic effect.
Pattinson is as good as ever in the dual roles as 17 & 18 and an antithesis to each other and the scenes as he interacts with himself are a marvel and wholly convincing especially when the pair battle for the attention of love interest Nasha (Naomi Ackie). Mickey 17 is another reminder that given the right material he’s a talented actor. But the question that is central to the film and asked throughout of Mickey 17, ‘What is it like to die?’ is one that is never explored and is left hanging and ultimately ignored.
Mickey 17 is a bit of a mish-mash never really sure what it wants to be and as a film it’s a difficult sell that’s been reflected in its release date having been repeatedly pushed back. And after the director Oscar winning success with Parasite this follow up film is something of a disappointment.
related feature : Jon Ronson talks about working with Bong Jooon Ho on ‘Ojka’
related feature : Robert Pattinson’s Batman voice and why he dropped it….
Here’s the Mickey 17 trailer……
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