#review: Is Mickey 17 starring Robert Pattinson worth a watch?

David Ho reviews Mickey 17, Bong Joon-ho's new film with Robert Pattinson

Bong Joon-ho has a lot to live up to. The South Korean filmmaker’s last film, Parasite, was a thrilling dark comedy that became the first non-English-language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, as well as picking up three additional Oscars.     

Bong’s follow up offering is Mickey 17, a sci-fi film loosely based on the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton. Starring Robert Pattinson in the titular role, it is set in the year 2054 and follows Mickey Barnes who works for a space colony as an expandable, a person whose job it is to undertake dangerous research tasks for humanity and continue as a clone whenever he meets his doom. Talk about having a lousy job that kills you!  

To escape a murderous loan shark on earth after their business failed, Mickey and his shady friend Timo (Steven Yeun, drawing on his Beef character) have joined an expedition for humankind to set up base at and populate the planet Niflheim. Once there, Mickey and co are sent out to map and make sense of the snowy environment and its inhabitants, which are sandworm-like creatures that the colony have termed creepers. 

After the seventeenth version of Mickey (hence Mickey 17) is left to perish in a ravine by Timo, he is unexpectedly rescued by the creepers. But when he gets back to base, Mickey 17 finds that the colony have already generated an eighteenth edition of Mickey (also played by Pattinson obviously), who proves to be a much more aggressive personality than his predecessors. 

Since multiples are not allowed, 18 tries to get rid of 17. However, the two eventually come to an uneasy truce when their love interest Nasha (Naomi Ackie of Blink Twice) is thrilled at the prospect of a ménage à trois. Later, circumstances force the clashing duo to team up. In this dual role, Pattinson needs to be given his kudos for being adorable as the meek Mickey 17 and menacing as the psychopathic 18. The different voices he uses for them (as well as his other movie roles) is fast becoming his signature to show himself as a thespian with range.   

Bong’s trademark genre shifting tone is at play here as the movie’s proceedings unfurl, changing gears quickly from sci-fi thriller and dark comedy to political parody and action. With Parasite, it kept us on the edge of our seat. But with Mickey 17, it feels like there are too many sharp turns that make his directing seem uncertain. 

While tonal shifts are one thing, the bigger problem is that Bong zigzags too much and too fast on what the film’s main themes should be. He glosses way too quickly over many interesting points (like cloning ethics or animal rights) and instead, banks on the project succeeding as a Trump satire. We get Mark Ruffalo trying his best impressions of the orange one with his Kenneth Marshal character, a failed politician and blundering buffoon who leads the space colony with his sauce obsessed wife/First Lady Ylfa (Toni Collette). 

This is where the timing of a film’s release comes into play here. Had Mickey 17 been released a few years ago or even before Trump’s second term, the reception to this take might be different. But in 2025, many of us are already weary of the onslaught of political rage bait we have been subject to and still lays ahead of us. 

Ruffalo’s on the nose portrayal is as subtle as a sledgehammer and instead of being funny or cutting, just leaves us exhausted. Though Bong has denied that the character is based on a particular individual and is more of a pastiche of different authoritarian figures, it’s obvious that Trump is still the main source of inspiration for Marshall, right down to the mention of a second bid for leadership. So much for escapism in the movies.

Bong also devotes way too much screentime to the creepers, which he transforms from Alien terrifying to Studio Ghibli cuddly over the course of the film. In a less cluttered script, they might have been more of a highlight. But there are so many things happening that they end up feeling like a Pokémon meets Pocahontas subplot that has been shoehorned into a Trump in space lampoon.

Fans of the Mickey7 novel have also been vocal about how the film adaptation’s changes have made it deviate too much from the source material. While some changes are always to be expected when moving a story from one medium to another, and sometimes even elevate a new iteration, much of the switches were seemingly arbitrary and not for the better.   

Mickey 17 collapses under the weight of its ambitions to be many things and not enough at the same time. The premise of the film and its star-studded cast give Bong so much potential to play with, but it ultimately feels squandered for a jambalaya of genre mashing and a political swipe that has already been done before and better by others. 

Verdict: Unfortunately, Mickey 17 just isn’t the whip smart follow up to his Oscar darling that Bong wants it to be. The bones are there, but more fat needs to be trimmed off for it to come close to other works in his oeuvre.

Also see: #review: Is Nosferatu or The Monkey a better horror film to watch?