Imagine working for the government, doing the most risky and lethal space exploration missions for them, and dying most of the time. However, when you die, your mind and memories are implanted into a new body of yours, even though your body stays dead, your consciousness lives on in another body of yours. Welcome to the life of Mickey Barnes. From Academy Award winning director Bong Joon-ho, an adaptation of the book “Mickey7” hits the big screen on Mar. 7, 2025.

“Mickey 17” stars Robert Pattinson as Mickey Barnes, a human dubbed as an expendable, which means any time Mickey dies, he gets reprinted and is born again. As Mickey does the dirty work and experiments for his team of explorers in space, he discovers corruption. While failed politician Kenneth Marshal, played by Mark Ruffalo, tries to pioneer civilization onto a new planet, an illegal duplicate of Mickey is mistakenly printed.

Plot 

The plot of “Mickey 17” has both its highs and lows. The structure of the story in itself is solid, and the film has an intriguing premise about cloning. The exposition starts a little slow but gives the audience good insight and immerses the viewer into the world of what it is like to be Mickey and to die and be reprinted over and over again. The rising action and climax were very entertaining, and the different conflicts of this film were also interesting.

However, what weighs down some of this plot is that some of the pacing in this film felt slow. There were parts of the movie toward the middle that focused more on developing the characters further rather than moving the main plot forward, which made it seem slow and almost boring at parts. But, once the movie picks back up, it runs at a good pace again for the majority of the film.

There are several different conflicts in “Mickey 17”, with some being more fleshed out than others. The main conflict of this film, against the leader of Mickey’s society, is very allegorical to the political troubles currently going on in modern society.  There is a point in this film that feels like a political rally where the main political figure is telling his people lies and they are cheering for him, which seems reminiscent of problems going on in today’s real world. Corruption and narcissism are heavy themes explored through the conflict of this film, and they go about it in a very interesting way. 

Another one of the conflicts in this film is the true sci-fi elements on the new planet. This conflict is interesting, and even though it is not the main conflict of this film, it still feels somewhat fleshed out. One of the background conflicts, however, was between Mickey and another character on his ship, which only gets about two scenes and feels like it could have been explored a little more to make it worthwhile.

This film has a dark sense of humor. Often poking fun at death and destruction, the jokes in this film sometimes seem questionable to laugh at due to the placement of the punchline. However, this film seems to find a good balance of taking moments seriously and imposing dark and funny humor. So, the placement being questionable adds to the comedic value, because it is not overdone.

The film has a very interesting concept of the “expendable” character. The idea that anytime this Mickey character dies his mind and memories are printed into a new version of his body again is a cool concept. For the screen time given to this concept, it was really enjoyable and comedic, seeing Mickey die in crazy ways just to be reprinted seconds later. However, this idea seemed a little unexplored in the film. It would have been really cool to see more versions of Mickey printed and failing to complete experiments, especially because that is where a lot of comedy in this film comes from.

Acting

The acting in “Mickey 17” is phenomenal. From all angles, whether it be the antagonist or the protagonists of this film, the acting is never lacking. Pattinson does an amazing job at portraying not only one Mickey Barnes but 18 of them. Well, two main Mickey’s that the movie focuses on. The differentiation that Pattinson gives them really sticks out and makes you question if they really are the same person. Pattinson also does a good job during suspenseful scenes and can show fear and danger in his voice very well.

Ruffalo portrays a corrupt politician amazingly in this film. The way that he speaks and is influenced by the people around him makes him seem as though he does not know what he is actually talking about or doing, and is just an ego with influence and power. This is exactly who Ruffalo’s character is in this film, and Ruffalo’s acting ability shines through when he is able to make the viewer angry and feel hatred towards him.

Cinematography, VFX & Set Design

Movie sets are sometimes hard to nail. However, “Mickey 17” finds not only a good and consistent color palette but also visually appealing sets. The color palette in this film relied heavily on cool colors such as dark blues and greens, and also hazy yellows. This gave the film a heavy dystopian feel to it, and because of the way that the color palette was consistent throughout the film, it truly felt dystopian. The only time the film strays away from the main color palette is after the conflict of the film is resolved when a bright sunrise is seen.

The sets and setting on “Mickey 17” were standard but visually appealing. The ship that this crew lives on follows the color schemes of gray and boring colors, which feels standard for a sci-fi spaceship, but the planet they are exploring does not. The planet is covered in snow and has a bright sky, which adds a nice contrast to the main emphasis of dystopian and depressing backgrounds.

Visual effects are used a lot in this film, considering that Pattinson plays both of the film’s main protagonists. Whenever Pattinson was on-screen with himself, it generally looked natural and real. There were only a few times throughout the whole film where it was obvious that they were edited next to each other. There were also times in this film where it was obvious that a green screen was being used, but this happened minimal times, to the point where it did not take away from the overall experience.

The usage of computer-generated imagery (CGI) in this film felt natural. There were two main reasons that CGI was used: to show the ship and station that the crew was living on, and the aliens on the planet they were exploring. The alien CGI was done really well, to the point where it almost seemed like the aliens could have been practical effects. The spaceship also looked good and real throughout the course of the film. When used right, CGI adds a lot to the value of the film and makes it a more immersive experience, which is exactly what “Mickey 17” captures.

Although “Mickey 17” may not be Best Picture material due to plot elements, it is a well-spent two hours, scoring 4/5 stars from me.