IR Film Review: MICKEY 17 [Warner Bros.]
The intention of a film like "Mickey 17" is the context of an outsider finding meaning against the authority that oversees him. Mickey (Robert Pattinson) is having a time of it on Earth but he believes in the wrong people, especially Timo (Steven Yeun). Mickey isn't the brightest tool in the bucket but he means well. What Director Bong Joon Ho ("Parasite") is more interested in is the perspective of someone from nothing rising up to change but sometimes through no great enlightenment of his own. It is just where his path leads. The specific aspect though is that Mickey, in an era where cloning isn't really allowed, signed up to be an expendable against his better judgment. It was just a way to get away. But as a result he can be killed whenever necessary. But no one ever asks him if it hurts. When he is gone, the next simply picks up at the next point. One of the best scenes of the film is when he is trained on what he will go through by Red Hair (Holiday Grainger). It almost feels like the lady in the red dress in "The Matrix."
Mickey along with another full crew are sent forwared (like "The Ark") to a new planet. They are overseen by the overbearing and insufferable Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) and his wife Yita (Toni Collette) who act like aristrocrats but seemingly just bad politicians. Of course the balance of the worker and the ruler is very stark and Marshall is a complete buffoon which Ruffalo plays to the hilt. When Mickey 17 survives what should be a death run, he finds himself face to face with his next clone. The interesting bit is that each Mickey is slightly different with small changes in personality even though they are the same person. The connection is shared with Nasha (Naomi Ackie) who finds herself drawn to Mickey. What is dyamic in all the practices of the characters is the sliding scale of morality.
Pattinson plays Mickey in different forms with a cadence of uncertainty but Mickey 17 he embodies with a certain altruism. When a certain lifeform comes to bear on the colony it is Mickey who understands in a certain way but again through no specific thought of his own. One specific scene that shows his sheer ineptitude and gullability is when he is invited to dinner and he is specifically made to be a guinea pig of sorts and is treated like trash and lower than human. The undercurrent of Bong Joon Ho's idea is bathed in a consideration of both class structure and a certain downplay of hierarchy which has permeated a lot of his films. "Mickey 17" is no different except it is a big budget sci-fi movie that moves at a much slower pace which doesn't coincide with today's commerce though it is more vivid in its original filmmaking. That is the problem with the dynamic. It will be interesting to watch in a couple years but the intent and the tone, while unique, might not connect with the unknown masses. B-
By Tim Wassberg
