SPOILER WARNING: The next article provides away just a few essential plot particulars from Mickey 17. You probably have not but seen the brand new sci-fi film, it’s not like we are able to simply print out a brand new model of you that wipes the reminiscence of those spoilers clear. So, proceed with warning as you learn on.
I think about Mickey 17 to be my favourite 2025 film to this point. Much like Eric Eisenberg’s overview of Mickey 17, I believe it boasts a extremely ingenious idea – primarily based on writer Edward Ashton’s dystopian novel, Mickey 7 – a blinding efficiency by Robert Pattinson as each the title hero and his more bad-tempered clone, and an irresistibly zany satirical tone that might solely be perfected by an artist as proficient as Bong Joon Ho. Nonetheless, I need to admit that I’d not name it an entirely good film.
The Academy Award-winning South Korean filmmaker’s follow-up to his Finest Image Oscar winner, 2019’s Parasite, touches on many attention-grabbing matters, starting from the socioeconomic to the philosophical. As a lot as I love its method to the previous, I’d have liked to see it go a bit deeper into the latter, particularly with regard to at least one explicit theme that I discovered remarkably fascinating however largely underdeveloped in Mickey 17. Enable me to elucidate…
I Wished A Deeper Exploration Of Its “Lifeless Ceaselessly” Theme
The principle focus of Mickey 17 is Robert Pattinson’s title character (whom the actor adopted a Steve-O-esque voice to play), whose position as an “expendable” requires him to endure grueling duties that always show deadly, however on the promise that he will likely be “reprinted” in a brand new physique with the identical recollections every time. Issues get difficult when he’s assumed to be useless and returns to discover a concurrent duplicate of himself, which is illegitimate, which means that certainly one of them has to die. Nonetheless, neither Mickey 17 nor Mickey 18 needs to be the one to make sure there will likely be a single Mickey as a result of they each worry the finality of demise.
Now, that actually had my consideration: a person who has been resurrected from the useless on a number of events and now, for the primary time, is pressured to confront a everlasting destiny. An idea like this raises a lot artistic potential that might have been explored extra steadily, maybe by displaying the Mickeys amicably discussing their considerations, however it is just acknowledged a few different instances, most considerably when Mickey 18 admits he’s afraid of demise earlier than sacrificing himself to kill Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo). By the top, the movie’s exploration of demise in a time when it may be averted looks like a little bit of an afterthought. Then once more, there should not have been sufficient time to dedicate to that subject with so many different concepts competing for display time. On that be aware…
I Assume Mickey 17 Struggles To Steadiness Its Many Concepts
Any fan of Bong Joon Ho’s motion pictures is aware of that the filmmaker loves to include a deeper message hidden beneath the story, which he has demonstrated masterfully in titles like 2014’s Snowpiercer, which is a classist allegory disguised as an action-packed post-apocalyptic thriller. Nonetheless, with Mickey 17, the filmmaker goes for a extra overt satirical method to all kinds of themes, together with non secular fanaticism, xenophobia, fascism, drug trafficking, the ethical complexities of cloning, and doubtless just a few extra that I may not have even caught alone.
I completely applaud Bong for crafting such a weird and hilarious movie that makes an attempt to assault so many frighteningly related points. But, I additionally consider that the movie might have been much more highly effective with a extra central deal with one subject, very similar to the filmmaker’s earlier satirical outings. Bong instructed Stephen Colbert on The Late Present that he believes Mickey 17 is a movie in regards to the human situation, and I definitely see the place he was coming from, however I additionally can not assist however really feel that mentioned theme will get buried like Mickey clone.
On prime of its battle to steadiness so many matters directly, I additionally assume Mickey 17 has just a few characters who get the brief finish of the stick. For example, I agree with Alexandra Ramos that Steven Yeun’s Timo deserved a bigger position, and I additionally consider that Kai Katz (Anamaria Vartolomei), who has a crush on Mickey, is criminally underused. Actually, although, I believe all of those points are nonetheless barely a detriment to what I predict will likely be thought to be a beloved sci-fi film traditional someday.