Mickey 17 – Review

AD 2154 on the planet Niflheim: Mickey Barnes (Pattinson) lies at the bottom of an ice crevasse, having fallen but miraculously survived. His friend Timo (Yuen) comes just in time, but decides only to collect his undamaged flamethrower from the ice shelf above. He leaves Mickey to his fate, deciding the risk of saving him is not worth it. Creatures from a cave move in on Mickey, who decides it’s probably better than slowly freezing. An odd start…

Flashing back 4.5 years begins Mickey’s journey back on Earth on his long trek to his icy fate in the stars. After getting behind on a large loan from Darius Blank (Hanmore) in order to open a macaron store with his friend Timo, Mickey volunteers for an “Expendable” program. Anyone that misses a Blank deadline gets chased to the ends of the earth, so Mickey looks elsewhere in the galaxy. The last ship of the season goes to Niflheim.

Mickey doesn’t read the application and doesn’t have any usable skills, so he dives head first into this Expendable program. It is an extreme job, which is described as “fun.” After death, a human-being 3D printer recycles ship waste material and can produce a new version of him in just 20 hours! Memories are uploaded and Mickey is reprinted just as good as he ever was. Forever. These imprints ensure there are no big gaps in new versions.

What are Expendables used for? Just about anything dangerous. As humans try to colonize the icy surface of Niflheim, dangers are explored by usable fodder. So, are there any hopes for a constantly dying clone? Well, Nasha Barridge (Ackie) is one, an attractive girl he meets on day 1 of his space journey. Still, this type of relationship is prohibited on the trip towards the planet by president Kenneth Marshall (Ruffalo) and his wife Ylfa (Collette). Not Cool. Though, eventually propagation of the new planet will be a goal, when the crews finally arrive.

As this Sci-Fi story continues to evolve, many of its ideas are on full display during its longish runtime. It is a bizarre and often comical take on the human adventure through the stars, as well as the new settlement established there. It raises ethical, philosophical and societal questions, and looks at future technology in a realistic way.

Overall, the acting is quite strong, and it needs to be. Pattinson is forced to do a lot with his character, and gives a great performance. That being said, everyone holds their own and the many veterans in the cast all rock their parts in entertaining ways. There are a ton of ideas, as mentioned before, and if anything it is a tad overstuffed as a few of them are not really allowed much time to breathe. There is a lot more good than bad, and creativity is busting from the gills.

A competent director pulled off the tough feat of adapting this book, of which I am sure the writing had more time and ability to flesh out its many concepts. The film is still worth seeing for fans of nuttier Sci-Fi flicks, however I have seen a lot of complaints about the movie from people who read the book. I myself didn’t read it, so I did not have any expectations going in.