Film Review - Mickey 17 (2025)

Kelaru & Fulton rating: ★★★½

Runtime: 2 hrs 17 mins

I still remember the first time I watched a Bong Joon Ho film — The Host(2007). On the surface, it’s a thrilling monster movie, but beneath that, it’s a story about the strength of family, social commentary, and friendship.

Then came Snowpiercer, and that name appeared again. This was a completely different film from The Host, and that, to me, is the mark of a great director — someone who can jump between genres and execute each one successfully (think George Miller, Jacques Audiard, Greta Gerwig, etc.). Mother was another departure from the norm, as was Okja, yet all of them were unmistakably Bong Joon Ho, carrying his signature mix of subtlety, humour, and sharp social critique.

Parasite, in many ways, felt like a spiritual cousin to The Host — except in Parasite, the monster isn’t visible, but its presence is undeniable.

By now, I know better than to expect the same thing twice from Bong Joon Ho. So I didn’t go into Mickey 17 expecting Parasite 2.0. In fact, in terms of tone, this film feels closer to Snowpiercer — at least in its visual style, which is stunning, by the way.

Set in a dystopian future, Mickey 17 presents a world where human replication technology exists but has been banned on Earth. Enter politician Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things, Spotlight), who decides to take this technology to a new planet, bringing along a spaceship full of colonists to shape society in his own vision.

Pressured by loan sharks, Mickey (Robert Pattinson, The Batman, Tenet) and his friend Timo (Steven Yeun, Minari, The Walking Dead) sign up for jobs on the colonisation ship, desperate to escape their debts. But Mickey doesn’t read the fine print — he unknowingly enlists as an expendable. This means his body will be used for dangerous experimentation during the colonisation process. If he dies, no problem — his consciousness and memories will be transferred into a newly printed body.

This darkly comedic setup naturally lends itself to plenty of absurd situations. As you’d expect, planetary exploration comes with high-risk missions, and this is why we meet version 17 of Mickey.

Mickey is the only expendable on the ship and when he fails to die in one of his expeditions on the prospect planet, a new Mickey is printed, Mickey 18, leading to a major problem: having two versions of the same person is illegal, making them both fugitives by default.

For the first half of the film, this comical and fascinating premise takes centre stage, but then the narrative shifts. Instead of diving deeper into the more profound themes it teases — identity, the morality of genetic replication, the dangers of human ambition — the story pivots toward the colonisation efforts of the eccentric Kenneth Marshall and his manipulative wife, Ylfa (Toni Collette, Hereditary, The Power).

That’s where the film stumbles a little. Bong Joon Ho has always been a master of balancing humour with depth, seamlessly weaving social satire into his storytelling. But here, Mickey 17 leans so much into comedy that it never quite lands the more serious, thought-provoking moments that his films are known for.

That being said, this is still a hugely entertaining film. The production design is exquisite, the visual effects are top-tier, and the performances — especially from Pattinson — are fantastic. The witty dialogue and playful tone keep things moving, making it a fun watch, well worth the ticket price.

But in the end, Mickey 17 isn’t the sharp societal satire we’ve come to expect from Bong Joon Ho. Instead, it’s a well-crafted, visually stunning sci-fi comedy — one that’s fun, clever, and thoroughly entertaining, even if it doesn’t dig quite as deep as it could have.