The latest film from Oscar-winning Director Bong Joon-Ho, Mickey 17 tells the story of Mickey Barnes, a man who signs up for a space expedition as an ‘expendable’, a space worker who will be reprinted upon his death. This is a Sci-Fi Comedy adapted from the novel Mickey 7 by Ashton Edward.

This is a film that I went into with fairly high expectations, like most people, I had loved Parasite, and I thought the trailers for this looked really fun. I think the film definitely lives up to the fun part. This is a total blast, where all the actors look like they’re having a great time and are committing fully to what Bong wants from this story. Robert Pattinson’s performances have been gaining the most acclaim and that’s for good reason. Pattinson portrays two versions of Mickey in this film and he nails both characters, too the point that they feel like two separate characters despite both being the same game. Pattinson gets to show-off the range that he’s shown the last decade, that’s proven he’s one of the best working today. Mark Ruffalo is also really fun here, playing what is an allegory for Donald Trump, and Toni Collette as his wife is also really fun.

I also think that the technical elements of this film are great. This film looks great, and was definitely worthy of being shown on Imax. This film is shot by Darius Khondji who had previously worked on Okja with Bong Joon-Ho, and it’s very well shot, especially throughout the third act. I thought the visual effects were seamless, obviously the achievement of having multiple Robert Pattinson’s interacting with each other looks completely seamless but I also thought that the creepers looked great too. Overall, I’d say this was a wonderfully crafted film by Bong.

However, I do have some issues with the film. For one I think the pacing is a little wobbly and personally I though the first 30 or so minutes dragged slightly, and it took some time for the film to fully click into place. There’s also a character who’s fairly crucial for the first half of the film, and they set up some pretty interesting potential plot beats with them, and yet they’re missing for most of the third act and the entire climax. I kept expecting them to make an appearance but they don’t show up again until the very end, and even then they don’t really do anything. It just felt like a bizarre inclusion into the story if it was going to lead nowhere.

However, despite my issues I’d say I enjoyed the film overall. While it took some time for me to get fully into it, once I did I had a really great time with it and thought it was a really fun Sci-Fi comedy with some strong political commentary. They could have tightened parts of the screenplay but I still think it’s a fun time, and I’d reccomend going to see it.

Overall Rating – ***1/2