Admittedly, I’ve just barely dipped my toe into Bong Joon Ho’s filmography, but that man is a certified killer. Mickey 17 was just as fantastic as I was hoping it would be, even if it won’t pass Parasite just yet (it may have the chops to do it, but with a rewatch or two). What I expected this movie to excel at, it did, starting with the bonkers story that was able to drive home a lot of social commentary while also being incredibly creative, fun, and compelling.

The world that Bong created was interesting without being overly complicated, focusing on just one creature and its impact on the planet and the humans and centering its focus on that. Those giant roly polies were quite lovable, too, and I was rooting for them from their first moment on screen. I loved all of the performances, too, but Robert Pattinson and Mark Ruffalo (doing what I can only guess was a spot-on Donald Trump impression) took it to another level. The complete 180 that Robert Pattinson’s career has taken is awesome, and it’s invigorated my interest in him because of how deep into his roles he gets, not to mention some of the creative voice performances he’s put on (both this and The Boy and the Heron). I thought both Steven Yeun and Toni Collette were criminally underused, and Naomi Ackie was delightful in her screen time, too.

The movie’s focus on class systems (a Bong staple), the value of a life, selflessness and love, and purpose was all fantastic; Bong has a way of making his points so succinctly and cleverly, you almost don’t realize you’ve absorbed his messages. The film was visually impressive and used its budget well, the score was superbly orchestral and featured a number of themes that I’d like to learn how to play on the piano (especially “Barnes” at the end), and the script was really funny, too. It was probably easy to be funny, considering the absurdity of the story, but I was laughing a lot through my coughs and my mask (I tried to see this movie when it opened on the 7th, but I had a lovely pneumonia episode at the theater and only got 20 minutes in).

I think the only criticism I have was that the second half slowed down a bit more than I would’ve liked, but that’s small potatoes in comparison to the tons of compliments that I have for this great movie. I was so happy to get to finally finish Mickey 17 today, because I knew since the first trailer dropped in September that this would be one of my favorite movies of at least the first half of 2025, if not the whole gosh darn thing. Bong Joon Ho has yet to miss, and I’ll totally get to more of his filmography soon. “One false step and you’re man-burger”? Genius.