After “Parasite” became the first non-English language film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2020—and snagged another three Oscars that year, including Best Director—there was a fair bit of pressure riding on South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho’s next flick. Although delayed twice due to the actors’ and writers’ guild strikes of spring 2023, the science fiction comedy “Mickey 17” finally debuted on March 7 to decidedly mixed reviews. I was surprised to see so much criticism for the film as I really enjoyed it, but reading through some of the responses from audience members and critics helped me understand the problem. People were expecting another “Parasite” from Bong, and “Mickey 17” is no “Parasite.”

I don’t mean to say that it would’ve been impossible for “Mickey 17” to measure up to its predecessor’s success; rather, the two films had different intended purposes from the start.

“Parasite” was, for lack of a better phrase on my end, a “serious” movie. It did have many staples of the “popcorn” film genres, like humor and suspense and graphic violence, but Bong used these with a far lighter hand than in “Mickey 17.” “Parasite” was intended to hold a mirror up to the uncomfortable, grim reality of our society’s class divisions, whereas “Mickey 17” is an irreverent satire of these same systems. Plus, the latter was Bong’s first-ever big-budget project with a major Hollywood studio—it was always meant to be a blockbuster first and foremost, and far more appealing to the average American moviegoer than “Parasite.” “Mickey 17,” to me, is kind of like if Bong Joon Ho did a Marvel movie. It’s going to be the best Marvel movie you’ve ever seen, but it’s not going to win Best Picture again.

Looking at the film through this lens, let’s get into the plot. In the year 2054, Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) signs up to be an “expendable” on a space colonization mission headed to the planet Niflheim. With the help of a high-tech cloning machine that reprints a person’s body and uploads their previously backed-up memories, the job of an expendable is to die over and over and over again, and often slowly and painfully. Mickeys 1–16 succumb to radiation poisoning, disease, a shot to the head and a number of other horrible fates not shown on-screen. One Mickey is even thrown into the incinerator while he’s still alive because trying to nurse him back to health would be too much of a hassle. This terrible cycle would have continued uninterrupted if not for an unexpected error: Mickey 17, left for dead on Niflheim’s icy surface, comes back alive only to find that Mickey 18 has already been printed. 

One of the standouts of the film is Pattinson’s performance as both Mickeys. Any fans of the actor will know that Pattinson is a really weird dude who’s unfortunately been pigeonholed into playing straight-laced, conventionally handsome characters for most of his career. “Mickey 17” finally lets Pattinson play someone who’s a bit of a freak, and two freaks at that. The best way I can describe Mickey 17 is that he’s a loser—he speaks in a strangely squeaky New York accent and avoids confrontation even in life-or-death situations, of which we know he has far too many. Mickey 18, on the other hand, is a murderous psychopath who does whatever he wants when he wants to. The two characters couldn’t be more different, giving Pattinson a rare opportunity to show off his range.

The rest of the cast is equally strong, though given less room to play than Pattinson. Naomi Ackie is a clear standout; she plays Mickey’s love interest Nasha, a fiercely loyal security agent. Most action movies struggle with how to treat their female lead, especially when she’s the love interest; directors know that 21st century audiences won’t react well to a damsel in distress, but they also don’t want to write a woman whose strength and competency overshadows that of the male protagonist. Nasha is not only tender and tough, she actually plays a vital role in the climax of the film. I realize that this doesn’t sound like much of an accomplishment, but having seen too many films fail on both counts, her portrayal honestly stands out. 

Apart from Ackie and Pattinson, Toni Collette does a great job playing the expedition commander’s cruel, vapid wife, and Mark Ruffalo is decent as the commander himself. Ruffalo plays the ship’s buffoonish dictator as a one-to-one translation of President Donald Trump, which provides a decent portion of the film’s comedic relief. It’s a killer impression and injects a healthy dose of realism into this otherwise satirical film, but I do wish Ruffalo had given a less one-dimensional performance as his Trump voice gets old quickly.

The film’s final two strengths are its humor and, to the surprise of no one familiar with Bong’s work, its indictment of late-stage capitalism. The humor in “Mickey 17” isn’t simple comic relief sprinkled in at opportune moments or nuanced, subtle humor; it’s a solid throughline, and the jokes had my audience genuinely laughing out loud. Both Mickeys had great one-liners: My favorites were, after Mickey 17 is dragged away by a monstrous mother alien to feed her children, “Wow, what a great mom” and Mickey 18’s “oopsie” when confronted by the person he tried to murder. As for the film’s class critique, it’s far from subtle thanks to Ruffalo’s Trump, but the allegory’s lack of nuance doesn’t make it any less powerful, at least in my opinion. Bong isn’t known to pull punches when it comes to displays of human cruelty, and “Mickey 17” looks unflinchingly at the suffering of the working class under capitalism.

All said, “Mickey 17” is a solid movie that does a great job engaging its audience. While I encourage Case Western Reserve University students to see the film in theaters, I would be remiss not to mention that due to the film’s poor box office performance, it is forecasted to be available to stream in the imminent future—it will already be available to rent next Tuesday, March 25. Whichever method you choose, though, I encourage you to give the film a watch. Even if “Mickey 17” doesn’t get you to think as deeply as “Parasite” did, I’m sure it will get you to laugh.