A standard was set after the blazing success of Parasite. Production from Warner Bros. was a huge look in the right direction as was the cast. With such names as Robert Pattinson and Mark Ruffalo, it seemed like Bong Joon Ho had everything working in his favor. In the end, what was delivered should’ve gone straight to streaming.
A large swath of volunteers leave Earth on a spaceship to colonize an ice planet. Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) volunteered to be an “expendable”. As such, he volunteers his body for research purposes and when he dies, they simply make a copy of his body. Referred to as “duplicates”, they eventually run up to the number 17, which is where the movie begins.
To start things off, this film may hold a record of some sort for how long the film ran before we saw a title screen. While the clock was ticking, the film moved at a pace that was enjoyable to a certain extent, but not long before things started going left. The film’s success and its failures can be divided by the hour.
In the first hour, everything was new and fresh to the senses. We get background on Mickey and his friend Timo (Steven Yeun) and learn how they got caught up in a space expedition. Once in space, Mickey falls for a woman named Nasha (Naomi Ackie). She shows compassion for Mickey and is the lone person who treats him kindly. The leader of this wild escapade is Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), an over-the-top politician who oozed religious fanaticism. His wild actions and Trump-esque speech pattern were a hit within the first hour. Over time, everyone became annoying and things went off the rails.
The core issue with the second hour going awry was dialogue. Nasha’s character changed without notice or explanation. A kind, clean-cut soul who loved Mickey and was always at her best, somehow ends up using drugs in one scene and goes on a vulgar tirade in another. Life forms are discovered in the second part of the film and are eventually given a voice. How they chose to use their voices was weird. Even Kenneth Marshall had lines where his monologuing became tiring and mundane, as did his wife Ylfa (Toni Collette). The comedy shifted too far to reactive when it should’ve stayed dark. Awkward pauses, an uncomfortable sex scene, and an extraneous and unnecessary 30 minutes of film didn’t bode well for the film.
Mickey 17 gets a 6 out of 10. The one thing that stood out in the film was Robert Pattinson. Aside from the brief and unnecessary sex scene, Pattinson was a bright spot, flexing his acting chops playing two different versions of himself; assertive and quick to anger in one while docile and kind in the other. He ran the gamut of emotions and pulled off a solid performance. It’s also hard to dislike Steven Yeun but easy to dislike his character Timo. This is definitely one to leave the kids at home with the nudity and explicit language. Also, keep your phone close by because you’ll be searching for the time since the second half is a slow burn.
Mickey 17 premieres in theaters on March 7.
-Jon Jones
Photos: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Genre: Comedy, Sci-Fi
Rating: R
Runtime: 2hrs 19 mins.
Trailer: Watch
U.S. Release Date: March 7, 2025