Thoughts: Mickey 17

Bong Joon Ho’s follow-up to his best picture film Parasite can feel both refreshing and disappointing during its two-hour run time. Mickey 17 follows in the footsteps of his previous films like Snowpiercer, Okja, and Parasite in which the film puts an emphasis on social and class themes mixed with elements of a dark comedy, but always felt like it could be more than the sum of its parts. On the surface, Mickey 17 could have been a tale of disposable employees in current economic times or even a commentary on life and rebirth, but instead it turned into a very by-the-numbers story that didn’t take any huge chances or big swings like Joon Ho’s other works. There was definitely a premise here that could have been explored in the effects of a copy, of a copy, of a copy, of a copy, which would have made a more interesting story and align more in tone with Joon Ho’s other works.

Robert Pattinson stars as Mickey Barnes, a very unlucky guy who signs up to become a disposable employee during a mission to colonize a new ice planet named Niflheim. Mickey has his mind and body copied so whenever he dies, a new one will take his place. There are a lot of restrictions placed on copies but most of them don’t feel like they matter too heavily on the plot, which leads to many more questions in direction the film could have gone, but ultimately did not. Even when they arrive at Niflheim, the bugs that inhabit the planet could have been used as a metaphor for replication yet did not have any significant additions to the theme of the movie. There wasn’t anything profound beyond exploitation of a workforce where I think other thematic elements of replication could have been used with more emphasis placed on personal autonomy with each clone created. Without having read the original source material Mickey 7 it’s hard to say which elements were tossed to the side in favor of the narrative chosen.

Mickey 17 had the potential to explore a new side of cloning with the added conjunction of forced labor, but never decided to dive deep into the more philosophical premise of what this could truly mean for the individual. The stakes surrounding Niflheim never amounted to me caring for either iteration of Mickey since the clone could just be reprinted and it left me not caring about any of the characters by the end of it. The potential was there, but this just falls short among the rest of Bong Joon Ho’s filmography.