Bong Joon-Ho makes two kinds of films. He makes socially conscious Korean dramas with genre elements, like "Parasite" and "Mother," which are generally smaller scale and usually very, very good. When he can get a larger studio to foot the bill, he also makes more elaborate allegorical science-fiction films, like "Snowpiercer" and "Okja," which are usually in English, more cartoonish, and I don't enjoy them nearly as much. "Mickey 17" falls squarely in the latter group, a big budget sci-fi black comedy, starring Western actors, that seems very concerned with being broad enough to appeal to a Western audience. It is by no means director Bong's worst film, but "Mickey 17" is far from being another "Parasite." I liked it mostly for Robert Pattinson's performance, but I understand why other viewers have been less happy with the end results.
Mickey Barnes (Pattinson) has signed on to be an "expendable" employee on a space voyage to colonize the planet Niflheim. Thanks to clone printing technology, his memories and consciousness can be transferred to a new body every time he bites the dust, which he is obliged to do over and over again. He's given all the most dangerous assignments on the ship, used as a human guinea pig by scientists, and generally treated very badly by just about everyone. However, during the voyage he does fall in love with the security agent Nasha (Naomi Ackie), who makes things more bearable for him. Others on the ship include the immoral expedition leader Marshall (Mark Ruffalo in "Poor Things" mode), his calculating wife Yifa (Toni Collette), and Mickey's untrustworthy old friend Timo (Steven Yeun). However, Mickey's worst enemy may be himself. After his seventeenth clone, Mickey 17, is mistakenly left for dead on Nilfheim's surface, he makes his way back to the ship to discover Mickey 18 has already been printed.
Roughly the first half of "Mickey 17" is very good. The worldbuilding is excellent, the dark humor is fantastic, and the performances are great. Robert Pattinson is easy to root for as Mickey - a slightly dim working stiff who is unhappy with his lot in life, but very easygoing and loveable. He's that perpetually accommodating loser who doesn't know how to stand up for himself, and ends up being bullied by everyone, including himself. Marshall and Yifa are playing the usual selfish elites that usually show up in Bong Joon-Ho movies - thoughtless, cruel creatures that can be fun if they're funny enough. I wanted Ruffalo and Collette to go further over the top than they did, but I don't really have any complaints. They fit right into "Mickey 17's" nightmare vision of space exploration, where the lower level workers are routinely exploited and deprived with frightening nonchalance, and Marshall and his too-perfect teeth cultivate a zealous cult of personality that keeps him in power. Watching Mickey suffer and die in increasingly gruesome ways is morbidly funny and impactful.
Where the movie loses its way is around the midpoint, when it feels like it's obliged to be a typical Hollywood action blockbuster, and find some way to engineer a happy ending for Mickey and Nasha. This roughly coincides with the appearance of the "Creepers," the dominant alien life form on Niflheim, who look like giant pillbugs. If you're familiar with "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind," they're dead ringers for the Ohmu. Suddenly we're in a very different kind of movie, where the conflicts become very black-and-white, a few minor characters suddenly get a lot more screen time, and Mickey 17's existential quandary with his unwanted twin gets shoved into the background. It's not bad, but it's not nearly as interesting as the movie that we were watching up to that point. There's some messiness with shifting POVs and a weirdly structured ending that makes me suspicious that director Bong was forced to compromise on his finale.
If you're familiar with Bong Joon-Ho's other films, "Mickey 17" fits right in with his other work thematically and aesthetically. It's awkwardly trying to graft a lot of those elements on the structure of a typical blockbuster with mixed results, but I thought that there was plenty worth watching. Pattinson in particular is a lot of fun as the Mickeys, and I hope he has a chance to work on something this big and weird again soon.
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