Mickey 17 Movie Review (2025)

While Multiples may be illegal in the world of Mickey 17, I would have appreciated a multiple of myself to watch the second half of this movie for me.

This is one of those movies that I’ve been waiting to see. It’s been on my watchlist since I first heard that it was in the works and I was really looking forward to it. But once I got to the theater, it wasn’t quite what I was hoping for.

Mickey 17 is about a man who has very few things going for him on Earth, so he decides to sign up for a space program that would enable him to get off of the planet and away from his troubles. Having no skills whatsoever, he signs up to be an Expendable. Without reading what this means, he is whisked away and, along with other technicians, researchers, and service-people, he goes into space for four years as a guinea pig.

Without knowing it, Mickey has signed up to be killed (or die in various ways) and reproduced on a human printer as many times as needed in the name of science. Since this is illegal on earth, in space they can see how things like radiation or poison affects him and develop cures for the rest of the crew.

The premise is fantastic. Robert Pattinson’s vocal and physical choices are funny and eccentric, and the first half of the movie is pretty entertaining (particularly the printing process). Unfortunately, I thought it was way too long and most of the other plot devices that they intended to be quirky and plot-driving just landed bizarrely.

Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette (love both of them) play the voyage leader and his wife. When the ship finally lands on a planet full of inhabitants, their plan is to exterminate (and her plan is to make dipping sauce out of them? Yes, for real). And if his teeth aren’t distracting enough, the relationship dance that they do (where he appears strong, but is really an idiot and she makes sure that he feels in charge) is less than endearing.

There is a storyline about no one being intimate in space in order to conserve energy (because food is limited), but Mickey and his girlfriend rebel in secret. There is also an illegal drug onboard that is being sold by an unnamed person (who is eventually discovered) and a researcher has randomly developed a tool to communicate with the planet’s inhabitants. These things never really get addressed in any satisfactory or plot-driving way (the ship landed recently, no one knows anything about them, and you have a communicator?), so the loose threads just hang out there, like so many other things.

I wanted to enjoy this movie, but I started daydreaming multiple times during the second half. When I came back to, I hadn’t missed anything, which is not good. The plot devices that could have been fun or amusing were off-putting and odd and it was a bummer to see it play out that way. Bong Joon Ho (of Parasite fame) is an excellent director, I just think that this was a rare miss.

Runtime: 137 minutes

Motion Picture Rating: R

Languages Spoken In The Film: English

Should You Watch It? Maybe, it just wasn’t my thing

Did I Cry? Nope

My Rating: 3/5 Stars

Available: In theaters and may be available to rent on streaming platforms in the future