Mickey 17

Mickey 17 Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Robert Pattinson, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo, Naomi Ackie, and Steven Yeun.

Director: Bong Joon-ho

What’s Good: The visuals, Monty Python humor, and acting are superb, elevating the cliché premise.

What’s Bad: The humor can be quite silly for some people, which might turn them off from enjoying the rest of the film.

Loo Break: The start might feel a bit slow, and the film meanders quite a bit with its topics, so any time could be good.

Watch or Not?: Watch Mickey 17 if you are a fan of Bong Joon-ho, Robert Pattinson, or sci-fi in general.

Language: English (with subtitles).

Available On: Theaters

Runtime: 137 Minutes.

User Rating:

Opening:

Bong Joon-ho has become, without a doubt, one of the biggest and most important South Korean directors. He has managed to take his work outside the frontiers of his country and into the global scene with great success, talking about universal situations shared by all inhabitants of planet Earth. His new film, Mickey 17, does just that, once again, being an on-the-nose satire about the risks of capitalism and the benefits of a more social approach to life.

Mickey 17 Movie Review: Script Analysis

Bong Joon-ho has always been a very political director, and his interests are very clear, as his films always relate in one way, shape, or form to social and economic themes: class struggle, corruption, environmental conversation, and economic and political systems such as capitalism and socialism. Bong Joon-ho is obsessed with these themes, and in Mickey 17, the director allows himself to go all in when it comes to exploring these themes and preach about what he thinks is the best way to live.

This approach to cinema will definitely rough some feathers as the political commentary becomes such an essential part of the film that it might be its entire theme, with other aspects just there for variety. Right now, there is a social shift towards more conservative ideas, which might hurt the film initially until the right audience finds it on VOD and other platforms. As it stands, the film feels disjointed because the script tries to do too many things simultaneously.

The sci-fi premise of a subclass of citizens trapped inside an economic system that sees them only as tools and not much more has been around for a long time, since Metropolis, for example. Having Bong Joon-ho mix his own Snowpiercer and Okja into one film definitely takes originality points out of this one. It might still be fun and thought-provoking, but there is definitely an issue with films trying to do too many things and not really focusing on one at all.

In many ways, the story would have worked so much better as an HBO miniseries, with Bong Joon-ho having enough time to develop each aspect of this world and actually find nuance in the topics being discussed. As it stands, the political commentary feels like a one-way street, and it is there that people will find issues, as the film sometimes feels more like political propaganda than an actual film.

Mickey 17 Movie Review: Star Performance

Robert Pattinson is very far away from being the vampire from Twilight. Yet, some people still see him as only that, which is very weird and only speaks volumes of those people, as Pattinson has curated an outstanding career filled with incredible performances, including this one here in Mickey 17, delivering a performance where he seems to be having so much infectious fun. And yes, he is playing several parts at the same time, and he achieves the goal of making each one of them unique.

Ruffalo and Collette are perfect, playing very cartoon versions of capitalist moguls who are only interested in profit. Yes, their performances are quite over the top, but that is the point. Still, many people will not like it. Ackie and Yeun have smaller roles when it comes to presence on screen, but they have great charisma, and their characters become fundamental to the entire situation, so everyone has a moment to shine.