After a year-long delay, Bong Joon-ho’s highly anticipated film has finally reached US theaters. Mickey 17 came six years after Bong’s Oscar-winning film Parasite, a shrewd blend of black comedy, social satire, and Hitchcockian thriller, which stands as one of my top 10 favorite films of 2019.

Set in the not-too-distant tomorrow of 2054, the story is adapted from Edward Ashton’s novel Mickey7, but Bong adds 10 extra Mickeys to kill off, hence the title. The first act is a long exposition that starts four years into Earth’s mission to colonize the snowy planet Niflheim. The first Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) we see is the 17th iteration, left for dead in an icy cavern by Timo (Steven Yeun). Mickey has resigned to his fate that he’d be eaten alive by these wormy, pillbug-like creatures native to Niflheim, referred to as creepers.

Pattinson’s narration fills us in on how he got to this point. It turns out that Mickey and Timo were buddies back on Earth, trying to escape a murderous loan shark. To get away, they made a snap decision to join a space mission. While Timo aimed to be a pilot, Mickey ended up signing up as an ‘expendable’ without reading the fine print. Not to be confused with the violent mercenary group led by Sly Stalone, though being the only disposable crew member on a spaceship proves to be much more deadly.

Mickey gets sent on dangerous missions, and after he dies, a massive ‘human printer’ that resembles an MRI machine brings him back to life. The scientists have figured out a way to keep his memories intact, so he doesn’t forget everything when he’s cloned. That means he remembers all the horrific things he went through, from battling deadly viruses and facing radiation to being tossed into the incinerator while he was still breathing. As if that weren’t horrible enough, he’s constantly being asked by fellow crew members, ‘What does it feel like to die?’

Pattinson really nails the role of a down-and-out guy, ditching the matinee idol charm that I forgot while watching the film that he recently played in The Batman. Plus, he puts on a quirky accent that reminds me of Steve Buscemi’s Randall from Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. He totally embraces his comedic skills and goes for broke for Bong’s wild and wacky concepts. When the creepers let Mickey go without taking a single bite, he laments if his poor body has been used up too many times to be tasty. “I’m still good meat!” He yelps as he walks back to the ship. He hopes to find rest but finds another Mickey in his bed, and Mickey 18 is far more aggressive. As it turns out, despite having the same memory, science can’t exactly replicate a human’s personality.

Bong packs the movie with plenty of themes to ruminate on and mixes various genres that don’t always mesh perfectly. I’d imagine the pitch to the studio went like this… ‘It’s Bond’s Moonraker meets Groundhog Day meets Multiplicity with Starship Troopers thrown in for good measure.’ When Marshall declares his plans to create ‘a pure white planet full of superior people’ at the expense of its native inhabitants he refers to as ‘croissants dipped in s***’, I immediately thought he’s akin to Bond villain Drax from Moonraker masquerading as a televangelist.

I haven’t checked out the book that inspired the movie, so I can’t really say how true it is to the source material. What I can say is that it’s pretty entertaining overall, especially whenever Pattinson is on screen. Watching him portray two very different versions of Mickey is such a hoot. The supporting cast is a bit of a mixed bag, however. Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette resort to broad caricatures as egomaniacal politician Kenneth Marshall and his dominant, sauce-obsessed wife, Ylfa. Wearing false teeth, his hand gestures and the way he moves his mouth are obviously a parody of Donald Trump that seems more fitting for an SNL skit.

Everyone is quick to say that Ruffalo’s character is modeled after Trump, despite Bong saying that his inspiration for Marshall is “a mix of many different politicians and dictators that we have seen throughout history.” Marshall and Ylfa work together as a couple, and Bong said they’re inspired by the Ceaușescu couple from Romania and the Marcos couple from the Philippines.

In any case, Ruffalo’s interpretation of Marshall is more annoying than threatening. Yes we’re supposed to abhor his buffoonish character, but Ruffalo’s exaggerated take on him is too much. Collette is usually pitch perfect, but Ylfa is just as over-the-top, and she cranks up her nastiness even more towards the end. Naomi Ackie is quite memorable here as Mickey’s love interest, Nasha. Their playful scenes are sweet, though I wouldn’t exactly call Mickey 17 a romance, not even a romantic sci-fi. Nasha is delighted the moment she realizes she could double the fun with two Mickeys, but ‘Multiples’ are outlawed by Marshall.

Bong is celebrated for finding humor in horror, but the tonal shift during the third act—from a quirky tragicomedy to a political, anti-colonialism revolt—feels quite jarring. Nasha’s speech, where she stands up for the creepers and tells the Marshalls that ‘WE (the humans) are the aliens’ taking over someone else’s territory, feels a bit too on-the-nose. I never like being lectured in the movies, even if she’s ‘preaching to the choir,’ so to speak.

This is an ambitious project, armed with a lofty budget of $118 million, courtesy of Warner Bros. That’s more than double the combined budget of Parasite and Snowpiercer, proving that a bigger budget doesn’t automatically yield better results. The movie has a distinct dystopian sci-fi vibe, thanks to the bleak industrial design created by production designer Fiona Crombie. Darius Khondji‘s cinematography is evocative and looks grand on the big screen, but it doesn’t quite leave the same lasting impression as his previous works, i.e., Midnight in Paris or The Lost City of Z.

Suffice it to say, I liked the first half way more than the second. When it comes to blending dark humor, social commentary, and sci-fi, Bong Joon-ho usually nails it. However, this time around, he doesn’t quite hit the mark. I wouldn’t call Mickey 17 tedious, but I did start to lose interest as we approached the final act. It’s far from being the worst movie of the year, but I can’t see it making it onto my favorites list.

Have you seen Mickey 17? Let me know what you think!

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