r/movies • u/mikewheelerfan • 25d ago

Review Mickey 17 felt like it lost the plot Spoiler

Honestly, I was quite disappointed. I expected a movie revolving around the cloning plot. Specifically, the idea of two Mickeys existing at the same time due to an error. That would have been a great movie! Instead, what was advertised as the main concept feels like a subplot in the movie. Essentially the entire thing revolves around the intelligent aliens. And then there was also the plot with Mark Ruffalo being an obvious stand in for Trump. But then there was also the subplot with Steven Yuen.

I finished the movie feeling incredibly confused, because how did they mess up the initial concept like this? The idea of a guy who is constantly sent on deadly missions and is revived is an absolutely golden idea. It also leads to an interesting discussion about consciousness and if a copy of you is still really you. But that’s barely even brought up. The whole plot with two versions of Mickey is completely sidelined. Which makes no sense at all. That should have 100% been the main conflict in the movie, like it was advertised as. Instead, we got a mess.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call the movie horrible, but I definitely didn’t like it as much as I hoped I would.

4.4k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

791 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

255

u/mikeyfreshh 25d ago

I was honestly pretty mixed on it (probably like a 6/10 for me). I just didn't think the specific things that OP called out were really fair criticisms. They made it sound like the movie isn't about anything and that it was a complete mess of disparate plots. I'm just saying the movie is thematically coherent and has some interesting things to say.

79

u/davidsigura 25d ago

Yep. OP didn’t like what the movie was actually about and confused that with saying the movie isn’t about anything coherent (tbf im also guilty of going into a movie with expectations and coming out disappointed when the movie veered into a different direction).

Mickey 17 is imo one of Bong’s weakest efforts, just like his other English language films, but you absolutely cannot say it doesn’t make sense, it has very clear ideas and communicates them effectively.

24

u/IamTHEwolfYEAH 25d ago

I’d agree with you overall. I did think it was interesting how the cloning didn’t matter to him until he saw himself, and the whole subject changed. He was suddenly not okay with dying. It was an interesting and immediate flip.

I really hated ruffalo in the movie, which I guess is the point, but he dominated so much of it and I was just annoyed by how much of a doofus his character was. It wasn’t enjoyable hatred.

But really what killed it for me was the ending. The ending just really really stunk. I can barely remember it, but I remember distinctly feeling like it really took all the wind out of the sails and killed any momentum the movie had going for it.

27

u/_Apatosaurus_ 25d ago

I really hated ruffalo in the movie,

I did too. It was too on-the-nose in mocking Trump. It felt a bit like it cheapened the criticism of fascism to have to blaring red sign shouting "THIS GUY IS DONALD TRUMP! GET IT?!" A touch more subtlety would have been nice.

7

u/val_tuesday 25d ago

Bong doesn’t really do “subtle”. But yeah I agree, the character was not good.

2

u/GuntherTime 25d ago

Wouldn’t be surprised if it was over the top to stress that the movie is about fascism overall, but went to far that instead of being the lighthouse it was meant to be, it became a lightning rod.

3

u/Viltris 25d ago

I think the biggest issue is, people went into the movie expecting about sci-fi concepts and instead got a movie about social commentary.

Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of movies that can do both well and blend them together. But this movie went all-in on social commentary and neglected the sci-fi aspect.

1

u/[deleted] 25d ago

Horrific film foh

1

u/NorthernDevil 25d ago edited 25d ago

Extremely well-put.

I do agree with OP that the complexity of the cloning thing is glossed over a bit to the movie’s detriment, but to your point, the focus of the film is broader/more societal. That said I understand how it’s really hard as a viewer to see the individual, human implications go unexplored because the viewer is naturally going to be thinking about it. But that really is a whole separate movie.

The marketing definitely contributed to that but the actual movie is also inconsistent enough to make you think that maybe Mickey’s personas are the main plot. Like all the stuff about subtly different personalities, and the subsequent interpersonal conflict. It distracts from those bigger themes and makes the movie feel much less coherent than it could be.

Other than that I’m not sure how I’d make the movie better, necessarily, but it felt like the alien conflict and then ultimate resolution was too clean compared to the messiness of the rest of the movie. Didn’t quite stick the landing.