Brief Story Line
Story was set in the future where people had found an inhabitable planet called Niflheim which took 4.5 years to reach. An expedition led by politician Kenneth Marshall (Mark Ruffalo - The Adam Project, Now You See Me 2 etc) and his wife Ylfa (Toni Collette - Juror #2, Hereditary etc) was done to conquer the planet with many personnels including scientists, security agents like Nasha Barridge (Naomi Ackie - The End of the F***king World TV series, Blink Twice etc), pilot such as Timo (Steven Yeun - Nope, Beef TV series etc) and last but not least, an expendable Mickey (Robert Pattinson - The Batman, Tenet etc).
Mickey was willing to join the voyage as he wanted to escape from earth, even if he was given various assignments which could lead to his death, but he could be reprinted using cloning technology. Things became really complicated when they finally reached the planet and Mickey-17 (the 17th print of original Mickey) encountered the real inhabitants. It would lead to many complications that would jeopardize his existence.
So what would happen to him and how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
Well this film was indeed very unique. The story was what made it very interesting for us as it managed to show the dark humor side on heavy sci-fi topic of cloning. My wife and I were discussing this fact during the movie where we thought how amazing people could think of such a story. The "expendable" part was strongly affecting my wife that she actually felt sorry for Mickey everytime he had to experience death.
The story telling was also another fact that we both admired as it was awesomely done. It should not come as a surprise since the movie was written and directed by multiple award winning director Bong Joon-ho (Parasite, Snowpiercer, Memories of Murder etc). In fact his name was also one of the factor that made me interested in giving it a try. The movie itself was actually based on novel titled Mickey 7 by Edward Ashton. In addition to Bong's experience, it was also a pleasant surprise to see Robert Pattinson's performance. He was really awesome and so convincing in portraying various Mickeys and even my wife said his characterization was so distinct that we could immediately recognize the difference.
Aside from Pattinson, both of us also in awe of the performance by Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette. Though Collette was not exactly our favorite, but we acknowledge her acting ability. Ruffalo was also great as he successfuly made us so annoyed with him. Other than those names, there were some more support characters such as Gemma who worked with Kenneth (Holliday Grainger - CB Strike TV series etc), security officer Kai (Anamaria Vartolomei - The Count of Monte Cristo 2024 version, Happening etc), the scientist Dorothy (Patsy Ferran - Firebrand etc) and few others. Btw, despite Bong is a South Korean, we did not see any South Korean stars except for American raised Korean like Steven Yeun and Steve Park (Fargo, Asteroid City etc) as Agent Zeke.
I read that the movie had a high budget of more than USD 100 million which made it challenging to be a success commercially. I think it is probably due to the special effects which were not disappointing. Now I am not sure if it's going to be in the black by the end of its theatrical run, but it sure is not going to be so easy to do since its first week's performance was just so so. It is however well received by critics who obviously praised Bong and Pattinson and audience seemed to enjoy it too.
Overall my wife and I were pretty entertained by this long duration movie of 137 minutes including closing credits (but no mid/post end credit scenes). Its story telling was great, the plot was very unique and the dark humor was strong. However, I did have a bit different expectation as I thought it would be an action movie, though it might have been my own fault for making such asssumption. So if you are fans of Bong Joon-ho's works, I think you would be entertained by this as he still showed his amazing directing style and also Pattinson's mature performance. But if you are hoping for an action sci-fi or space opera film, then you won't be so satisfied with this. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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