Robert Watched: Mickey 17

Robert's Watchin It Score: 3/5 Must Watch It: 2/5

Overview

Released in 2025 starring Robert Pattinson (The Batman) and co-starring Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Mark Raffalo, and Toni Collette. Written and Directed by Bong Joon Ho (Snowpiercer and The Host). Based on the novel Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton.

Mickey 17 tells the story of Mickey Bares (Pattinson) as he is subjected to various medical experiments that often lead to his death in service to a colony ship headed for a distant planet.

Review: A movie about the worst job in a cult

SPOILERS BELOW!

Mickey 17 is a sci-fi comedy with a sprinkle of dystopian and authoritarian commentaries.

Mickey Barnes signs up as an “expendable” as the only means of boarding a colony ship leaving what appears to be a dying planet to avoid a loan shark. Using future technology that allows the printing of replacement bodies and uploading memories from a backup, Mickey dies 16 times during a series of medical experiments shown during a few montages throughout the movie. The main story starts when Mickey is left to die in an icy cavern but is quickly saved by local wildlife. Apon returning to the ship he finds that a copy has already been created. Mickey 17 and 18 proceed to go from zero to hero.

The movie is funny while exploring cult fanaticism and interesting philosophical questions regarding what happens when there are more than one you.

Robert Pattinson does an excellent job, tasked with depicting two of the same persons with differing personalities, the mild and downtrodden Mickey 17 and the more forceful, suave, confident, and cunning Mickey 18. This really shines through when both characters are on the screen and interacting with each other, the smoothness shown is a feat not easily accomplished.

I strongly disagree with the decision to give Mickey 17 a high pitched and accented voice. It conveyed some pity onto the character, but I feel it was a bit distracting considering how much the character talks to the audience.

The side characters are mostly uninteresting. A backstabbing friend, a “girlfriend” that I never really understood the motivations of beyond sex on a long flight, and a cultish husband (Raffalo) and wife (Collette) team leading the colonists which were very reminiscent of characters from 2021’s Don’t Look Up.

Should you watch it: (something here)

Mickey 17 is engaging enough to not notice the 2-hour runtime. It is funny, sad, exciting, and interesting, but not overly so in any of those categories. It can be watched any time and with any level of attention you choose to give it, but I would skip the theater and wait for it to get picked up by a streaming site. While I would not strongly suggest people check it out, I doubt that anyone who does will walk away feeling their time was wasted.