 "Mickey 17 movie review: Robert Pattinson-Bong Joon-ho's sci-fi comedy is charmingly absurd, completely insane & wildly entertaining")
Star cast: Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Filmmaker Bong Joon-ho garnered global popularity with Parasite, which earned the Palme d’Or followed by bagging Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay, making it the first non-English film to win Best Picture.
Now, the South Korean filmmaker is ready to entertain us with Mickey 17 featuring Robert Pattinson in the titular role. Based on the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, the sci-fi black comedy recently premiered at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival.
While the trailer and the recent screening have garnered rave reviews, let’s find out whether it lives up to the sky-high expectations of cinegoers…
It’s 2054 AD, Mickey 17 (Robert Pattinson), which means Mickey’s 17th clone is almost half-dead as he is inside the hole of a snow-covered cave. His friend Timo (Steven Yeun) finds him but chooses to leave him to die as he will be cloned again the next day.
Now, Mickey takes us to a flashback of nearly four-and-a-half years, how he signed up to be an “expendable” on the new colony planet Niflheim lead by Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) and his wife Ylfa (Toni Collette), one of the deadliest jobs where he is cloned after death time and time again, after his ‘friend’ Timo asks him to collaborate for a Macarons business, which leaves the pair in a huge debt and now they are chased by one of the dangerous loan sharks.
Cut to the present, Mickey 17 is saved by the alienated creepers, who are inhabitants of Niflheim. As he reaches the colony, his survival comes as a surprise, as everyone assumed he is dead, and Mickey 18 bumps into him. The situation goes awry as one of the strictest rules in the colony planet is that if there are ‘multiples’ of a clone, all clones are killed. Now, they have to team up not only for their survival but also to prevent a potential apocalypse.
Bong Joon-ho once again showcases his impeccable filmmaking skills, where he adds the inhuman emotional depth to the storytelling as the subject is emotional but treated in a dark comical way. He perfectly blends and balances the layered and underlayered tones to deliver a mind-boggling visual spectacle.
Talking about the performances, Robert as Mickey Barnes/17/18 displays his acting mettle and versatility by smoothly and effortlessly expressing a variety of emotions from being cynical, angry and scared of death, to show distinct features of his characters.
Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette are menacing, cunning and inhuman and make you hate their characters to the core. Naomi Ackie as Nasha is badass and charismatic as Mickey’s love.
On the whole, Mickey 17 is easily one of the best films of the year, which should be witnessed on the big screen.
Rating: 3.5 (out of 5 stars)
Mickey 17 will release on 7th March
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