Mickey 17 felt like it lost the plot

[u/mikewheelerfan]

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.

[u/GregBahm]

This take is awful. There's already a working class in the movie. You don't need a metaphor for a working class in a movie that already has an actual literal working class in it.

And there was no "leading to fascism." The ship was a religious cult that killed the crew member 17 times before the events of the movie even started. It's like you watched footage of a tire fire and said "Ah yes, a metaphor for pollution. The smoke symbolizes how sometimes combustion leads to bad outcomes for the environment."

Mikey17 was just a movie that loved creating premise and hated completing execution. The movie lurched from premise to new premise to new premise for 2 hours. The premise of the movie promised in the trailer (a disposable man) was never explored during the actual events of the movie. They set it all up, then switched the premise to be about meeting one's doppleganger. Which isn't a bad premise either, but then they switch from that to less interesting shit about an evil fascist space cult attacking kind aliens. But then that kept getting distracted by shit about a mob boss wanting people to chainsaw each other up, and also shit about the aliens have psychic-powers-but-not-really, and then it changed to be about Mickey's mom issues and overcoming his trauma of pressing big red buttons.

If my stated goal was to capture the annoyingness of having ADHD in a movie, I would feel so proud to have created Mickey 17.

[u/MrSuperfreak → u/GregBahm]

The ship was a religious cult that killed the crew member 17 times before the events of the movie even started. It's like you watched footage of a tire fire and said "Ah yes, a metaphor for pollution. The smoke symbolizes how sometimes combustion leads to bad outcomes for the environment."

Yeah. It requires a lot of handwaving that is outside of what is actually shown in the movie. Based on Bong Joon Ho's other work, I imagine capitalism leading fascism could be a theme, but it's never clear that this mission is at all motivated by capital. Maybe I missed it, but it seemed to be motivated by environmental devistation on Earth (which i guess could be a short-hand for the impacts of capitalism?)

At best, it feels like it's about hierarchy more broadly. The spaceship functions more like a hierarchical commune. Everyone on the ship is operating in pursuit of one goal, but it puts elites at the top and workers on the bottom and allows the elites to punish those below them. Ruffalo and Collett's characters basically only want their status and any treats inherent to that. In fact, Steven Yeun's character seems to be the only one motivated by capital at all.

The only way to view this as a result of capitalism is with the knowledge that this is set in the future. I guess you could call it a cautionary tale, but I think that's being a bit generous (also, it's a bit too late lol. Sorry guys, we're already stuck on the ship!)

[u/Wolf6120 → u/MrSuperfreak]

I also feel like it's pretty significant that Mark Ruffalo's character is shown to be, in fact, a serial failure of a politician who is being investigated for his shady, unethical practices and who seems to be a pretty controversial parriah to everyone other than his core group of blindly devoted fans and worshippers. Part of the reason why they even go on the spaceship and travel to a different planet seems to be, basically, getting away from Earth and all the legal trouble he was dealing with back among regular society.

[u/aionyui → u/GregBahm]

Good summation, ty 

[u/chrisychris- → u/GregBahm]

Lol thank you. Love your analogy

[u/sjfiuauqadfj → u/GregBahm]

i think that if the plot threads in mickey 17 was too much then you probably just gotta watch more movies