One industry-wide strike and several pinballing release dates later, Bong Joon-ho’s wildly anticipated Mickey 17 is finally here. Returning to the themes of class segregation and corporate cruelty that laced his earlier work in science fiction (notably Okja), Bong has delivered an uneven but chaotically entertaining film about a world where brutal subjugations aren’t necessarily forced upon us, but rather one where we’ve stooped so low as to opt in.
Adapted from Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel, Mickey 17 stars a-game Robert Pattinson as various versions of the ‘Expendable’ Mickey Barnes, a man whose occupation involves being blithely assigned to suffer all manner of affliction, from suicide missions to chemical trials, all with the dubious promise of rebirth from an organic printer. Barnes is one small part of a mission to colonize Niflheim, a distant ice world where the resident beasts are less monstrous than they first appear. With a little help from them, Mickey’s 17th iteration lives long enough to encounter his 18th. Chaos ensues.
Rich in hapless fools and gallows humour, Ashton’s story is a fine match for the South Korean’s signature blend of pathos and comic fatalism, even if its wildest swings (you have to wonder about those post-production issues) leave you with a sense of inconsistency. Whatever it lacks in coherence, however, Bong more than makes up for in the smaller details. The tech is hilariously haphazard, not least the literal crumbling brick used to store Mickey’s personality.
Like any ardent cinephile, the director knows that a space opera tends to live or die on the vibrancy of its crew. Bong’s includes a formidable Naomi Ackie (as Mickey’s girlfriend, Nasha), Steven Yeun in oily douchebag mode, the radiant Anamaria Vartolomei, and a teeth-whitened Mark Ruffalo in a performance that combines similar traits to two of arguably the most hated men of the year.
Mickey 17 will be released in cinemas on 7 March
