It’s impressive how Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson refused to be typecast after co-starring in the “Twilight” franchise, which has grossed more than $3.3 billion. Each has taken on interesting and challenging roles, and each has carved out quite a career. Stewart has alternated between big-budget vehicles and indie projects, and was nominated for best actress for “Spencer,” while Pattinson has proved to a formidable Batman and has held his own in prestige projects such as “The Lighthouse” and “Tenet.”
Writer-director-producer Bong Joon Ho’s utterly bonkers and wildly creative though somewhat repetitive “Mickey 17” is his first film since the Oscar-winning “Parasite” in 2019, and Pattinson gives a knockout performance in an action-comedy dual role that might once have been played by a Robin Williams or a Jim Carrey or an Eddie Murphy. Sledgehammer-unsubtle and bursting with big ideas about class warfare, immigration and the pitfalls of blindly following a narcissistic leader (ahem), “Mickey 17” is the latest entry in the “Main Character Keeps Dying” genre, as seen in films such as “Groundhog Day,” “Edge of Tomorrow” and “Happy Death Day,” and TV series such as “Russian Doll.”
Pattinson strikes comedic gold in affecting a risky but effective dumbass accent as the hapless but goodhearted Mickey Barnes, who has signed up to be a human crash test dummy and dies a series of gruesome deaths in the name of scientific research, only to be recycled via a biological 3D printer, with his memories and personality intact — though each version of Mickey seems to carry slightly different traits. It’s a variation on the teletransportation paradox as filtered through a live-action Looney Tunes cartoon, with some B-movie creatures thrown in for good measure.
“Mickey 17” is set 30 years in the future, where Mickey and his best friend Timo (Steven Yeun) are in debt to a ruthless loan shark. Out of options, they decide to literally leave Earth and join a space colony mission to the distant planet of Niflheim led by the failed politician Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), who wears gaudy outfits and sports ill-fitting bleached teeth and makes grand proclamations that are gobbled up by his hardcore followers, who wear red baseball caps and will do anything for their leader. (Yes, Marshall is like a cross between Donald Trump and Elon Musk.)
During the four years-plus journey to Niflheim, the passengers and crew wear drab clothes and consume rationed portions of disgusting gruel and are cautioned not to have sex because it will sap them of their energy, while Marshall and his grotesquely materialistic and controlling wife Ylfa (Toni Collette) live in a luxurious apartment and consume lavish meals. Marshall even has his own closed-circuit talk show.
As Mickey is exploited like a human canary in a coal mine — exposing himself to one toxic situation after another so the medical team can create antigens — he finds solace in a passionate relationship with Nasha Barridge (the wonderful Naomi Ackie), a security agent who, like Mickey, isn’t buying into the philosophical manure that Marshall keeps shoveling to his followers on a daily basis. Once the ship finally lands on the frozen planet, the idea of creating a Utopia seems ridiculous. Mickey is sent into the deadly atmosphere and dies another horrific death so that a vaccine can be created. He also has a strange encounter with a herd of crawling, slug-like creatures that are soon dubbed “Creepers” by Marshall, who targets them for extinction.
When the 17th iteration of Mickey suffers a serious injury in the field and is left for dead, the printer cranks out a Mickey 18, who is much tougher and angrier than previous versions, and wants revenge on Marshall for turning him into a guinea pig. Things get problematic, and truly weird, when Mickey 17 comes face-to-face with Mickey 18, meaning he’s becoming a “multiple,” which is strictly forbidden and could lead to both of them being executed. As for Nasha, she’s not freaked out by the two Mickeys; in fact, she thinks it’s kind of fantastic. Think of the possibilities in the bedroom, for one thing.
As Marshall gears up for a war with the Creepers, who might not be what they appear to be, two of our best actors in Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette go way, way, WAY over the top in twin performances that are more loud and flashy than truly effective. Pattinson and Ackie fare much better, with Ackie putting some wickedly funny twists on a badass heroine character, while Pattinson creates two distinctly different personalities in the two Mickeys. With a running time of 2 hours and 17 minutes, “Mickey 17” occasionally loses momentum as it hammers home its points, but this is still a uniquely funny and timely tale.