fter his only friend Timo (Steven Yuen) convinces him to open a macaron store with money from a notoriously ruthless loan shark, dim-witted but gentle-hearted Mickey’s (Robert Pattinson) life quickly spirals out of control. When the business crumbles, Mickey and Timo are forced to flee not just the city, but the entire planet to avoid their creditor’s wrath. Boarding a ship for a four-and-a-half-year journey to the far away world of Niflheim, Mickey unintentionally signs up to become an “expendable,” a human guinea pig used for experiments, research, and countless other dangerous missions deemed too harmful for a normal person. The harrowing deaths and inhuman resurrections Mickey experiences over and over are only made tolerable through the tender care from Nasha (Naomi Ackie), an elite soldier and the hapless volunteer’s one true love. When the vessel finally reaches its icy, seemingly barren destination, Mickey and Nasha steadily discover the true natures of their friends, their colleagues, and the failed political leader in charge of the expedition.

“You haven’t died yet?” As jargon about memory-transplanting and body-printing mutate into the ethics of human cloning, it’s the narrator’s quirky, unread, simplistic views of the world and of his own life that prove to be most interesting. He’s a superb hero in the sense that he’s terribly ordinary, has no specific skills or aptitudes, and is essentially an unintelligent everyman. He’s quite sympathetic, never fully realizing his dire situation for the tragedy that it is, or the morbid ways in which he’s manipulated as anything other than just deserts (including the comical inhumanity of being callously, painfully experimented on). But despite being so run-of-the-mill, he gets to have a love interest, which lends to some of the more tender, emotional sequences; when he can’t stand up for himself, others who care about him will. His simpleness, particularly during voiceover observations and reminiscences, make him thoroughly likable – a sizable win for the story.

Meanwhile, as a lofty, futuristic enterprise, the visuals make the most of frigid scenery (something director Bong Joon Ho is no stranger to, having previously helmed “Snowpiercer”) and alien creatures as it highlights the general horribleness of humankind as a specific space-voyaging faction falls prey to a clownish charlatan. Though the start blends torturousness, cruelness, and gruesomeness with laughs, generating an offbeat, uncommon vibe of sci-fi comedy, where serious ideas clash with humorous execution, it’s not long before its send-up of modern politics becomes too pointed (unfortunately structured with an opening scene that hurls viewers into the midst of action, requiring a series of flashbacks to return to that jarring plight). Before that, however, it merges the seriousness of something like “Minority Report” or “Gattaca” with the over-the-top qualities of “The 6th Day” and “Impostor” (and even “Avatar”), while pushing to the forefront the funniness of “Avenue 5.”

Like that aforementioned television series, “Mickey 17” infuses a considerable dose of political and social commentary as it predicts future woes and opportunities. The initial elements of identity and purpose and mortality – all potent themes for speculative fiction – are eventually set aside (or wrapped up neatly, or merely ignored) for parodying racism, misogyny, superiority, hypocrisy, phoniness, and the uncomfortable overreach of religious institutions into governmental institutions. Instead of tackling the issues closest to Mickey, who contemplates fear, jealousy, finality, and compassion as he deals not with a perfect doppelgänger but with the typical moviegoing dichotomy of good and evil (or timid and impulsive), the film swerves midway to dwell on propaganda, dismissing science, embracing stupidity, and celebrating macho impersonations as it aims to impart its message – or warning – about the state of current political trends.

By the end, which is stretched out for much too long, the heavier sci-fi components are mostly abandoned, making way for adventurous confrontations and anticipated comeuppances against wild caricatures who behave not with realism but with the intention of embodying two very recognizable sides of ideological governance. It’s all too on-the-nose and obvious, sacrificing sensibility for the director’s political perspective (as reasonable as it is), culminating in a finale that is wishful-thinking rather than genuinely satisfying. Nevertheless, it’s difficult not to appreciate the environments he’s crafted, while Pattinson is exceptional in his multiple-role performance. But for a picture that should have had so many shades of gray in its moral examinations (ultimately, limitless potential with limited vision), “Mickey 17” is awfully black and white.

– The Massie Twins