MOVIE TITLE: Mickey 17

This Sci-Fi dark comedy/thriller is now playing in theaters and on Fandango at Home.

RATING: R

LENGTH: 2 hours 17 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE: B+

IN A NUTSHELL:

What’s it like to die? The film is an adaptation of Edward Ashton’s quirky novel Mickey 7. It is said the director wanted to call this movie Mickey 17 so he could kill the character ten more times.

The film stars Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes, an “expendable” crew member on a colonization mission to the icy planet Niflheim. Mickey’s role involves undertaking perilous tasks, with his consciousness being transferred to a new clone upon each death. Complications arise when Mickey 17 survives an assignment and returns to find Mickey 18 already in his place, leading to existential dilemmas and ethical conflicts.

The film was directed by Bon Joon Ho, who won 4 Academy Awards, including “Best Picture” for his movie Parasite in 2019. You’ll actually see one of the sets in this movie which was also used in Parasite.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Lots of profanity and F-bombs
We see a tube going inside a guy’s bum and later, we see his entire naked backside.
We see an unmarried couple going at it (private parts not shown)
We see animated stick figures going at it
Blood, gore, and vomit
People get high on drugs
Violence

THEMES:

Expendable people and the value of human life
Friendship
Identity
Political satire
Duality
Power
Control
Cloning
Capitalism
Colonization
Experimentation
Exploitation
Learning from failure

THINGS I LIKED:

Robert Pattinson is such a fantastic actor, showing us nuanced differences between his two characters: Mickey 17 & Mickey 18. I used to just think he was a pretty boy from the Twilight franchise, but he has really shown us how much more he can do since then. He was incredible in the movie The Lighthouse (https://amzn.to/41OQCnI )
I’ll bet he had a lot of fun making this movie.
The fantastic cast includes 3 Oscar nominees: Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo, and Steven Yeun.
Other cast standouts include Naomi Ackie and Patsy Ferran.
In order to capture spontaneous, raw performances, the director filmed certain scenes without Pattinson knowing which version of Mickey he was going to play before shooting.
We get to hear the famous “Wilhelm Scream” at the 1 hour, 16 minutes, 30-second mark when a bulkhead door slams closed. Ha ha In case you didn’t know… The Wilhelm scream is a famous stock sound effect that has been used in over 400 movies, TV shows, and video games. It’s a high-pitched, dramatic scream that was first recorded in 1951 for the film Distant Drums, where a soldier gets attacked by an alligator. The scream was later named after the character Pvt. Wilhelm, who lets out the same scream when shot by an arrow in the 1953 film The Charge at Feather River. It became an inside joke among sound designers, especially after Ben Burtt, a sound designer for Star Wars, started using it in the franchise. Since then, it has appeared in movies like Indiana Jones, Lord of the Rings, Toy Story, and many more. Once you recognize it, you’ll start hearing it everywhere!
A fun cameo performance of a news reporter is by Sabet Choudhury, who is a real news reporter in real life.
We see stark contrasts between the chilling beauty of the icy landscapes of Niflheim and the sleek realism of the futuristic technology.
Speaking of technology, the film explores the ethical boundaries of advancement that humans may not be prepared to deal with. With the surge of AI software, this movie is timely.
There’s a lot of humor in both dialogue and visual situations.
Kudos to Marios Hamboulides for creating a terrific trailer that makes you want to see the movie.
As an identical twin myself, I thought the whole conversation about multiples was interesting.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

There are some flashbacks that might confuse viewers of the timeline.
In order to capture spontaneous, raw performances, the director filmed certain scenes without Pattinson knowing which version of Mickey he was going to play before shooting.
The movie is unnecessarily long to say what it needs to say.
The pacing is uneven.
Sometimes, it’s hard to understand what people are saying during whispered conversations.

FUNNY LINES:

“I’m sure you’re used to it by now, but what’s it feel like to die?” – Berto
“Why don’t you guys do rock, paper, scissors? And then we’ll just shoot the loser.” – Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson)

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INTERESTING LINES:

“Each soul shall only have one body.” – bureaucrat
“Sauce is the true litmus test of civilizations.” – Yifa (Toni Collette)
“Every time you die, we learn something new and humanity moves forward.” – Red Hair (Holliday Grainger)