Mickey 17

Watching this film was a treat. Boon Jong Ho’s multiple Oscar-winning movie ‘Parasite’ was amazing, and this, I would argue, was even better.

For starters, it’s insane.

It was genre-bending weirdness combined in a mix that shouldn’t work but somehow worked incredibly well. It was a sci-fi, action, gore-ish horror, drug addiction drama, neo-colonial commentary which, at one point, forayed into what I can only describe as porn…

Just like Baby Yoda, the monsters were cute (but they were also kind of gross).

Dramatic irony was used (in a classic sci-fi style) to show how tragic misunderstandings between differing groups can be, feeding into the anti-colonialist narrative. The final vision of peace proved to be an albeit slightly unrealistic (but then again, the movie never claimed realism as one of its genres) ending. However, I think it is this final rom-com-esque switch that provided the catharsis the audience needed and a grounded ending to take home after the madness of the rest of the film.

Mickey 17 is a masterclass in genre.

It could have easily felt disjointed and disparate, but the themes blended together so seamlessly as one led to another in a sequence that can only be described as logical. The science fiction elements paved the way for the gore-horror scenes. The clone introduced the other central characters to the drugs that led to their sexy time. The invasion of another planet brought up imperialist narratives. Through riddling this out whilst writing this post, I can see what so successfully intertwined it all was the adaptability of the sci-fi genre.

I’ve always loved sci-fi as a vessel to explore other concepts. I think its versatility and ability to caricature the present world we live in is often undervalued. Sci-fi has powers of revealing truths we find unpalatable within realism and Bong Joon Ho most certainly pushed this to the max.