Acclaimed director Bong Joon-ho’s new film, Mickey 17, has been greeted with overwhelmingly positive reviews following its premiere in London on Thursday (13 February).
The South Korean director won universal praise for 2019’s Parasite, which scooped the Best Picture award at the 92nd Academy Awards, making it the first foreign language film to land the prestigious honour.
His new film sees Robert Pattinson play Mickey Barnes who, in a dystopian future, signs up for a space mission to colonise an alien planet covered in ice. However, Barnes has agreed to be an “expendable” who will work on dangerous jobs on the planet, with the catch being that when he dies he will be regenerated with all his memories intact to continue the work.
Things appear to go awry when Pattinson meets another version of himself, or a “multiple”, that has been simultaneously created, leading to a campaign orchestrated by Mark Ruffalo’s political character, to destroy all versions of that individual.
Given that it has been five years since Bong’s previous film, anticipation is understandably high and it would appear that fans won’t be disappointed.
Anchorman and The Big Short director Adam McKay called the film “hilarious, wild, sometimes genuinely heartbreaking and a perfect allegory for the hellscape stage of capitalism we’re in right now”.
Critic BJ Colangelo wrote: “Bong Joon-ho has crafted another masterpiece with Mickey 17, a deeply heartfelt and uncomfortably funny musing on capitalism, colonization, and corruption with a sublime cast. It’s a perfect film for our time, and director Bong’s best English-language film yet.”
The Globe and Mail’s Barry Hertz said: “No question Bong got final cut on this deeply chaotic tour into humanity's worst instincts (complimentary). An Okja-fied version of Moon, but better than that elevator pitch. Ruffalo does the best Trump of our generation b/c he correctly infuses it with Goggins' Baby Billy.”
Another fan added: “Robert Pattinson’s ability to have crazy chemistry with himself in Mickey 17 is just wow…..like he does very minute things to his facial expressions to differentiate them and plays both of them so flawlessly like holy s*** it’s incredible.”
Meanwhile, Fandango managing director Erik Davis said the film was “an absolute riot and Robert Pattinson further proves why he is one of the best, most versatile actors working today“.
The film is adapted from the 2022 novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton and also stars Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette and Thomas Turgoose.
Elsewhere, Pattinson told BBC News at the film’s premiere that he had predicted he would feel “less danger prone” after becoming a dad, but instead found the experience to be “very joyful”.
“If someone told me I was going to die in a week, I’d be like, ‘What? I want to spend some more time with my kid’,” he said, before adding: “That’s a very deep answer.”
Mickey 17 is set for a UK release on 18 April.
