by Anthony O'Connor
Worth: $13.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette, Anamaria Vartolomei, Daniel Henshall
Intro:
...while Joon-ho’s direction is superb, with strikingly beautiful imagery and world building, his script is inconsistent and seems to shy away from the big questions that it asks.
It’s been six long years since Korean director Bong Joon-ho dropped his last film, the darkly satirical thriller Parasite. Since the critical and commercial success of that flick, speculation has been rife about what the talented 55-year-old would release next. Would it be another contemporary tale dripping with incisive social commentary like Parasite? Or would he pursue another genre effort like 2006’s brilliant The Host? Well, now we’ve got the answer with his latest, Mickey 17, and while it’s a satire-heavy genre tale, it’s not quite as sharp as one might expect from Bong.
Mickey 17 tells the tale of Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson), a hapless ne’er-do-well who has escaped his financial troubles on Earth to become an expendable clone worker for the human colony of Nilfheim. Basically, Mickey gets sent to do all the dangerous work and when he inevitably carks it, his bosses simply print out a brand new Mickey. Problems arise when Mickey 17 falls into an icy crevasse and everyone assumes that he’s dead. However, when the scrappy bloke manages to claw his way back to civilisation, he finds Mickey 18 sleeping in his bed. Since multiples are very much frowned upon in this society, and would cause both clones to be permanently deleted if discovered, the pair must reckon with their new situation and work out what the hell they’re going to do.
Mickey 17, first and foremost, has a great premise. A tongue-in-cheek sci-fi adventure about a disposable schlub being thrust into a tale that deals with identity, consciousness and what it means to be human seems like fecund ground for lofty, thought-provoking exploration. And for the first half of the film we get exactly that, it’s great stuff. However, somewhere after the first hour, the wheels come off in a rather spectacular way and the story never quite rights itself. There are also major tonal issues at work, with Mark Ruffalo delivering a performance that is so over-the-top, unhinged and ridiculous that it feels like he’s wandered off a ketamine assisted SNL skit and is vamping for the crowd. Whether the script, the director or his performance are at fault, it’s just awful and ridiculous, particularly when he seems to be channelling a certain divisive American politician who we’re all a bit sick of. Like, seriously, slather his face with bronzer and pop a labrador-hair merkin on his head and it’s 100% an impression of ol’ mate, which was probably very cathartic for Ruffalo, but a bit on-the-nose and dull for everyone else. Robert Pattinson is very good in dual roles, as is Steven Yeun as always, but the script is less kind to both Naomi Ackie and Toni Collette, both of whom are forced to become very shouty and goofy by the film’s end. And while Joon-ho’s direction is superb, with strikingly beautiful imagery and world building, his script is inconsistent and seems to shy away from the big questions that it asks. This is particularly true of the third act, which almost completely abandons the headier themes and becomes downright simplistic.
Now, if all of this seems like a pan, understand that it’s not. Mickey 17 is actually an agreeably enjoyable film with (mostly) great performances and some memorable moments. It’s just not up to the very high standard set by Bong Joon-ho and feels more in line with his ‘good but not great’ gear like Okja as opposed to his masterworks like The Host and Parasite. It’s ironic that a film about an easily replicated serf class ends up feeling so disposable.
