World premiere screening of Oscar winning director’s latest film…
THIS is a witty, futuristic sci-fi satire and dark comedy by Bong Joon Ho (‘Parasite’) on the desire of human kind to conquer new worlds, advance science and current medical limitations, through testing, using humans (sort of like the film, ‘Never Let Me Go’ but not entirely).
It has a great ensemble cast of actors, but the titular role is played by Robert Pattison who literally has to die for his job.
Once that’s happened all his brain data is continually stored and then he is printed out again and keeps getting cloned.
Initially, these scenes are pretty repetitive: he’s tested for viruses, reproduced, tested for nerve gases, reproduced and tested to withstand extreme cold and reproduced.
Pattinson is brilliant at his several avatars but mostly the story is centred around Mickey 17.
The back story of how he got into this is, that he and his friend Timo (Steven Yeun) borrowed some money from a loan shark for a failed business venture. The said shark has a penchant for chopping up his non-paying clients.
In order to escape this fate, they both sign up to a dodgy space programme run by an ex deranged senator Kenneth Graham (in a great performance by Mark Ruffalo) as a cult leader abetted by his wife Ylfa (Toni Collette) who are trying to find a new colony.
They ban sex to save calories as food rations are scarce and talk about creating a pure race, once they find their new paradise which is a planet called Niflheim.
Other cast include Holly Grainger as Red Hair, the woman who inducts Mickey for in his new job and the late Haydn Gwynne in a brief cameo as a Congress woman. Patsy Ferran is science researcher, Dorothy.
Without realising it Mickey has signed up to be an ‘Expendable’ and a lot of the story is a voiceover by him giving us chapter and verse on what’s going on.
He plays it straight for the most part, so the comedy arises from his haplessness and witty dialogue.
Although it may seem absurd – cloning humans, producing artificial food, mass migration to another planet – all this is going on.
One light in his hum drum repetitive existence is that he meets Nasha (Naomi Ackie) who is a Universal Elite Agent and his love interest.
The Director of Photography for ‘Mickey 17’ is Daruis Khondji who gives us blues/greens / grey dull palatte of the ship.
Once they reach a frozen terrain where no humans live except some walrus /rodent type creatures who are called ‘Creepers’ Mickey 17 is sent down to investigate and when he doesn’t return he is presumed dead.
But then he eventually resurfaces and there is a Mickey 18 who is more aggressive in character while 17 and his previous incarnations have been placid.
This sets off a chain of events which take us to a finale stand-off between the colonisers and original inhabitants of Niflheim — The Creepers.
‘Mickey 17’ seems overly long and slightly indulgent, but it is engaging with fine performances the core of it and it is what sustains our interest.
Acv rating: **** (out of five)
Main picture: Nasha (Naomi Ackie) and Mickey 17 (Robert Pattinson) © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved
