‘Mickey 17’ review: A goofy romp through a future with multiple Robert Pattinsons

Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 whatever you want it to be. An eco-fable about survival through colonisation. A satire about demagogues blinded by ambition. An allegory about brutal workplace culture. A philosophical treatise on doubling.

The comic-book flavour makes light of weighty ideas, nimbly darting between genres while also serving itself up as a love story.

The South Korean wunderkind’s third English-language feature is an adaptation of Edward Ashton’s science-fiction novel Mickey7.

Sometime in the future, Marshall, his wife Ylfa and his followers leave resource-strapped Earth for the planet Nilfheim. Conditions are harsh on Nilfheim. Its only inhabitants are Doctor Who-like creatures known as creepers.

Marshall orders a series of experiments on possible survival techniques by using a human cloning technology. The lone subject: Mickey (Robert Pattinson), who has failed to read the fine print of his work contract.

Mickey dies. Mickey is reborn. Mickey dies again. Mickey is reborn again. There have been 16 iterations of this “Expendable”, who is disposed of once he serves his purpose and then resurrected. The 17th Mickey is presumed dead too, but he lives on.

Mickey and security agent Nasha (Naomi Ackie) have as much of a hot-and-heavy relationship as permissible in a film that prefers to be naughty, rather than provocative. Bong’s end-of-the-world vision does not have...

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