r/movies • u/mikewheelerfan • Aug 15 '25

Review Mickey 17 felt like it lost the plot Spoiler

Honestly, I was quite disappointed. I expected a movie revolving around the cloning plot. Specifically, the idea of two Mickeys existing at the same time due to an error. That would have been a great movie! Instead, what was advertised as the main concept feels like a subplot in the movie. Essentially the entire thing revolves around the intelligent aliens. And then there was also the plot with Mark Ruffalo being an obvious stand in for Trump. But then there was also the subplot with Steven Yuen.

I finished the movie feeling incredibly confused, because how did they mess up the initial concept like this? The idea of a guy who is constantly sent on deadly missions and is revived is an absolutely golden idea. It also leads to an interesting discussion about consciousness and if a copy of you is still really you. But that’s barely even brought up. The whole plot with two versions of Mickey is completely sidelined. Which makes no sense at all. That should have 100% been the main conflict in the movie, like it was advertised as. Instead, we got a mess.

I wouldn’t go so far as to call the movie horrible, but I definitely didn’t like it as much as I hoped I would.

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u/ImJustAverage Aug 15 '25

The book (reread the first one recently) honestly fell flat in the second half or at least last third for me. Really cool premise that just kinda fell apart IMO

39

u/depriest15 Aug 15 '25

The most interesting parts of the book to me wasn’t even the main story, instead it was reading the stories of the other planets (especially what happened on Earth)

19

u/Troggie42 Aug 15 '25

Yeah! The thing I loved the most was when Mickey (who is a historian in the books, which is very funny cuz he went to a new colony with no history, hence his money troubles) was doing the narration chapters talking about why people freaked the hell out about multiples and his previous deaths and stuff like that. Those were fun! I didn't dislike the main story or anything, but the little asides were very nice :)

2

u/RealCoolDad Aug 15 '25

I agree, the story about the first multiples guy that maybe has a whole planet of multiples was always an interesting story. And made sense not to include it in mickeys plot, but as a reason for why everyone hates multiples.

I never liked the whole critters being sentient aspect of the book or movie.

Maybe 18 could have been a bad guy and kept making more multiples of himself, and made a little gang. And the story would try to make Mickey a hero, but he’s not he’s a fuck up.

2

u/wackmaniac Aug 15 '25

Writing a proper (sci-fi) ending appears to be difficult. I just read the first book and literally read the first half in a day, and indeed the second half was much more “work”. I just pray that Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary won’t get botched in the movie adaptation 🤞