After director Bong Joon Ho cleaned house at the Oscars with his film 鈥淧arasite,鈥 many wondered what he might do as a follow-up.
Luckily, it was 鈥淢ickey 17,鈥 a wildly inventive film about humans trying to establish a base on a planet called Niflheim, circa 2054. Bong鈥檚 choices are as creative as any Stanley Kubrick made during his celebrated career.
Send in the clones: Robert Pattinson plays a man who is duplicated several times over to test the environment on a planet in "Mickey 17."
In the new film, the colonists aren鈥檛 quite sure what dangers they might find there, so they use 鈥渆xpendables鈥 to test the waters. Among them is Mickey (Robert Pattinson), a dim bulb who has a bill that needs to be paid back on Earth. As an expendable, he dies over and over again, with the promise of returning after each threat is weighed.
By the time we meet Mickey, he鈥檚 in his 17th iteration. Thanks to a human printer, scientists can bring him back with his previous 16 memories intact. The risk? Dying is still scary, no matter how many people try to tell him otherwise.
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The success of the project is crucial for the colony leader and his wife (a slippery Mark Ruffalo and a transparent Toni Collette), who think fortunes will be made if they can just land this deal.
Mickey, however, sees other sides of the venture and could want out. Unfortunately, a Mickey 18 has been printed and that could complicate matters. Luckily, 17 has inside help and another way of dealing with Niflheim life forms.
Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette plays the stern leaders of the ship in "Mickey 17."
Bong has so many ideas swirling it鈥檚 hard not to wonder where he could go with sequels or 鈥渘ext up鈥 projects.
Here, the world is particularly dim, the joy largely relegated to 鈥渟auces鈥 that the dictator 鈥 um leader鈥檚 ... wife has concocted. She鈥檚 just as manipulative as her husband but doesn鈥檛 quite have the same authoritarian approach.
鈥淢ickey 17鈥 has so many links to current affairs it鈥檇 be delicious to say this is political commentary. Considering it鈥檚 based on a novel and filmed before any daily references were in play, that鈥檚 a stretch. Still, it鈥檚 fun to see how dictators work the faithful and toy with the not-so-faithful.
Pattinson, in particular, is a treat. Using a Steve Buscemi-like voice, he鈥檚 able to downplay his leading man looks and come off as a schlub just trying to get by.
When he manages to thwart his captors, Mickey 17 becomes us, just trying to make it to the next day.
Bong doesn鈥檛 give this the stark modernism of 鈥淧arasite,鈥 but plays with dank, confined spaces familiar to fans of 鈥淒as Boot.鈥
While 鈥淢ickey 17鈥 looks like it shared special effects with 鈥淒une, Part Two,鈥 it has its own quirky path that never seems inevitable.
Even with some special sauce, 鈥淢ickey 17鈥 might not be for everyone. But for those who like the unpredictable nature of a brilliant director, it鈥檚 an appetizer, main course and dessert all rolled into one. Sushi was never this good.
