Mickey 17 was called a clumsy, pandering clown show by Critical Drinker.  I enjoy Critical Drinker’s Youtube channel, but we don’t like the same movies. 

The premise of the movie is that technology exists to make a duplicate of a person, and load the brain with the most recent memory update.  Earth bans the technology because it can be used to make a copy of a living person.  One commits a crime while the other has an airtight alibi.

A rich guy gets permission to take the technology on a colony spaceship.  One person is hired for the voyage to be an expendable crew mate who can handle dangerous tasks.  If the expendable dies, a copy can be generated.

Robert Pattinson is the actor in the expendable role.  He was excellent.  Each version of Mickey has a personality a little different from the original.  All of them are kind of hang-dog.  Mickey applied for the position because he was down on his luck on Earth, and needed the money. 

As an expendable on the spaceship, the scientists treated Mickey like Fauci treats a lab beagle, which is to mean, a casual disregard for his health or suffering.

Mickey would be completely pathetic, but he got a girlfriend on the ship early in the four year voyage.  Mickey looked like he was knocked flat by life, but several women find him appealing.

The world-building was very well done.  Not much was explained about society or the underlying technology, but the ship looked plausible and functioned in a believable way.  Crew members have understandable jobs and the daily routine is reasonable.  A few aspects of the ship aren’t likely, but used for dramatic purpose.  The target planet is livable, but not hospitable.  The principle alien life looks like a tardigrade crossed with a bison.

One criticism of Mickey 17, is that Mark Ruffalo, as the rich guy, was a clumsy parody of President Trump.  I didn’t see that at all.  He is an arrogant, authoritarian, scatterbrained oligarch.  Ruffalo doesn’t look, act or talk like Trump.  He doesn’t bring to mind anyone.  A case could be made that he was supposed to be Mussolini.  His wife, actress Toni Collette, has nothing in common with Melania.

There was no political message at all.

Mickey’s girlfriend is actress Naomi Ackie.  She is on the crew as a security officer, and has a background in the military and law enforcement.  She uses those skills a few times, but in an entirely plausible way.

Some may not like that the movie doesn’t have a major plot or big message.  There are several sub-plots that move along to a conclusion.  Mickey became an expendable because he owed money to a gangster, and an enforcer was on the crew.  Mickey 17 was assumed dead, so Mickey 18 was generated, leading to his girlfriend to having two boyfriends.  The rich guy and his wife had a strange relationship.  There was an indigenous species that threatened their survival.  

I didn’t mind that there wasn’t a complex plot, but a bunch of different things happening.  Mickey 17 is considered a dark comedy.  It’s more amusing or absurd, then funny.  It’s a light, unserious movie.

I enjoyed Mickey 17, and could watch it again.  I’d give it a 7.5/10.