Michael Hulme

In my opinion, the best science fiction films use science and technology to tell us something about what it is to be human. Two of my favourite films are Blade Runner and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, exactly for this reason. So when I saw the trailer for Mickey 17, I got excited about what appeared to be a challenging and thought provoking sci-fi film. Well. Whomever constructed the trailer deserves some kind of Oscar for cramming all the best bits of the film (95% of which come from the first half) into a punchy two minutes which meant I was there at UK opening night ready and waiting to be wowed. Sadly, the film is a failure on almost all levels: not dark enough to be serious, not funny enough to be a comedy, and failing to explore some potentially interesting questions about mortality and how we choose to live. While the first half had potential, the second half quickly fizzled out into a formulaic “good vs bad” second half which verges on B-movie silliness and had nothing to say apart from “Dictators bad” and a horribly over the top performance from the First Lady. A profoundly disappointing film and a wasted opportunity. Pattinson is good, and the only bright spot in this whole sorry mess. At the end of the film, the man sitting beside me looked over at his partner and said “sorry, love. The trailer looked good.” That is perhaps a more eloquent summary than this review. Don’t be that guy. See something else.