I watched Mickey 17 last
week and don't feel like writing an entire essay-style review for it. Instead I
thought I would just experiment with format a bit and jot down some
thoughts.
Pros:
-The acting. Robert Pattinson is incredible as the main characters (plural, as this is a movie about clones), his performance(s) endearingly quirky and goofy. Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette give off an unsettlingly bizarre energy as the film’s villains. They keep things interesting even when things drag.
- The film looks good, from the CGI on the aliens to the directing.
Cons:
- The film tends to be a bit boring in spots and never fully explores the implications of its interesting premise.
- It’s a film made of two separate stories—the story of the clone whoopsie and the first contact with new aliens deal. These two halves seem oddly distinct from each other, as if they initially existed in other films and were then mashed together. It would have been nice if they were a little more intertwined, thematically if nothing else.
- The satire isn't exactly subtle
Misc. Observations:
- My expectations for Mickey 17 were pretty high. I still haven’t seen Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2019, but I did enjoy Snowpiercer and expected to love Mickey 17. I did not. It was fine. I might have enjoyed it more if I wasn’t expecting so much.
Mickey 17 is now playing in theaters.
