Buried deep in Bong Joon Ho’s long, tedious and meandering Mickey 17 is a compelling sci-fi drama-comedy that explores what life is like if you know you can’t die, but unfortunately it’s not so easy to fast forward through the parts that don’t work.
Mickey 17 is both ambitious and oddly lazy, a movie that needed to be sent through the 3D body printer a few more times to find its cinema-ready incarnation. Maybe it would have been Mickey 18. More than likely, we are talking about Mickey 25.
There are great components scattered throughout this picture. Robert Pattinson continues to prove just how tepid the Twilight productions were by delivering one oddball masterclass after the next (is he one of the most talented actors working today? Maybe). He’s terrific in this, offering up a weird, unusual, and downright immersive performance as the title character. The concept is incredible, raising unique questions about life and souls while layered with a critique of politics and Trumpism and respect for those we don’t understand.
The first act of Mickey 17 is near perfect, beginning with an opening shot of an ice-caked Pattinson lying at the bottom of a crevice. It’s a seemingly simple shot that immediately reminds you that you’re watching a movie by a visionary filmmaker; at the very least, you know the damn thing is going to look great. From there, Joon Ho dives into his comically depraved tale, introducing us to the unique individual that is Mickey and the weird circumstances that led him to be trapped on a spaceship ruled by a fanatical, populist idiot (played by an over-the-top Mark Ruffalo, who seems to be in a phase of playing over-the-top skeezeballs).
As Mickey 17 unspools, however, Joon Ho starts to lose control of the story. Beyond the central plot there are politics, animal grub creatures, and quasi-threesomes, each entertaining in their own way but not a natural fit to play in the same arena. It all begins to feel overwhelming, even tedious, and ultimately aimless.
Joon Ho wraps things up in a nice, shiny bow, an odd decision for a movie that presumably is poking fun at the dangers of blindly following a man who tells you what you want to hear. The entire climax largely falls flat, even though there is action, comedy, and everything in between. At two hours and 15 minutes, the whole experiment feels overly long and tiring.
Mickey 17 has a lot to like, and we should always cherish unique stories from top-tier filmmakers. The movie is ambitious, clever, and superbly acted. Which makes it all the more disappointing when it all comes together.
Review by Erik Samdahl.