It pays to remember that sci-fi is Bong Joon-Ho’s forte, even with Parasite still in our collective memory. In fact, it was The Host which first earned the South Korean filmmaker global attention in 2006. That, in turn, paved the way for his two English language breakthroughs, 2013’s Snowpiercer and 2017’s Okja. So, it shouldn’t come off as a shocker that he returned to that path, five years since his barrier-busting previous film. Also somehow not surprising is that his follow-through targets Western audiences. 

Mickey 17 marks his first 100% English outing, because, remember: the aforementioned two still had dialogue in his native tongue. The film is based on Edward Ashton’s 2022 futuristic novel, Mickey7, about a man who joins aquest to colonize the ice planet Niflheim. Because of the dangerous nature of the expedition, the eponymous hero, Mickey Barnes, reluctantly agrees to become an “Expendable”, a program which enables him to be automatically, loosely put, cloned, in case he dies. This process is made possibly by a machine that reconstructs his body from scratch and restores his memories. So, obviously, the number indicates the number of times he perished beforehand.  Ergo, this is where the liberties begin. The film version died more times. 

Robert Pattinson’s no stranger to playing literary characters from sparkling vampires to, most recently, Caped Crusaders. This is, by far, his quirkiest yet, as he amps up his goofball level to a hilt, while once again taking on a Yankee twang. The film begins by recapping the fates of the previous Mickeys and how the 17th incarnation came to be. He’s the version we follow throughout – hence, the title. When we meet him, he’d just entered a relationship with security agent, Nasha, played by Naomi Ackie.

We first follow him in one of his snowy escapades, where he’s assigned to retrieve a “creeper”, a tardigrade-like giant creature endemic to the planet. But after a mishap, he’s abandoned by his two-faced business partner, Timo (Steven Yeun), with whom he shares an astronomic debt on planet Earth. Upon his return to the spacecraft, he meets his new duplicate, the more belligerent Mickey 18. It could only mean he’s presumed dead. 

There’s delight in watching both Mickeys clash and bicker, especially with the mandate that “Multiples” must die. Whether or not you buy Pattinson hamming it up, it’s still an effective vehicle. Never before was his range this maximized in one project. Clearly, he’s having fun. All the more when the clones reach a truce after finding common enemies. Unfortunately, it’s also where the film loses focus. 

Mickey 17 falters when it seemingly tries to follow Okja’s lead – specifically, in trying to save a fictional species. Okja had genetically modified pigs as its main plot. Here, it’s the creepers that are in danger, but that’s on top of the many dilemmas already faced by the Mickeys, including Timo, who’s quickly reduced to an after-thought. The film also similarly succumbs to Okja’s fatal flaw, which is paper-thin antagonists. Talented as Mark Ruffalo is, his megalomaniacal Kenneth Marshall puzzles more than he threatens. The same can be said for Toni Collette, who feels under-utilized as his manipulative wife Ylfa. Much as the film skews more towards comedy, that doesn’t mean the villains should be that laughable, more so when they’re supposed to serve as parallels to real-life powers-that-be. 

Through it all, it’s Naomi Ackie who surprisingly keeps things on a high note, like she did as Whitney Houston in the half-baked 2023 biopic, I Wanna Dance With Somebody. More than rescuing baby creepers, her bad-ass energy prevails while everyone else is whining. It’s the attitude the film badly needs and her presence adds just the right touch. 

We never expected Joon-Ho to outdo Parasite immediately, even with his hiatus stretching on for six years. Still, that doesn’t absolve this caper from being a letdown. Even with its clever ideas and the cast’s overall enthusiasm, it barely takes form. Much like its protagonist, it loses its identity amidst the chaos.