Ryan Shoots First: Mickey 17 (2025)

Mickey 17 marks the return of the visionary director Bong Joon Ho. Ho has a wide breadth of films across various genres including Snowpiercer, The Host, and Parasite. Each one appears to be in a very specific genre but not without a Joon Ho flip that injects an almost secret meaning in there. Snowpiercer appears to be a sci-fi film about a train in a dystopian future but that is all just a stage for a film about class structure and survival. The Host on the surface looks like a monster movie, standard destruction but it really turns out to be about a virus, government oversight, and the bonds of family. Parasite, of which he won an Oscar, appears to be a drama but again pulls into themes of family and class with an almost thriller edge. Regardless his seeming lack of a “style” has become his style as certain themes and actors pop up in all his films.  So where does Mickey 17 fit? How do you follow up on your magnum opus that got you the Oscar?

Well, it is hard to pin down Mickey 17, it feels like his most overt take at comedy. Many of his movies have a sort of exaggerated style that can bring comedic moments, like in The Host or in Snowpiercer but Mickey I would firmly place into the realm of a comedy more than those. But you may be thinking “Isn’t it sci-fi with space travel and cloning?” and yes. Mickey 17 throws a lot at the wall and some of it sticks while some feel like they forgot to clean it off the floor. I enjoy the sci-fi elements, the notion of expendables is intriguing, and people or clones are used over and over again to test dangerous scenarios, hazardous situations, or even cures for diseases. How great would that be! But the movie forces us to face what that would mean for the individual. The highlight of the film is the acting of Robert Pattinson as Mickey. He is in almost every scene and carries the movie with his multiple iterations of Mickey. He shows us what dying over and over again could do to a person and the little things of life you find solace in. A common trend is everyone on the ship asking him “What is it like to die?” a question that even begins to offend him. Then through an accident, he is faced with what happens when they make a copy before the base dies. We end up with multiples and this is where R Pat shines playing off himself in Mickey 17 and 18. Everything that works in the movie revolves around him, but the further away from him we get the more stuff starts missing the wall. 

Around Mickey are multiple characters that seem to flow in and out of the plot never leaving an impact and lacking some consistency. Their motives and actions kinda change wildly and it can be hard to keep track of. Naturally having a fledgling human race all on a ship harkens back to Snowpiercer and Ho does dip back into that well with cartoonish authority figures and images of class but with nowhere near the edge Snowpiercer had. The end tries to add a bit of edge but by then the comedy and outlandish depictions have neutered any perceived grit. The movie also is extremely horny? There is an aura of sexual repression over the religious overtones, telling everyone they can’t bone while the ship is on the journey but once they get to their planet it will be bone central. Multiple interactions between characters have this sexual tension and overtone, just felt like Ho needed a good lay when he wrote it. Naturally, the outlandish authority leader whose followers wear red hats and is kinda an idiot will no doubt draw some easy comparisons, he’s also played by Mark Ruffalo who isn’t shy about his political views.

Mickey 17 feels like it has a lot to say, and like when I have not seen my kids for the weekend, and when I see them they unload days’ worth of ideas, theories, lore, and issues on me rapid-fire. The film feels like that, there is style there and a great performance from Pattinson but it seems like some more focus and discernment could have helped the film be a little tighter, even for Bong Joon Ho’s mind. Maybe after the Oscar, no one in the room was willing to raise their hand and go “Uhhh sir?”