Title – Mickey 17 (2025)

Director – Bong Joon Ho (Parasite)

Cast – Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, Mark Ruffalo

Plot –  Down on his luck Mickey Barnes (Pattinson) signs up for a colonisation mission to a mysterious planet, a journey that sees him partake in an “expendable” program where he is cloned and killed on repeat with aims of benefiting all of mankind.

“He’s dying to save mankind”

Review by Eddie on 08/03/2025

Arriving almost 6 years after his triumphant Oscar winning hit Parasite, beloved Korean visionary Bong Joon Ho returns to the big stage with his highest profile project yet, the oft-delayed and risky adaptation of Edward Ashton’s novel, Mickey 17.

A big gamble from struggling company Warner Brothers, Mickey 17 has remained one of the great Hollywood unknowns across its early conceptions and high profile release date shuffles, with hopes Joon Ho could align all the stars in his darkly comic sci-fi jaunt that explores the nature of mankind, what it means to be alive, political landscapes and a lesson that macrons are in fact not likely to take over from burgers in popularity.

Starting off in fantastic fashion as Joon Ho thrusts us into the near future of civilisation where Robert Pattinson’s permanently down on his luck Mickey Barnes finds himself looking outside of Earth for salvation as he sets his sights on the stars and a program that will see him cloned on repeat to die in a variety of inventive ways, Mickey 17 shows great promise and balances a dark undertone with Joon Ho’s typically unique sensibilities but not far after the films late title card arrival, much of Mickey 17’s remaining 100 or so minutes become increasingly tiresome and disappointing.

An oddly drab film for the most part when it comes to visual creativity and directional choices, much of Mickey 17’s chances of becoming the type of top-class film that has littered Joon Ho’s career across the past few decades lays at the feet of its characters and its initially interesting narrative promise but outside of Pattinson’s committed turn and double duties as Mickey 17 and Mickey 18 respectively, Joon Ho’s long in the tooth feature fails to inspire much in the way of material that will be fondly looked back on or enjoyed in the more imminent time and place that is likely to see Mickey 17 become one of the years newest box office duds.

There’s familiarities that lay at the core of Mickey 17’s tale, any film or story across time that deals with cloning, the human condition or dangerous space exploration has delved into similar territory that we venture through here, yet there’s enough early signs that you begin to expect we are in for an experience we’ve never had and while there’s certainly no denying there’s a lot of unique and wacky elements to Joon Ho’s bizarre genre mash-up, the weird and strange don’t make up for the fact much of Mickey 17 just isn’t that engaging or well-delivered.

Trying his best with another noteworthy turn, Pattinson is unquestionably the films MVP, supported by well-liked and talented supports such as Naomi Ackie as Barne’s devoted girlfriend Nasha, an underused Steven Yeun as Barnes only real “friend” Timo and a ham-tastic double bill of a veneer sporting Mark Ruffalo and a wild-eyed Toni Collette as ship overseers Kenneth and Ylfa Marshall, Pattinson stands out amongst the scattered approaches Joon Ho takes with the films tone and direction, remaining a constant in a film that appeared torn as to what it really wanted to be.

Struggling to juggle all the balls it has in the air at any given time, Mickey 17 becomes one of those increasingly frustrating movie watching experiences that at moments shows signs of brilliance but for the majority takes its eyes off the prize as it attempts to please many masters and ending up serving none, offering up an unquestionably unique feature to witness but one that you can’t help but feel bemused by.

An unfortunate misstep for a director who has a long history of mixing the fabulous with the misguided.

Final Say –

There’s redeeming elements to Mickey 17 with the film starting in a wonderfully entertaining way and Pattinson giving it his all but as the two plus hour runtime drags on and on there’s no escaping from the fact Joon Ho’s long-awaited return to the big screen is a significant off the boil disappointment.

2 1/2 sauces out of 5