Mickey 17 – Movie Review (3/5)

MICKEY 17 is a dystopian dark sci-fi comedy from Oscar-winning director Bong Joon Ho. It has a stellar cast, but may not be for everyone due to its quite wacky style. On the other hand, it’s also strangely current. Read our full Mickey 17 movie review here!

MICKEY 17 is the latest Bong Joon-ho movie and we’re getting another genre-hybrid from the Academy Award-winning filmmaker. I have loved his movies for as long as I can remember, so I was excited for yet another movie from him.

Not only is this a genre mix, but it’s also very dark in a way that only Bong Joon Ho can master. In my book anyway. This movie is a dystopian dark sci-fi comedy that hits pretty hard at times, but also stays very light in tone overall – that may not work for everyone.

Continue reading our Mickey 17 movie review below. Find it in theaters now and digitally from March 25, 2025.

Mickey 17 is Okja in space

In my mind, Mickey 17 is a companion movie to Okja. It took a little while for me to fully realize this, but once we experience the creatures inhabiting the new planet (which human beings are looking to colonize), it becomes very clear.

It’s on this mission to a new planet, we meet the very unlikely hero, Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson). Or rather, we get to meet him in many different versions as indicated by the numeric title.

Mickey finds himself in a very dire situation where a deeply sadistic loan shark is chasing him, so he needs to escape Earth.

With no real skill or talent, he signs on to become an “Expendable”. This means he allows his employer to clone him whenever he dies. Essentially, they make a copy of him (body and mind) as he is when signing the contract. When he dies, they can then print him again.

And he will die. Over and over again.

After all, an expandable dies for a living. He is a test subject used to help develop vaccines, test newly developed food or investigate the effect of radiation in space. He’s the canary in the coal mine – if the mine was then constantly and purposefully filled with gas.

The cast should lure you in

Just as was the case with Okja (which in my mind is a companion movie to this one), the cast of Mickey 17 is absolutely stellar. The story and style of this 2025 movie may not be to everyone’s liking. It is quite wacky and over the top (again, not unlike Okja), but I enjoyed it.

If the director alone isn’t enough to make you want to watch Mickey 17, then the cast should certainly do the trick.

As already mentioned, we have Robert Pattinson (The Batman, Tenet) in the title role, where he gets to play many versions of Mickey Barnes. Mostly, of course, Mickey 17 and Mickey 18, as the main problem for Mickey is when they accidentally reprint him when he didn’t die.

As his girlfriend, we have Naomi Ackie (Blink Twice), Academy Award nominee Steven Yeun (Nope, Beef, The Walking Dead), Academy Award nominee Toni Collette (Hereditary, Juror #2), and Academy Award nominee Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things).

Finally, in smaller key parts, we have Cameron Britton (Mindhunter, The Umbrella Academy), Samuel Blenkin (Black Mirror), Patsy Ferran (Black Narcissus), and Bronwyn James (Lockwood & Co.).

Watch Mickey 17 in theaters and soon on Digital

As already mentioned several times – because it bears repeating – Mickey 17 comes from Bong Joon Ho, the Academy Award-winning writer and director of Parasite. This movie is very different from Parasite in terms of style, but the content doesn’t differ quite as much.

It’s still about those who have everything (money and power) versus those who have nothing (except a body to be exploited). Also, about how the extreme divide leads to explosive situations.

In that sense, Mickey 17 also reminded me of Okja and the style of the two is very similar.

Whether you enjoy this style or not, will undoubtedly influence how you view this film. And yes, a lot of it is over the top. Not least having a lead character that actually dies over and over, only to be “re-printed” in a new version.

Always slightly different yet somehow the same. This leaves space for a nature versus nurture discussion, but only as a small side note. However, the core story is about how we humans exploit everything in the name of money and power. Not least each other as well as nature.

WANT MORE FROM BONG JOON HO?

Check out his movie Snowpiercer which was turned into a TV series >

In Mickey 17, our own nature has been ruined, so we move on to the next planet. Yet we still have the audacity to refer to the creatures living there as “aliens”. As is usually the case with Bong Joon-ho movies, there’s an important message and a wild finale.

This one is no exception.

Nor is the long runtime, which reaches 2 hours and 17 minutes, but with all the special effects (after all, the movie features a spaceship, foreign creatures and a human being getting reprinted), the end credits take a lot of time, so it’s really just a little over two hours long.

Mickey 17 was released in US theaters on March 7, 2025, and will be out digitally from April 8, 2025.

Details

Director: Bong Joon Ho
Writers: Edward Ashton, Bong Joon Ho
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Toni Collette, Naomi Ackie, Mark Ruffalo, Steven Yeun