‘Mickey 17’ review: Bong Joon Ho unites with Robert Pattinson for quirky near-future drama

Dir/scr: Bong Joon Ho. US/South Korea. 2025. 137mins 

Six years after his Oscar-winning Parasite, writer-director Bong Joon Ho returns with a sci-fi darkish comedy that echoes a few of the most potent themes of his earlier movies, albeit on a a lot larger price range and narrative canvas. Robert Pattinson performs a mediocre everyman 30 years sooner or later who performs thankless, extremely harmful duties for his fellow Earthlings as all of them head to a distant planet — every time he dies, a reproduction of him is created who will perform the identical tasks. Recalling Snowpiercer’s dystopian unease, Okja’s oddball sense of humour and Parasite’s melancholy, Mickey 17 generally wobbles balancing its totally different tones. However what holds Bong’s eighth function collectively is his palpable rage at humanity’s cruelty combined together with his compassion for a protagonist who can not die – and, subsequently, can not really dwell.

Pattinson’s efficiency offers this sci-fi image its resonance

Taking part in as a Berlin Particular Gala after its London premiere, this Warner Bros movie opens in South Korea on February 28 then rolls out globally, releasing within the US on March 7 and the UK on April 18. Pattinson offers box-office oomph and is joined by Oscar-nominated actors Steven Yeun, Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo. However Bong’s third English-language function is a proudly idiosyncratic affair that may battle to attach with mainstream audiences with its portrait of a damaged society barrelling towards disaster.  

Within the yr 2054, Mickey 17 (Pattinson) works on Niflheim, a distant colony run by the fanatical, bigoted tyrant Kenneth Marshall (Ruffalo). Mickey’s uncommon moniker comes from the truth that he’s the seventeenth iteration of himself — needing to flee his money owed on Earth, the not-so-bright younger man swiftly agreed to this off-planet job by which he’ll do dangerous duties for the colony, his recollections implanted in a brand new duplicate after every demise. However when he falls right into a deep crevasse and is presumed lifeless, Mickey manages to make it again to base — solely to find that his bosses have already ‘printed’ Mickey 18 (additionally Pattinson). This presents an issue as a result of ‘multiples’ — two variations of the identical duplicate — are unlawful, that means that the Mickeys want to cover the truth that they each exist.

Adapting Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel, Bong envisions a not-so-future civilisation by which an egomaniacal chief is embraced as a messiah and lowly plebeians similar to Mickey are termed ‘expendables’, their solely perform to function disposable grunts and lab rats. In a number of movies, Bong has centered on haves and have-nots, culminating in Parasite’s crucial and industrial triumph, however Mickey 17 could also be his bleakest exploration, with Mickey handled as virtually subhuman. Whether or not it’s his backstabbing pal Timo (Yeun) or sympathetic coworker Kai (Anamaria Vartolomei), Mickey solicits the identical nosy, insensitive query from these round him: “What’s it prefer to die?”

Washed-out cinematography from Darius Khondji (coming back from Okja) and Fiona Crombie’s dingy manufacturing design expertly depict this colony as a lusciously grungy hellhole. Mickey’s solely respite from this gloom comes from a love affair with Nasha (Naomi Ackie), a kindly Niflheim safety officer who sees him as greater than only a human guinea pig, though she has her flaws: when Mickey 18 arrives, she eagerly suggests the sexual prospects of getting two of the very same boyfriend.

The place Mickey 17 conveys a dimbulb geniality, Mickey 18 has an antagonistic manner and loathes his wimpy predecessor. Petrified of discovery by the authorities, Mickey 18 thinks Mickey 17 ought to die — in spite of everything, they’re the identical — however Mickey 17 argues that they’re totally different sufficient that what makes him distinctive can be gone perpetually. Abruptly, Mickey’s existential malaise of dying time and again will get changed by one thing much more despairing — the prospect of by no means coming again to life.

Ultimately this snowy planet reveals a secret – the existence of indigenous critters, which Kenneth marginalises by calling them “creepers” and ordering their extermination. Longtime Bong followers will discover parallels in Mickey 17’s pro-environment, pro-animals stance with that of earlier works similar to Okja. However the writer-director tends to oversell his political commentary, as an illustration making the power-mad Kenneth and his vile spouse Ylfa (Collette) grating caricatures. (Not serving to issues, Ruffalo juts out his jaw in such a manner that his one-note efficiency is clearly meant to be a takedown of Donald Trump.)

However simply as Mickey 17’s mad imaginative and prescient dangers careening off its axis — similar to when the comedy turns into too broad — this overstuffed however arresting movie returns to its titular character’s dilemma, that of a typical man toiling in a horrible job to profit these with wealth and energy. Pattinson has enjoyable enjoying the Mickeys — one timid, one hostile — however it’s his efficiency as Mickey 17 that provides this sci-fi image its resonance. Dying again and again, our hero simply desires to ensure his soul survives; Pattinson locates it from the primary body.