Mickey 17

So years ago, this nerd (me) runs into a library, and I'm desperately in the mood for a cyberpunk novel but have a hard time finding one. Drawn in by as hazard-sign-style cover, I check out this book, Three Days in April by Edward Ashton, after reading the back and finding it to be a cyberpunk comedy. I read it, give it a 9/10, and look for his other books but have difficulty finding more. Some time later in 2023, I'm checking out upcoming movies, and I see the name "Mickey 17." I think, "That looks familiar," and find that it is based on the book by Edward Ashton and directed by Bong Joon-Ho! So I'm "oh my god-ing" all over the place, like the sex scene from Scary Movie but with happiness instead of you-know-what, and it quickly became one of my most anticipated movies. Having used up my Barnes & Noble gift card, I couldn't buy the book for a reasonable price. But a 2024 birthday gift card got me Mickey7, the sequel Antimatter Blues, and Good Omens. So today I got done with the one movie I've been waiting for for two years.

In a slightly futuristic world, Mickey Barnes is a complete loser with no qualifications or skills, so after a bad business deal with a loan shark, he and his "friend" Timo sign up for colonization. While Timo cons his way into a little power, Mickey applies to be an expendable, a man who is cloned every time he dies, and uses the knowledge from his deaths to help the science committee who's colonizing the icy hell known as Planet Niflheim. After being cloned sixteen times, Mickey finds himself presumed dead and dragged out of a cave by the local giant alien bugs. And when he gets back, he meets Mickey 18. Now "multiples" with neither one willing to die, the two Mickeys have to hide each other before their both incinerated by the fanatical commander of the expedition, ex-politician Kenneth Marshall, who's hoping to build a perfect world on Niflheim.

I sped through the book in one day, and the sequel the day after. At 300 pages each, both only took two hours for me. And boy did I enjoy both. I even liked the sequel 2/100 points more. 96. 98. Loved 'em. But there is only one real problem with this movie: the character development in this movie was weaker, although they made a real wacko out of Marshall's wife. Marshall himself was a done before villain with an excellent actor. Seriously. I tasted his slime in my mouth. The characterization is probably the only flaw.

Otherwise, the characterization of Mickey was absolutely incredible, especially when you get the perfect actor. I mean, Pattinson played multiple Mickeys with different personalities just BEAUTIFULLY. It was incredible. It might've even been better than Sissy Spacek doing the same multiple personality dance with 3 Women, somehow beating the great Shelley Duvall. I mean, there's the soft-spoken and pathetic 17, and then there's the snarky and insane 18, and both are played to the purest perfection. Okay, I will no longer call Robert Pattinson "Twilight Boy" ever again. It's like I became a new fan of his all over again, like after I saw The Lighthouse. I understand there are those who've seen more, but I have to say this: this is one of the five best acting jobs I have ever seen in over 3000 movies, on par with Bergman's performance in Autumn Sonata, Pacino's Michael and Fraser's in The Whale.

The visual style is perfect despondent, whether it be the darkened rusty halls of the ship or the endlessly white snow-scapes of Niflheim. And then we get to the aliens, designed from the notes in the book and given a wacky-ass BJH look that's designed by the same man responsible for the monsters in Okja and The Host. The babies are both creepy and cute while the big bad queen is as intriguing as she is frightening. Basically, the surroundings all match perfectly with all the gruesome black comedy that mirrors the despondence of the major powers of the ship: Marshall, the science team and their studies into Mickey's deaths, the coworkers who only pay attention to Mickey because of his job, everything. It had a lot to say about how progress works.

I can see myself watching Mickey 17 again and again. This movie is 100% faithful to the book's overall spirit and themes, and much more than what I hoped for, while changing the ending to something else that ended up great by adding elements from the literary sequel. This movie adaptation will hopefully skyrocket a great modern-day author's popularity, because he deserves it. Mickey 17 might not stand as one of the best movies of the decade, but it'll certainly be a modern sci-fi classic at the best. Hopefully, people will eventually see this the way they see Soylent Green.

= 93

Bong Joon-Ho's Directorial Score (5 Good vs. 0 Bad)

Parasite: 98
Mother: 96
Memories of Murder: 96
Mickey 17: 93
Snowpiercer: 88

Score: 94.2 / 5

Bong Joon-Ho's position on my Best Director's List raises from #48 to #46 between Clint Eastwood and Bryan Singer.