The film world’s been waiting for more of Bong Joon-Ho. The Korean director pulled off one of the greatest awards upsets when Parasite (2019) won Best Film at the Oscars – deservedly so, as it was an all-timer, a world-beater of a film. He’s been busily working away on Mickey 17 (2025) since 2022, and it’ll disappoint those who wanted Bong to make another masterpiece like Parasite (2019). This film is not that. It is, basically, the kind of film that Bong Joon-Ho loves making – a campy, high-concept sci-fi romp, militantly anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian, with lots of blood and guts thrown in. Temper your expectations, have a bit more fun, and don’t think too much about it.
If you’ve seen Bong’s previous sci-fi outing Snowpiercer (2012), then this might seem more familiar. We’ve got the same mad, cultish leader imposing an authoritarian, hyper-capitalist rule on the remnants of humanity in the freezing cold. Revolution beckons while life becomes increasingly expendable. For Robert Pattinson’s protagonist Mickey, that becomes very literal. He signs up for a futuristic colony mission, alongside Steven Yeun’s Timo, to escape their murderous debtors – only to wind up as the crew’s guinea pig. His consciousness is stored digitally while Mickey’s constantly reprinted body is subjected to brutal medical testing, suicide missions and deadly alien viruses. He’s already on Mickey number 17 by the time the film opens on a desolate far-off world, ripe for human colonisation.
It’s a classic Bong Joon-Ho sci-fi setup – weird concept and a darkly comedic satire of capitalist disregard for life. The looming threat is not the native alien species on the planet, but the dictatorial leader of the human mission. Mark Ruffalo is Kenneth Marshall, failed politician turned cultish colonialist, and while you might see a bit of evangelist Pat Robertson or George Bush in his performance, it’s mainly a very obvious impression of Donald Trump. And he gets away with it too – the copied mannerisms and speech patterns are pretty unnerving and Mickey 17 (2025) is always played at such a high level of camp that Ruffalo is simply honouring that. Marshall’s grotesque in every single way, matched only by his all-teeth all-blonde wife Ylfa, who not only has a touch of the Fox News presenter but also an obsession with making everything into sauce like some far-flung Cruella de Vil.
The rest of the cast do well too. Naomi Ackie has luscious chemistry as Mickey’s long-term girlfriend Nasha, and Steven Yeun is cheerfully nasty if a bit unappreciated by the overall narrative. Robert Pattinson puts them all to shame, though. He’s forced to play two different versions of himself when Mickey is accidentally doubled, and the subtlety of the competing performances is really breathtaking. Mickey 18 is more stoic, more brutal, but Mickey 17 is played pure slapstick. Pattinson’s been on a diet that seems to have turned him to rubber – he bounces off walls and ceilings, contorts and dances and runs and splats. It’s one of his best performances purely for the physical demands that he’s met with real expertise.
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That being said, a good cast can’t hold a film together forever. Mickey 17 (2025) does ultimately stumble hard towards the end. The high-action camp doesn’t translate into a thrilling finale, and the stakes become very unclear as a final confrontation looms. When we do hit the buffers, it’s a bit of an anticlimax – no one really being sure why things have panned out the way they have or why. It’s also worth reiterating how silly a lot of the film is; it’s capable of being very funny with its jet-black absurdist comedy, but for some that might end up grating as they wait for things to become more coherent.
Yet a steaming slice of hammy, frenetic sci-fi comedy might be just right for audiences in the post-awards cooldown. It’s definitely a fun film in the way that a good blockbuster can be, but the insights Mickey 17 (2025) offers are mainly spoon-fed within the first hour and fade away over time. It’ll prove divisive, especially given it’s been 6 years since Bong Joon-Ho made a definitive masterpiece with Parasite (2019). So go in with relaxed expectations to enjoy this romp at its best, and laugh at every moment of Robert Pattinson crashing around your cinema screen.
Still: Warner Bros