Not really a comedy, but not a serious drama either. But hey, this is Bong Joon-Ho we’re talking about here. That’s just his style.
When the director was asked about why he added the 10 to Edward Ashton’s source novel Mickey 7, he told Empire magazine that it was done to ‘enhance the drudgery of his everyday job’, and noted that Mickey 17 represents his ‘most human story yet’. While these comments suggest the veneer of a serious drama, any seasoned Bong fan knows that his narratives are never that black-and-white. And that those narratives are frequently charged with political subtext. The director claimed that there’s nothing overtly political taking place in this joint, but Mark Ruffolo’s big bad, with his distinctive intonation and red hat-wearing disciples, just slightly suggests otherwise.
The eponymous character is played by Robert Pattison, and it’s worth remembering just how normal the roles this guy played back in the day. Sure, a loyal wizard and a sparkly moody emo vampire can’t exactly be described as ‘normal’, per say, but you know what I mean. Now he plays aggressive thieves (Good Time), eccentric French-accented villains (The King), and an awfully mysterious lighthouse keeper in, uh, The Lighthouse. And here he plays Mickey, a man who commits petty crimes on earth before trying to escape justice in search of greener pastures when he volunteers as an expendable, an individual who completes dangerous tasks for mankind and is ‘reprinted’ after dying. I like the film’s tagline, ‘He’s dying to save mankind’. Y’know, because it’s a pretty amusing pun. It turns out he doesn’t enjoy repeatedly dying so much, and things go wrong when another version of himself is printed. If you’re getting Moon and Edge of Tomorrow vibes here, that’s fair. Also some Blade Runner/Battlestar Galactica vibes with the whole reprinting, meaning of life, having a soul kind of thing. But I don’t think it’s as good as either Blade Runner film or the Battlestar Galactica remake. Not that I was expecting it to be. That’s a hella high bar to reach.
It’s nigh on impossible to find a truly original concept in the realm of sci-fi, but Bong sticks close to previous works Snowpiercer and Okja in terms of political messages and class divides. And for the most part, it works pretty well. It’s fun watching Mark Ruffalo go back to full eccentric mode like in Poor Things, and it’s also cool to see Toni Colette channelling similar craziness to Tilda Swinton’s eccentric in Okja. And, of course, Mickey himself. It takes a decent chunk of acting chops to play more than one version of yourself, and Pattinson does a fine job of playing the introverted, hesitant 17 against the more boisterous, confident 18. And if you’re willing to lean into the familiar Bong madness, you’ll have a good time with the zany performances and impressive production design. If you’re a Bong noob, however, you’re probably going to be thrown off a bit. Check out Parasite first.