How do you follow up an anti-capitalist Best Picture winning satirical thriller? Why if you’re writer/director Bong Joon-Ho, you spend over $100 million of Warner Bros/Discovery’s money to craft an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, and slightly askew sci-fi allegory/comedy starring one of our generation’s greatest actors in a dual role as the products of a literal human printer. Adapted from the 2022 novel Mickey7, Mickey 17 follows the titular character (Played by a game and giving Robert Pattinson.) and his friend Timo (Steven Yeun), who are on the run from a loan shark and take jobs as part of a ship crew colonizing an ice planet fittingly called Niflheim. Mickey takes on the role of an “Expendable” going on dangerous missions, dying, and being reprinted to go on even more missions. Mickey has died 17 times and has taken on the moniker of Mickey 17. He ends up being caught up in a web of intrigue featuring a corrupt, ultrareligious politician named Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), his wannabe gourmand wife Ylfa (Toni Collette), and the menacing Creepers, which are making it difficult for Marshall to turn Niflheim into a new home for “pure” humans.

There are definitely shades of previous science fiction films in Mickey 17, including Edge of Tomorrow, Moon, and Starship Troopers plus some philosophical bits from Blade Runner. However, Bong puts his own imprint on the sci-fi satire genre, and it all starts with a frenetic, duelling banjos of performances from Pattinson. There are some comedic pratfalls, bleak cinematography from Darius Khondji, and more importantly, memorable, tardigrade-esque creature designs for the Creepers, but Mickey 17 truly picks up steam when Mickey 18 appears on the scene. Having multiple Expendables is a big legal no-no in the film’s universe, and Bong Joon-Ho creates believable tension out of both Mickeys sneaking their way across the ship or channeling Cain and Abel when they see Timo selling space opioids to a fellow passenger.

With the twin Mickeys as a sounding board, Mickey 17 does explore and have a viewpoint about the ethics behind cloning with plenty of charged dialogue about “one body, one soul” from Kenneth Marshall. However, there’s definitely some time for silliness and sexiness like a hilarious/kind of hot scene where security agent Nasha (Naomi Ackie), who has a romantic history with one of the previous Mickeys does some serious thinking and acting on the classic ice breaker question of “Would you kill or sleep with your clone?” These moments of levity make Mickey 17 and 18 endearing characters and solidify Nasha as a true ally when the second half of the movie goes into full political resistance mode after Mickey 17 almost dies when Marshall feeds him experimental meat and later experimental painkillers at a dinner in his honor that has big “We couldn’t give you a raise, but have a microwaveable Red Baron pizza on us.”

There are flashes of Luigi Mangione and the 2024 attempted assassination of Donald Trump in several sequences in Mickey 17, and Ruffalo’s performance as Marshall is a ketamine and Pentecostal praise and worship laced chimera of Trump and Elon Musk. He talks about the Expendables and Creepers in the most demeaning terms, and when an agent named Kai (Anamaria Vartolomei) tries to have an emotionally honest moment with him and Ylfa, he turns into a weird performative, evangelical prayer-off. Mark Ruffalo and Collette perfect the othering gaze with their treatment of Mickey, the Creeper, and just everyone around them. Their screen presence is like being with a rich person in a social setting, who only wants to speak to someone either equal to or superior to them in status. Everyone else is just “the help” or subhuman. For example, Marshall puts a revolver to Mickey 17’s head, and Bong frames it in a way where it’s like he’s putting down livestock not killing a human being.

Mickey 17 has compelling commentary on settler colonialism, the poor treatment of the working class, and as mentioned in the previous paragraph, the relationship between religious fundamentalism, late stage capitalism. However, it’s no lecture, and especially the back end of the film is quite entertaining with lots of profanity-filled one-liners and monologues from Mickey 18, a fairly suspenseful icy chase sequence, and one messed up dream sequence. This is all powered by Robert Pattinson’s performance as Mickey 17 and 18. There’s a lot of Connie in Good Time in Mickey 18’s DNA, and he’s got the sexy, yet occasionally righteous sociopath thing going for him while Mickey 17 flops around, is pathetic, and lets Pattinson indulge in some slapstick, and fear of mortality. Because, beneath the jokes and reprints, Mickey Barnes is afraid of death.

Mickey 17 is a sci-fi comedy for our era with antagonists ripped from current headlines and a setting that would make RFK Jr. drool and save Jeff Bezos a lot of money. It’s epic in scope and worth seeing on the big screen, but grounded in the compelling humanity of Mickey 17 and Mickey 18, who are given vibrant life and love by Robert Pattinson. Also, its setting might be dystopian, but Mickey 17 is quite a hopeful film too and features characters that are pure catharsis. (Seriously, Nasha for president!)

Overall Verdict: 8.0