Mickey 17, released March 7th, is South Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning Korean language film, Parasite. This is Joon-ho’s first comedic film, and third English language film, following Snowpiercer and Okja. It combines the director’s signature political and social commentary with dark comedy and science fiction. The film stars Robert Pattinson as multiple iterations of his character, Mickey. The supporting cast includes Naomi Ackie, Toni Colette, Mark Ruffalo, and Steven Yeun.

Based on Ashton Edward’s book Mickey 7, published in 2022, Mickey 17 tells the story of a low-ranking man employed by a space colony in the near-distant future. Mickey boards an expedition to colonize a planet and signs up to be an “expendable”. His job is to complete various missions needed for the betterment of humanity. He is sent on every mission with the intention that he will die, and be reprinted. Mickey experiences a variety of gory and painful deaths until one day things go wrong when his corpse does not return to the colony. 

The film has an emotional core which makes itself more apparent as the story continues. Robert Pattinson pulls the audience’s heartstrings with the various iterations of the naive and sympathetic Mickey. Pattinson’s acting performance and variety between iterations of Mickey were impressive. His choice of accent made his character far more fascinating; a choice not required for the role but made by Pattinson.  Naomi Ackie delivers a heroic and emotional performance as Nasha, Mickey’s love interest.

I went into Mickey 17 with high expectations for the genre meshing of sci-fi and comedy, and I was not disappointed by this aspect of the film. The blend of sci-fi and dark comedy works perfectly, with a naturally hilarious plot and an epic sci-fi backdrop. This mix of genres is underutilized in the film industry, why have we not been making more dark comedy science fiction films? 

The score is composed by Jung Jaeil who created the score for Squid Game. Mickey 17’s score is melodramatic and classical setting the tone for the absurdity on screen. The score reminds me of scores paired with slapstick comedy of the silent era. Mickey 17 has a few moments of slapstick comedy, which are paired perfectly with the extravagant score. There are also heartfelt and somber moments in the score, which blend perfectly with the shifting genres of the film. The music builds the tension excellently in both comedic and serious scenes; and was one of my favorite aspects of the film.

The pacing of this film is all over the place, and the story is difficult to follow unless you pay close attention. This is Bong Joon-ho’s most maximalist film, in scale and plot. There are a lot of ideas that are quickly presented and dropped within the film, but I enjoyed the chaos this created. The sprawling and chaotic nature of the plot is dividing audiences. Some left the movie disappointed by the messy story, others went along the journey and didn’t mind the insanity. I am among the second group of viewers. Despite the sprawling plot and a few jokes that didn’t land, Mickey 17 is an epic science fiction film with witty humor sprinkled into almost every scene. 

There were so many plot lines and concepts introduced in two hours that it became overwhelming. This made me think Mickey 17 was meant to be a much longer film until Warner Bros. pitched their cuts. The plot suffered from overstuffing, although this hardly impacted my enjoyment of the film. Joon-ho was given full creative freedom in the production and editing of the film, but ultimately Warner Bros wanted changes to the edit. 

Mickey 17’s release was delayed for a year, originally to be released in March 2024. The source material, Mickey 7 was released only three years ago in 2022. The speed at which this film was created is insane when compared to other book adaptation films that took over a decade to make. I am curious as to what the original version of the film was like. 

Releasing Mickey 17 in theaters was risky for Warner Bros Pictures, who pooled $118 million into the project. During its opening weekend, Mickey 17 made $19 million; a smaller figure for a film with a large budget. This does not signify that Mickey 17 will be unsuccessful or a flop, but it does mean that Warner Brother may not break even on this one. That being said, Mickey 17 has had the largest domestic opening weekend of any of director Bong Joon-ho’s films. 

I enjoyed the chaos of Mickey 17, and recommend it to anyone willing to have a little bit of fun. See Mickey 17 while it’s in theaters! Score: 89%