Dying isn't any fun...but at least it's a living." That statement is part of the description on Amazon for the witty, sarcastic novel, "Mickey7" written by Edward Ashton and published in 2022. "Mickey7" has been adapted into the rated R comedy, "Mickey 17" written and directed by the revered South Korean, Bong Joon Ho. For those of you who don't remember, Bong Joon Ho made Hollywood history when his 2019 film "Parasite" won Best Picture at the Oscars; the first film not in English to do so.
This director/screenwriter's follow-up to "Parasite" is one with many eyes on it now, but that doesn't make it terrific. "Mickey 17" is a dark, science-fiction satire about a team of humans who leave Earth to start a colony on a far away planet covered in snow and ice. One member of this colonizing crew is a clumsy, unfortunate, soft man named Mickey played with a mumbling, incompetent casualness by Robert Pattinson ("The Batman," 2022).
Mickey's job is an Expendable, a lower-level worker who carries out the hazardous jobs other crew members would never do. These dangerous jobs include testing the effects of cosmic radiation, checking the new planet's atmosphere for possible viruses, and exploring the colony's surrounding landscape. Many of these jobs result in death, but each time Mickey dies an advanced machine generates, or prints, a new clone of Mickey's body with his same memories and knowledge as his previous itieration. Why sacrifice the lives of dozens of colonists when you can easily sacrifice just one life over and over again?
The oppressed Mickey hits a snag when his 17th version is assumed to have died and an 18th clone is printed, resulting in two living Mickey's in this isolated colony, which carries very serious punishment. "Mickey 17" is a socially conscious comedy of errors mixed with a juvenile love story and an alien adventure. (Mickey does discover an alien species on the frozen planet; a combination of a woolly mammoth with a squid.)
The role of an Expendable is an acerbic metaphor of today's economy in our current world of late stage capitalism, with the downtrodden working class being routinely exploited by the more powerful (and more wealthy) upper class in the name of progress and domination. The class distinctions soon grow into class warfare when people start to fight for Mickey's equality. All of that (Mickey's class distinction) is shown very well, and Robert Pattinson is entertaining to watch playing opposite himself. His performance is impressively tangible and realistically weary. The scenes with the two Mickeys fighting and arguing reminded me a bit of the brilliant science-fiction drama, "Moon" (2009).
But I walked away from "Mickey 17" thinking it was just okay. The irreverent, coarse vibe is successfully funny in some moments, but it tries too hard in other moments, making some of the actors' line readings feel forced or boring. This inconsistent quality of believability, or maturity, in the dialogue gives the film an elegance that is lacking. If you're going to go with the tone of harshly noisy caricature, then have at it. "Mickey 17" tries to do too much beyond that. Too many sub-plots and too many ideas. Mark Ruffalo's ("Poor Things," 2023) performance as a stupidly bombastic politician is too over the top to be enjoyed (despite it's clear reference to a popular political leader of our day).
And the climax is far too convoluted with too many characters, too many new technologies, and too many opposing forces exploding together in a big, rushed merging of humans and aliens. Robert Pattinson's energetically physical performance is fun, but "Mickey 17" as a whole has too many rough edges, or just maybe too many edges in general, for it to be a real triumph.
But as always, I love applauding something that is unique. And at least "Mickey 17" has that going for it in the limited options we have at movie theaters right now.
