Mickey 17: 'charming space oddity' that's a 'sparky one-off'

A 'remarkable' Robert Pattinson stars in Bong Joon-ho's sci-fi comedy

Robert Pattinson in Mickey 17.
'The movie's strongest draw': Robert Pattinson plays two clones 'with remarkable aplomb'
(Image credit: Alamy / BFA)

Six years after his "global smash" film "Parasite" made history at the Oscars, Bong Joon-ho is back with a "boisterous" sci-fi comedy, said Kevin Maher in The Times. The South Korean director has squeezed a lot into "Mickey 17", from "space movie pastiches" to "corporate spoofs" and "religious caricatures". "All this, and Mark Ruffalo as an intergalactic Donald Trump!"

Set in the 2050s, the action follows Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson), a "luckless patsy" who signs up to become an "expendable" (human clone) and perform dangerous tasks during a "long-haul space mission" to the planet Niflheim. Each time he dies, he has the "disquieting knowledge that he'll emerge reborn, hours later", fresh from a "human printing machine".

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"No one is better" than Joon-ho at "using the rules of genre filmmaking against his audience", continually finding clever ways to "subvert our expectations" and "surprise" us, said Helen O'Hara in Empire. From the trailer, you'd expect "another epic tale of revolt against a corrupt regime" – and "there is a bit of that" but there is also an unexpected "sense of romance and even optimism about the future".

While the film "earns points for sheer oddity", too much of it "turns out to be sloppy, shrill and preachy – ironically, the same things that make Mark Ruffalo's deliberately Trump-styled villain so grating", said Peter Debruge in Variety.

Irenie Forshaw is a features writer at The Week, covering arts, culture and travel. She began her career in journalism at Leeds University, where she wrote for the student newspaper, The Gryphon, before working at The Guardian and The New Statesman Group. Irenie then became a senior writer at Elite Traveler, where she oversaw The Experts column.