Bong Joon-ho’s “Mickey 17” is bonkers in ways in which initially delighted me till it wore me down and overstayed its welcome.
Bong’s first movie since profitable the Oscar for his worldwide success “Parasite” (2019) is the sort of big-budgeted, wildly formidable overreach {that a} main studio would solely give somebody who discovered monster success and wished to money of their chips.
Whereas “Mickey 17” isn’t dangerous, it’s not a terrific work, both. I’m glad I noticed it on the large display screen and there are many particular person moments to savor, however sitting by the whole thing of this admirable failure to get to them just isn’t one thing I’ll be doing once more quickly.
Robert Pattinson performs the title character, a citizen of Earth in 2054, who has run out of luck and stupidly indicators his life and rights away by becoming a member of the house program. Mickey has agreed to being the “expendable” on a voyaging starship, a stooge who willingly places himself in peril within the identify of analysis and exploration.
The one upside is that Mickey will be cloned after each grisly demise, although what kind of life is that this? When a mishap happens and someway permits Mickey to keep away from demise by the hands of an alien species, known as “creepers,” issues get much more difficult and harmful for him.
I used to be within the movie’s nook for the great first half, which balances pitch-black comedy, wonderful visible results, a nihilistic view of humankind and, on the heart, a Pattinson efficiency and character eccentric and attention-grabbing sufficient to supply the movie’s heart.
As soon as we get to the primary idea of the story (which the hilarious 2022 supply novel, “Mickey7” by Edward Ashton, bought round to organising a lot quicker), issues go off the rails. By the point we get to the infinite, hideous dinner scene and a belated jailbreak sequence that each go on far longer than mandatory, all the things on the display screen looks like an endurance take a look at.
There’s simply an excessive amount of right here, and that goes double for the performances by Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette because the sham spiritual cult leaders of the spaceship. A bit of of this may have gone a good distance, however each actors are giving turns finest fitted to a “Saturday Night time Stay” sketch.
As an alternative of coming throughout as villains I cherished to hate, each actors give performances so broad that I grew embarrassed.
The meant political satire, reflection on a cult mentality and an allegory for colonization is so heavy handed, I wished “Mickey 17” to, fairly please, cease screaming in my ear and get again to being a tragic comedy about how human beings place worth on the lives of others.
All of the promise of the early scenes are unmet, although far too many subplots (akin to a love triangle, enterprise with a mortgage shark, fractured friendships and even a actually last-minute try to inject horror) obscure the stuff that works.
Bong is, certainly, a visionary filmmaker and there are parts right here that may stick with me. That stated, the movie that jogged my memory most from his spectacular physique of labor isn’t the thrilling futurist humankind-is-doomed fable “Snowpiercer” (2013) or the proper monster mash of “The Host” (2006) however Bong’s semi-misstep, the equally over-cooked and tonally wonky “Okja” (2015).
Whereas “Okja” is barely higher than “Mickey 17,” they favorably share a creature function premise and unsuccessfully shoehorn an unsubtle up to date message, and in addition function a dependable actor hamming it up (although the efficiency Jake Gyllenhaal provides in that movie, as uneasy as it’s, holds up higher than Ruffalo’s Razzie-worthy flip in “Mickey 17”).
Right here’s a gentle spoiler – Denis Villeneueve’s good early shocker “Enemy” (2013) is much better at exploring the hazards of assembly one’s double, although the final particulars of the premise had been additionally higher portrayed in “Fringe of Tomorrow” (2014) and “Supply Code” (2011).
Each the spare, considerate “Moon” (2009) and the large, pleasant “Oblivion” (2013) tower over “Mickey 17” by portraying comparable concepts however managing to not overcrowd the narrative with too many supporting characters, bloated scenes that don’t work and explorations of theme that don’t require jackhammer, don’t-you-get-it messaging.
Look, a terrific film simply tells its story and has us speaking endlessly about it after we’ve seen it, whereas a film that power feeds us a blatant message, regardless of how effectively meant, comes throughout just like the director is sitting subsequent to us, blaring a bullhorn in our ears.
There’s a few of the latter in “Mickey 17,” when all I wished was the main target to be on Pattinson’s sometimes risk-taking efficiency and intriguing character.
Contemplating what number of endings this has (every sporting a special style and a delightful Pattinson haircut that implies a reshoot) and the way disagreeable a lot of that is, it’s no marvel that the discharge date wound up getting pushed again for years.
A part of me admires the hutzpah of Bong, Pattinson and Warner Bros. for sticking to this cracked imaginative and prescient. The opposite a part of me simply needs to have enjoyable and rewatch “Fringe of Tomorrow.”
Two Stars (out of 4)