The space colonialist Mickey (Robert Pattinson) dies on the screen compared to Edward Ashton's novel, published in 2022: Bong Joon-Ho has an almost thieving pleasure in scene as dry humorous as possible dryly. set. So from “Mickey 7” in the cinema “Mickey 17“ – And the poor title hero has to freeze a few more times more, suffocate or be burned by radioactive cosmic radiation.
Six years after his surprising Oscar cleaner “Parasite”, the South Korean master director (“The Host”) returns with a sci-fi satire that hammered the audience their capitalism-critical and anti-colonial message with the wooden hammer . In addition to the usual staging brilliance of the “Memories of Murder” Masterminds, this is mainly due to Robert Pattinson, who not only embodies the role here, but even the roles of his life.
Mickey 17 and Mickey 18 (both: Robert Pattinson) are like the other, but their personality is still fundamentally different.
Because he believed his dodgy best buddy Timo (Steven Yeun) that Macarons Burgern will run as Fast Food No. 1, Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) is in debt with a murder -lamper. His only way out: to leave the earth, which is just before the exitus. But why should the Niflheim expedition of the former MP Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo) take it with him, without any special skills? In his need, Mickey undertakes without reading the small print correctly, as a so -called “expendable”.
“Expendables”, as the name suggests, are “replaced”. So it doesn't matter if he is killed in particularly dangerous missions or as a human guinea pig. If a Mickey dies, the next one is simply “printed out” directly – ready for use and equipped with the memories of his predecessor. So Mickey 17 has already died 16 times, and actually it has already caught him again. When Mickey 17 survives like a miracle, Mickey 18 has already been printed – and if there are so -called “multiples”, then all of them are wiped out on the spot …
What is better than Robert Pattinson?
Recently Robert Pattinson has complained that people will continue to reduce him to his “Twilight” role as Edward Cullen-and in fact, three of the four films, for which he is the best known, still come from the “ Twilight ”universe (the fourth is“ The Batman ”). His frustration is understandable primarily because after his breakthrough as a glitter vampire, he is actually more than impressive indie filmography with director like David Cronenberg (“Cosmopolis”), Werner Herzog (“Queen of the Desert” ), Robert Eggers (“The Lighthouse”), the Safdie brothers (“Good Time”) and even Claire Denis (“High Life”).
The predominant number of its performances is not only damn good, but often also extremely vain. But as far as this is concerned, “Mickey 17” is now crowning an outstanding and unusual career: not only is the multiple role implemented in a trickless manner, Pattinson is also not too good, with Mickey 17 an anxious naivling and with Mickey 18 a calculating opportunist to embody. As far as self -ironic, dust -dry humor is concerned, he and his director is absolutely on the same wavelength. So yes, 18 Robert Pattinsons are actually even better than a Robert Pattinson (in most cases) is already.
A capitalist damp dream: With the human printer, you can literally fire workers and the next morning they are still ready again on time at the start of the service.
If Bong Joon-Ho is really close to my heart, then he does not keep it behind the mountain-and that applies again especially to his sci-fi films: like the stand allegory in “snowpiercer” or the animal welfare order In “Okja” he also hits the anti-capitalist (sub) text of “Mickey 17” with a tasty. With “Starship Troopers” there was a sci-fi film about the struggle of people against oversized alien insects 28 years ago-and at that time more than half of the audience (including contemporary film criticism) did not understand that Paul Verhoeven naturally created his sci-fi massacre as an anti-fascist manifesto.
Such a misunderstanding will therefore not be repeated at “Mickey 17”. But while Bong Joon Ho presents his central message anything but subtly, it is above all the perfidious compliance with which he presents all the small meanness, cruelty and injustices that give “Mickey 17” such a high entertainment value: the people have them The idea of the “replaceable” person already internalized so much that they don't even accept the smallest inconvenience to save one of the Mickey – it is easier to simply print out the next number.
Finally really good effects again!
At least at one point, Bong Joon Ho should have hit even more on her shit – and maybe you can also see at this point that the film was unusually long before it was published: Mark Ruffalo has been wrong with his performance with false strain -BISHEN u. Let Donald Trump inspired – but reality has long since overtaken fiction. By the way, quite different with the effects, because “Mickey 17” is absolutely up to date despite the long production duration.
Where more and more blockbusters look beyond the $ 250 million budget marks like CGI-matsch, Bong Joon-Ho takes out a damn good animations from a rumored budget of $ 80 to $ 115 million. This applies above all to the indigenous population of Niflheim, which is apparently modeled on oversized beards. As with the hippos in “Okja”, the design is somehow disturbing to terrifying – and at the same time there is damn cute.
Conclusion: “Mickey 17” presents his morality of the history 'anything but subtle, and Mark Ruffalo's Trump parody looks almost too harmless in the current situation. But Bong Joon-Hos patented black humor and a multipel brilliant Robert Pattinson still make the sci-fi satire a highlight of the genre.
We saw “Mickey 17” as part of the Berlinale 2025, where he celebrated his German premiere as a Berlinale Special.