Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes in Mickey 17 | Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures

Mickey 17 is thought-provoking with just the right amount of “unreal” science, mixed with a few tiny globs of K-film emotionality, and the perfect number of Robert Pattinsons to make it a must-watch for art-house and sci-fi movie lovers.

Whether you’re keeping up with the world’s current political issues or not, South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 is so in-your-face with its social commentary that you’d have to be living in a different timeline not to see the parallels between his fictional world and our so-called real world.

And mind you, that’s not a bad thing and this is not really a political movie.

Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) is your run-of-the-mill loser who’s on the run from loan sharks because his business is not doing so well. As the deadline for the payment looms closer and closer, Mickey and his business partner Timo (Steven Yeun) conclude that since there’s no safe hiding place left on Earth, they must get off-planet and start fresh in a new human colony.

Mark Ruffalo as Kenneth Marshall alongside Toni Collette as Ylfa (Marshall's wife) in Mickey 17 | Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures

Unfortunately, Mickey is not as charismatic as his so-called friend Timo, who was able to secure a technical position for the expedition. Mickey, on the other hand, has no choice but to sign up as an expendable, which is basically a disposable worker who gets cloned/reprinted as many times as needed.

And because there’s no such thing as death for an expendable, Mickey gets subjected to all sorts of hazardous conditions even before they reach the new planet. Every time he dies, he just gets reprinted because the science team or Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), the leader/political head of the expedition, deem it to be necessary for the expedition.

Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures

But thanks to Nasha (Naomi Ackie), Mickey gets used to the grind (literally) despite being constantly treated as a second-class citizen aboard the ship. Something changes, though, once they reach the new planet and encounter the native inhabitants. Mickey is ordered by Marshall to capture one but as his luck would have it, he gets stuck and is seemingly left to be eaten by the “creepers.”  

Robert Pattinson delivers an amazing performance as Mickey. Just by his voice acting alone, he is unrecognizable, adding subtle changes to his voice each and every time he gets reprinted. He adds just the right amount of loser charm to keep the film limber without becoming too hard sci-fi, especially considering the amount of gruesome death in it.

Director  Bong Joon Ho and Robert Pattinson at the Berlin Film Festival | Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures

Mark Ruffalo is also a very convincing megalomaniac. His performance as Marshall is so over-the-top, complete with subtle Elvis tics and yet, AND YET!, his character is basically a reprint of one of the most divisive world leaders today. Watch the film and you’ll immediately understand.

The design for the creepers is also unsettlingly good, leaving goosebumps if you stare at their skins for too long.

If you’ve ever wondered what a commercial US film from Oscar-award winning director Bong would look like, Mickey 17 is probably the closest you will ever get to something made for the box-office without the renowned director losing his best qualities as a film auteur. 

Written and directed by Bong Joon Ho (based on the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton), his return to the silver screen after the award-winning Parasite does not disappoint. Mickey 17 delivers a poignant statement about colonization so skillfully that it doesn’t feel too cloying even if the characters are screaming it at our faces. Or maybe we just half-expect that some people won’t get the point if they don’t get a bludgeoning of reality (with extra sauce) in the face.

Mickey 17 is now showing in cinemas.