After a couple of months I decided to go to the cinema to see any movie, I would simply see the one that seemed the most interesting at the time. There wasn't much to choose from, maybe the current Capital America movie would have been the most obvious choice, but the reviews I had seen of that movie were not encouraging at all, the vast majority indicated that it was a resounding failure or at best said that the movie didn't live up to expectations as far as such a production was concerned. There was also Mufasa and Flow and I was about to decide on one of those two, but I saw a particular movie that I found quite intriguing and as with a sort of revelation I went for that one.
So I saw “Mickey 17”, a movie of the year 2025 produced by Warner Bros. starring Robert Pattinson, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette, among other well-known actors; I must say that the cast was one of the reasons why I chose to see this movie. Later I found out, and it was a pleasant surprise, that the film was directed by the South Korean Bong Joon-ho, who we remember for “Parasite” with which he won an Oscar for best director. I would say that the genre of the film is science fiction, fantasy and comedy.
So, to give you some context about the movie, the story initially takes us to earth, Mickey and Timo are two guys who got into trouble with the mafia because they asked for a loan to start a macaroni restaurant, but it did not go well, so they had no way to pay the debt to some guys who proved to be violent and bloodthirsty. Both desperate, they decide to flee as far as possible in a space mission that was intended to populate another planet, it is assumed that so far from earth would be out of danger.
Timo manages to get a pilot position, but Mickey was not so lucky, his careless and unfocused personality made him opt for a position called “expendable”, or something like that, and well, the poor man did not know what awaited him. It turns out that this position consisted of being a permanent test subject in which he would die several times, but would revive thanks to a machine that would replicate it as many times as necessary and retaining all his memories, so Mickey would be changing numbering upward as he was dying in the most terrible ways you can imagine.
This is how we arrive at Mickey 17, this version is involved in an accident in the strong ice of the new planet from which it is concluded that he has died since beyond falling from a considerable height, he is attacked by beings that inhabit that planet. So they proceed to replicate him and thus give life to Mickey 18, a version that against all odds is more focused, extroverted, but also violent. The truth is that the problems increase when it is confirmed that Mickey 17 did not die, but that, on the contrary, he was rescued by the aforementioned creatures. Thus, with two Mickeys with different personalities, a moral, comic and bizarre struggle begins, in which a berserk leader tries to kill him and even tries to wipe out the native creatures of the planet Niflheim.
Believe me, there is much more to the film than what you read in the previous paragraphs, I just gave you a little context of a story that surprised me by the curious performances of a cast that went out of their comfort zone and dared to try a different facet than usual, for example, I never saw Mark Ruffalo playing a villain or tyrant, that really made me laugh. This movie is full of what I think is black comedy, but in which the drama prevails even over the science fiction, I think the construction of the story until its climax is more than successful.
I think this movie is not for everyone, I have the impression that many would see it as a boring and heavy movie, but from my point of view it brings a different style of direction, plot and story, I feel it is quite original and that beyond the comedy, it faces serious issues that can make us reflect. My assessment for this film is positive, but leaving aside the entertainment it brings, I rescue how unique it is and the strange impressions it generated while I was watching it. It was a pleasant surprise to discover this film, it gives me the impression that there are many hidden gems out there that are underrated for not having the marketing or publicity that films that are very disposable have.
