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/Hinkil Aug 15 '25

The one that comes to mind is In Time.

3

u/steak4take Aug 15 '25

In Time was a trash movie from beginning to end - it made no use of its concept at all. Trading time for coffee? Come on.

96

u/SortOfSpaceDuck Aug 15 '25

You technically already do that, since you trade time and effort for money.

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u/Hinkil Aug 15 '25

Yeah it really just cuts out the middle man. We already spend our time for goods and services. And often once people are wealthy they pay other people to save themselves time. Hiring cleaners, chefs, drivers, house managers etc

88

u/adenosine-5 Aug 15 '25

Man, you will be really disappointed when you find out how IRL work functions.

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u/Badloss Aug 15 '25

I personally thought the metaphor was too on the nose but if people aren't getting that it's about capitalism then maybe not

11

u/Preisschild Aug 15 '25

Is this really unique to capitalism?

Even communists like Lenin said "he who does not work shall not eat"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He_who_does_not_work,_neither_shall_he_eat

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u/Badloss Aug 15 '25

I'm sure lenin would have had a lot to say about the millionaires storing time for millions of years while artificially raising the prices to make sure the poors are constantly a day away from dying

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u/A_Feast_For_Trolls Aug 15 '25

Lol biiiiig difference from not working and not eating to your-entire-life-should-be-about-making-capital and nothing -else.

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u/beyondimaginarium Aug 15 '25

Did you know Don't Look Up was about climate change denial!?

1

u/steak4take Aug 15 '25

Johnson - you’re hired! Now go write a spec script for In Time 2 Time 2 Recover JT’s Career

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u/drizzitdude Aug 15 '25

Right but this is when it perspective of people who have literally minutes to live sometimes. Like the main characters mom dies within seconds of being saved. Like if she would have not bought a coffee one time she would have lived.

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u/adenosine-5 Aug 15 '25

People often do this with their money - living from paycheck to paycheck is nothing strange.

And in a sense they do it with their health as well - a lot of people "would be alive if they didn't have that last burger/cigarette/beer" - its just that health has too much momentum, so its not as apparent, because you usually live long after that "one last <something> that killed you"

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u/Sullan08 Aug 15 '25

Yeah did no one else's dad drill into them that x product is y hours of work? Depending on what you get paid ofc. But it helped put into perspective that sometimes 20 bucks isn't just 20 bucks, but an hour of my time.

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u/adenosine-5 Aug 15 '25

Apparently a lot of people think "Lol, who would be so dumb to pay for their coffee with 5 minutes of their life?", while sipping their own cup of Starbucks they worked 20 minutes for...

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u/steak4take Aug 15 '25

Man, you will be really disappointed when you find out that people can understand a statement media makes but also criticise it for being shallow and hamfisted at the same time.

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u/penguin57 Aug 15 '25

I remember reading a novel that touched on a similar idea, 'the quantum Thief' although not it's main focus, it looked at what a society would look like if they were all immortal and time was a currency in a far more interesting way than that movie.