Bong Joon Ho’s "Mickey 17"
Movie review by Dennis D. McDonald
The implications of human cloning are a staple of science fiction, and Mickey 17 is the most ambitious attempt I've seen to bring this theme to the big screen. For the most part, the movie succeeds—but there are a few elements that keep it from being truly great.
Despite running over two hours, the film tries to tackle too many themes to explore any of them deeply. I would have preferred more focus on the personality and relationship conflicts between the different versions of Mickey. Why do they differ so much in personality? That question goes largely unexplored. Given that director Bong Joon Ho has previously handled such complexities well (as seen in Parasite), it's disappointing that Mickey 17's increasing focus on political themes sidelines this potentially rich narrative thread.
The political elements themselves feel ham-fisted and a bit trite. It doesn’t help that so much screen time is devoted to the bizarre relationship between the wannabe dictator (Mark Ruffalo) and his wife (Toni Collette). We've seen the manipulative "Svengali" trope before, and it doesn’t feel particularly convincing here.
Visually, the film is exquisite. Several scenes, especially toward the end, are truly striking on the big IMAX screen. The attention to detail in the sets suggests a great deal of care went into crafting the machinery and physical environment. Still, the film’s consistently muted color palette becomes oppressive over time, even when we finally leave the mothership and reach the surface of the target planet and its strange inhabitants. I couldn’t help but compare these extraterrestrial scenes to Interstellar, where a similarly bleak and cold world was depicted with greater visual clarity.
As for Robert Pattinson as Mickey, I’m still undecided. I’m not sure he strikes the right tone as Mickey 17, the film’s “hapless hero.” In the few scenes where Mickeys 17 and 18 interact, Pattinson does show us a more dynamic contrast between the versions—offering glimpses of a more complex personality conflict. I would have liked to see more of this explored.
Still, Mickey 17 is a film worth seeing. It's ambitious, visually stunning, and it touches on compelling themes of identity, politics, and environment—even if it doesn’t always balance them well. It’s another vision of a dystopian future where, for the disaffected masses, the only escape lies beyond Earth.
Film review copyright 2025 by Dennis D. McDonald
