GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★
Rated: M
Directed by: Bong Joon Ho
Screenplay Written by: Bong Joon Ho
Based on: ‘Mickey7’ by Edward Ashton
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo.
‘Hey Mickey, what’s it feel like to die?’
Based on the novel written by Edward Ashton, Mickey 17 is an absurd sci-fi set in 2054, where people are lining up to leave earth to follow a failed politician, Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) to a new planet, Niflheim.
If they ration food over the four-year journey, and don’t waste calories on exertion, like sex, they can ‘go forth and multiply’ when they reach their new home.
Mickey (Robert Pattinson) and his mate Berto (Steven Yeun) on the run from gangsters sign up.
Mickey signs up to be an expendable.
He didn’t read all the paperwork.
Yes, the movie is filled with idiots.
Mickey, not the worst of them.
The leader is a Trump cross Jimmy Swaggart character with a Frances on his shoulder, the wife here, Gwen, played by Toni Collette.
As well as religion, or religious posturing, Gwen is obsessed with food.
Specifically, making, ‘special sauce.’
All the while, Mickey gets to experience death over and over again.
Mickey dies, then his body gets reprinted in a 3D body printing machine and his memories saved in an actual brick to be reinstalled in the new body.
He also, against the rules, has sex with a special forces soldier, Nasha (Naomi Ackie), who takes a shine to Mickey. As does Kai (Anamaria Vartolomei).
Stupid and reprintable are a plus on the space ship to Niflheim.
And it turns out Mickey 17 is a gentle soul as opposed to the next Mickey who exhibits psychopathic tendencies. Each Mickey has a different personality.
It’s… silly.
And filled with dumb cruelty.
Mickey out in space while the scientists document his death from exposure to radiation:
‘Tell us, When does your skin burn?
When do you go blind?
And when do you die?
That’s the nut.’
All narrated with Mickey’s self-deprecation, his, That’s-what-I-get for-being-an-idiot attitude.
The most interesting part of the film was the natives on the new planet, bug-like creatures that have intelligence, described by Gwen as, ‘A croissant dipped in shit.’
Mostly, I was annoyed and cringing at the possibility of killing out of idiocy.
Which could be seen as a reflection of what happens when one nation invades another.
But the attempt at satire in this film fell flat.
There wasn’t any humour that hit the mark.
Mickey 17 is a different style of movie, I’ll say that. But not in a good way.
