A One Mann’s Movies review of “Mickey 17″ (2025).
“Mickey 17” is the latest from “Parasite” director Bong Joon Ho. But this is a very different animal. It is far more akin to his more action/adventure oriented films like “Snowpiercer” although with a strong undercurrent of black comedy. Sadly, it didn’t fully chime with me, despite having some fun moments.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“Mickey 17” Plot:
Mickey Barnes (Robert Patinson) and his business partner Timo (Steven Yeun) need to escape earth in a hurry to avoid some chain-saw-wielding money-lenders. Mickey signs on to an off-world mission to the planet Nifhaim as an “expendable”. This is a tough gig (“I really should have read through the paperwork”) where he regularly faces certain death. The only upside is that after each fatal encounter Mickey is ‘reprinted’ out again and ‘rebooted’ with his past thoughts.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Strong language, violence, injury detail, sex, drug misuse”.)
Talent:
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette, Holliday Grainger, Tim Key, Steve Park, Edward Davis.
Directed by: Bong Joon Ho.
Written by: Boon Jong Ho. (Based on the book by Edward Ashton.)
Running Time: 2h 17m.
“Mickey 17″ Summary:
Positives:
- An interesting premise with a lot of potential.
- The quirky comedy occasionally lands well.
- Ruffalo and Collette as a Trumpian leader and first lady.
Negatives:
- It’s tonally a little ‘all over the place’ story-wise.
- Overlong.
Review of “Mickey 17”:
Live Die Repeat…. Repeated.
Yes, we’ve been here before with Tom Cruise in “Edge of Tomorrow“. But the concept of an off-world eternal-dogsbody is quite appealing and the film starts strongly exploring, in flashback, the past 16 lives. There’s more than a trace of Hoth in the icy caverns with our hero left to his fate with a ravenous Wampa-equivalent, here named a “Creeper” by the Trumpian-like Kenneth Marshall (and he’s never wrong!). As such the rationale for the occurrence of “multiples” is entertainingly sound and enjoyable.
Trumpian absurdity.
Mark Ruffalo delivers a superb Donald Trump impression, complete with absurd Trumpian pronouncements and affectations. (Like Sebastian Stan for “The Apprentice“, it will be sure to keep Ruffalo off the White House Christmas card list, a fact I’m sure he’s devastated about!) In place of Melania, we have Toni Collette as Ylfa, equally manic and obsessed with creating the perfect sauce to go with their meals; a trait that you feel Douglas Adams would have been proud of.
Both actors deliver this at about an 11, which wouldn’t normally work but here it does.
Pattinson, Pattinson and Ackie.
Elsewhere in the acting stakes, Pattinson does well as Mickeys 1 through 16 and then (primarily) Mickey 17 and Mickey 18. Unlike Theo James in “The Monkey“, I actually felt like there were two Pattinson’s acting together, which is quite a feat.
Naomi Ackie continues to go from strength to strength and is great value here as the love interest Nasha. It makes for a most unusual love triangle. However, I thought the opportunity for the most potentially unusual on-screen threesome since “Challengers” was again ducked. Lots of tease…. not enough sex.
Elsewhere, some top talent (like “Strike”‘s Holliday Grainger) and Steve Park feel underused. Tim (“Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa“) Key makes a rare big screen appearance as a bizarre avian-variant on Al from “Big Al’s Toy Barn”!
Don’t judge an alien book by its cover.
There is also a neat twist to the ‘planet occupied by deadly aliens’ trope that is more “Close Encouters” than “Alien”. In fact, the film’s story evolves into a neat ecological message that lands well.
All of the special effects for the creepers are well done, utilising a combination of practical effects and VFX.
But it’s an overlong and jumbled muddle.
All of this positive writing makes me wonder if I’ve been a bit harsh with my 3* rating: there were many aspects of this film that I really enjoyed a great deal. But, then again, no.
Tonally, the film seems all over the place, sometimes veering from its Sci-Fi basis into manic comedy, only some of which sticks. There are all sorts of diversions down cul-de-sacs that seem to be in there simply to increase the, already overlong, running time. A section about a replicating psycho, Alan Manikova (Edward Davis), seems to go nowhere, as does the whole Darius Black revenge subplot (or were these two bits related? I lose track!). And just when you expect the film to end, we have a bizarre dream-sequence that really fails to work at all. A 90 minute film that stuck to its core knitting would have been far better.
Summary Thoughts on “Mickey 17″
It probably didn’t help matters that I saw this film in a Portuguese cinema where the projector seemed to have a 60 Watt bulb in it. But, peering through the murk, I could perceive that this was an ambitious attempt by Boon Joon Ho at a Sci-Fi/Comedy epic. But for me, it was a bit of a swing and a miss. I might give it a second try to see if greater illumination increases the enjoyment. But that being said, I will be coming back to the UK with a backlog of other films to watch!
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “Mickey 17″:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA1s65o_kYM .
Subscribe
Don’t forget, you can subscribe to One Mann’s Movies to receive future reviews by email right here. No salesman will call!
