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It’s always interesting to see what a director does to follow up a win at the Oscars. The only people to actually get the award for consecutive films are Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu who did it with Birdman and The Revenant and Alfonso Cuarón with Gravity and Roma. John Ford won two years in a row for The Grapes Of Wrath in 1940 and How Green Was My Valley in 1941 but he actually made two other movies in between. Nonetheless the quality of subsequent movies from filmmakers celebrated in this way is typically comparable. David Lean followed Lawrence of Arabia with Doctor Zhivago, Francis Ford Coppola gave us Apocolyse Now right after The Godfather II and Katherine Bigelow did The Hurt Locker and then Zero Dark Thirty. Some even return with better films; there is no question that Zemeckis’ Contact is a considerable improvement on Forrest Gump. 

It doesn’t always go this way though. There might be a conversation to have around Spielberg following Schindler’s List with Jurassic Park: The Lost World but his career has latterly been defined by this expert swing between high art and popcorn. I’m thinking more of The Coen Brothers chasing No Country for Old Men with Burn After Reading and yes, James Cameron following Titanic with Avatar.

Now we have Bong Joon Ho’s first film to be released since he won Best Director in 2019. Sadly I have to say that Mickey 17 is very far from being Director Bong’s best work. It certainly isn’t as strong as Parasite, which itself wasn’t as good as Memories of Murder or Mother and even if you consider that like Spielberg, Bong is known for his variance, making both sophisticated drama and more quirky films, it doesn’t come together as well as Okja, Snowpiercer or The Host either.

For a start all of those movies had a clear message. There is definitely some of his trademark satire in Mickey 17 but I’m not sure if it’s not saying enough or if it’s saying too much. There is stuff in here about the sanctity of life, politics and colonialism and like so many recent movies (Gladiator II, Captain America: Brave New World, The Brutalist, Conclave and Wicked) it seems to be making a comment on Trump’s America. For all of this though, it doesn’t appear to have one central and coherent theme. 

What it also lacks compared to this director’s other films is heart. The Host, which remains my favourite of his movies, is about a giant monster that crawls out of the Han River and terrorises the population of Seoul but it is still highly emotional and has moments of incredibly beautiful pathos. There is none of this in Mickey 17. It is full of interesting ideas but it is style over substance. 

Still though, that style just carries it. It doesn’t need to be two hours and twenty minutes long but the sci-fi world it creates of industrial spaceships, alien creatures and misguided technology is always interesting. The central premise that people are dispensable if you can immediately just bring them back in a new body is fully explored as well, even if Duncan Jones’ Moon did it better sixteen years ago. 

The performances are also very good. Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette go full panto which is entertaining and you get greater nuance from Naomi Akie, who brings a real energy, and the rest of the talented supporting cast. Mostly this is a showcase for Robert Pattinson though who plays multiple strands and versions of the title character. It is kind of incredible to think that this guy is also playing Batman right now because this character here is as far away from this as it can be. He has come such a long way from Edward Cullen and we could well be discussing what he follows his Oscar with in the future. 

Part of the problem with a director creating a greatly herald movie of course , is that this brings high expectations. This might be part of what has contributed to my reaction to Mickey 17. Trying to see beyond this though I do think this is a bit scrappy. It’s not that it’s indulgent, there is no hubris here and it still demonstrates a genuine artistic vision. This time though the vision is not as clear or as tight as we have seen from this director before.

Curious to see what comes next.