'Mickey 17': Funny and challenging in one

ACADEMY Award-winning filmmaker Bong Joon-Ho returns to the director’s chair for the first time in six long years with this big budget but offbeat sci-fi black comedy about misadventures in outer space.

After dominating the Oscars with the brilliant and widely popular Parasite (earning some $260 million worldwide to boot), the South Korean auteur will be hoping that his latest creation will enjoy similar critical and commercial success.

Led by a memorable turn by Robert Pattinson as the hapless protagonist, this is an ambitious, satirically edged adventure that while not always maintaining clear focus, manages to be all the more original and thought-provoking than the majority of its similarly expensive blockbuster counterparts.

In the year 2054, Earth is quickly becoming a more undesirable place to live and many are deciding to flee to manmade colony planets beyond the Solar System.

One such person is Mickey Barnes (Pattinson). After falling afoul of a murderous loan shark, he and friend Timo (Steven Yeun) sign up for a spaceship crew, heading for a new colony on the planet Niflheim.

The expedition is led by a megalomaniacal failed politician (Mark Ruffalo) and his equally monstrous wife (Toni Colette).

Unfortunately for the slightly dim Mickey, he didn’t bother reading through the paperwork beforehand and he later learns that his new job is not the most pleasant. He is what is known as an “Expendable”.

This is when a crew member is sent on deadly missions for research purposes.

As these missions invariably result in death, Mickey’s body and memories are then cloned into a new body using clandestine technology banned on Earth. Eventually this leads to Mickey dying and being cloned back a total of seventeen times.

On the 17th mission, Mickey is injured and left for dead but manages to return to the ship. However by the time he gets there, the cloning process has already occurred, resulting in there now being two Mickeys.

With the existence of Mickey 17 and Mickey 18, they are considered “Multiples”, a scenario not tolerated by the ship’s conniving leadership.

Writer-director Bong is no stranger to stories about downtrodden protagonists. His previous movies, such as Mother and Okja have dealt with class-conscious themes and there are certainly elements of that in Mickey 17.

This time, it just happens to be set in outer space. Adapting the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, Bong gives us a protagonist who constantly sacrifices himself for the “greater good” but gets seemingly nothing in return.

His crewmates mock and disrespect him, with only girlfriend Nasha (Naomi Ackie) understanding him. Ruffalo (whose performance is reminiscent of a certain occupant of the White House) and Collette’s villains represent a sneering, exploitative political class, determined to manipulate Mickey and the other crew members for their own ends.

While the satire is somewhat blunted by an occasionally meandering storyline, the overall effect is at once blackly funny and defiantly empathetic.

Pattinson has impressed with his career choices in recent years but the amiable Mickey is likely his most challenging role to date.

Thankfully, he carries it off with aplomb. It’s one of those performances into which an actor we think we know seemingly disappears.

They could not be more dissimilar. As Mickey, with his squeaky voice, unflattering haircut and gawky demeanour; he crafts a performance that leaves room for laughs, cheers and even some personal growth, even if he is constantly in mortal peril.

Equal parts funny and challenging, Mickey 17, finds both director and star on top form.

RATING: ****

Matthew McCaul