Robert Pattinson

review:-mickey-17’s-dark-comedic-antics-make-for-a-wild-cinematic-ride

Review: Mickey 17’s dark comedic antics make for a wild cinematic ride

bong joon-ho, culture, film reviews, Mickey 17, Robert Pattinson / /

Mickey settles into his expendable role on the four-year journey, dying and being reprinted several times, and even finds love with security agent Nasha (Naomi Ackie). The mission finally reaches Niflheim, and he’s soon on Version 17—thanks to being used to detect a deadly airborne virus, with multiple versions dying in the quest to develop a vaccine. As the colonists explore this cold new world, Mickey 17 falls into a deep fissure inhabited by native life forms that resemble macroscale tardigrades, dubbed “creepers.” Timo leaves Mickey for dead,  assuming they’ll just eat him, but the creepers (who seem to share a hive mind) instead save Mickey’s life, returning him to the surface.

Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) failed to read the fine print when he signed up as an “expendable.” Warner Bros.

When Mickey gets back to his quarters, he finds his replacement, Mickey 18, is already there. The problem goes beyond Nasha’s opportunistic desire for an awkward threesome with the two Mickeys. Multiples are simply not allowed. The controversial reprinting technology isn’t even legal on Earth and was only allowed on the colonization mission with the understanding that any multiples would be killed immediately and their consciousness backup wiped—i.e., a permanent death.

A tale of two Mickeys

It’s Pattinson’s impressive dual performance as Mickey 17 and Mickey 18 that anchors the film. They might be clones with identical physical traits and memories, but we learn there are subtle differences in all the printings. Mickey 17 is more laid-back, meekly suffering abuse in the name of progress, while Mickey 18 is more rebellious and frankly has some anger issues. Pattinson adopted two different accents to differentiate between the two. Mickey and Nasha’s love story is the movie’s heart; she loves him in all his incarnations, through death after death. The scene where she dons a hazmat suit to hold Mickey 14—or is it 15?—in his isolation chamber as he dies (yet again) from the airborne virus is among the film’s most touching.

Review: Mickey 17’s dark comedic antics make for a wild cinematic ride Read More »

robert-pattinson-gets-the-crappiest-immortality-in-trailer-for-mickey-17

Robert Pattinson gets the crappiest immortality in trailer for Mickey 17

bong joon-ho, culture, Entertainment, film trailers, Mickey 17, Robert Pattinson, science fiction film, Trailers, Warner Bros. / /

How (un)lucky can one guy get? —

“Let’s blow up these second-hand baloney boys.”

–

Robert Pattinson’s character didn’t read his contract’s fine print in Mickey 17, director Bong Joon-ho’s latest film.

It has been five long years since director Bong Joon-ho’s film Parasite topped Ars’ list for best films of the year, whose prior work on Snowpiercer and Okja are also staff favorites. We’re finally getting a new film from this gifted director: the sci-fi comedy Mickey 17, based on the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton. Judging by the trailer that recently dropped, it feels a bit like a darkly comic version of Duncan Jones’ 2009 film Moon, with a bit of the surreal absurdity of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil (1985) thrown in for good measure. And the visuals are terrific.

Ashton’s inspiration for the novel was the teletransportation paradox—a thought experiment pondering the philosophy of identity that challenges certain notions of the self and consciousness. It started as a short story about what Ashton called “a crappy immortality” and expanded from there into a full-length novel.

Ashton told Nerdist last year that Bong’s adaptation would “change a lot of the book,” but he considered the director a “genius” and wasn’t concerned about those changes. The basic premise remains the same. Robert Pattinson plays the space colonist named Mickey Barnes, who is so eager to escape Earth that he signs up to be an “expendable” without reading the fine print.

Expendables are basically disposable employees (aka “second-hand baloney boys”). If they happen to die on the job, their consciousness is uploaded to a new body, and the cycle starts all over again. When a multiple unexpectedly survives while on an expedition to colonize the ice world Niflheim, Mickeys 17 and 18 discover that the policy in such cases is to exterminate all the multiples, and they must fight for their right to keep existing.

In addition to Pattinson, the cast includes Steven Yeun as Berto, Toni Collette as Gwen Johansen, Mark Ruffalo as Hieronymous Marshall, Naomi Ackie as Nasha Adjaya, Holliday Grainger as Red Hair, Angus Imrie as Shrimp Eyes, and Steve Park as Agent Zeke. Anamaria Vartolomei, Thomas Turgoose, Patsy Ferran, and Daniel Henshall have also been cast in as-yet-undisclosed roles. Perhaps one of them plays the person in the giant pigeon costume who briefly appears in the trailer.

Mickey 17 hits theaters in the US on January 31, 2025. It will premiere in other countries on January 28, 2025. Ashton penned a sequel, Antimatter Blues, which was published last year, so maybe Bong Joon-ho will adapt that one, too.

Listing image by YouTube/Warner Bros.

Robert Pattinson gets the crappiest immortality in trailer for Mickey 17 Read More »