I have been a fan of Bong Jong Ho for a while, since well before Parasite made him (briefly, at least) a recognizable name in western cinema and Snowpiercer popped up on every Redditor's list of Underrated Movies. So when I saw that he was making an adaptation of a book I've actually read, it was an instant must-watch for the list.

One thing I'll get out of the way first: this movie is Not Parasite. That movie is incredible, and this movie is not quite as incredible as that. But it is doing something totally different, and I think comparing them is pointless. It has much more in common with Okja than it does with Parasite; similar tone, some similar ideas, similar spirit, similar Steven Yeun. But ultimately I think the best way I can describe it is "what if Snowpiercer tried to be funny, instead of being Snowpiercer?"

And really it succeeds at it fairly well, I think that it is funny in that sort of black comedy way fairly regularly throughout the movie. I never would have guessed 20 years ago that Harry Potter and Edward Cullen would become two of my favorite actors, but I think Robert Pattinson does a great job in this movie, bringing to life his own version(s) of the character who is pretty significantly different than the source material in a way that I think works better for the film. Generally speaking, all the acting is good and the special effects are not negatively distracting as they are in many movies. The CGI creatures are even very successfully cute. I was certainly entertained.

If I have a major complaint about the movie it is that the real-life satire is awfully direct and pretty thin. [it's also a far more focal point than the philosophical considerations and implications of the kind of cloning they do, which is mor focal in the book; it might have been more interesting in some ways but it wouldn't have matched the spirit of this adaptation]. Maybe obvious and ham-fisted is just what satire has to be, these days? As they say, the increasingly Stupid real world has killed The Onion, because it can never surpass simply printing the facts at this point, and perhaps it's the same with this kind of political parody. Donald Ruffalo has his scenes and moments that really work but it is pretty tiring, too, and it is at its most entertaining when the Rich Scumbags are off-screen for a while. I guess my dream in all science fiction is always to go one step "too far" with the core Idea of the fiction, and one step too short back toward subtlety for the satire, and see what movie emerges. But laying it on thick is simply the time in which we live.

Despite that complaint - which is really more about society than about this particular work of art - I thought it was a suitably good time to be had. I think it is a bit of a cultural parallel to a movie like Don't Look Up, in fact. That film is a pitiful, futile attempt at what this movie succeeds at: seeing that society is Fucked, but taking an opportunity to find pleasure in the absurdity of life in the moment. Neither can deliver a real hope for the real future, but I will take the movie that cares.

Score: 7/10

IMDb: Mickey 17

PS: Sir Bong really loves making Creatures for his movies, doesn't he? Okja, The Host, the creepers, most likely his upcoming animated work (another must-watch, Bong Joon Ho + Werner Herzog). He just can't get enough of it. He should make a Kaiju film.

PPS: This movie is a box office disaster, because the budget is insane. $118m plus a bunch of marketing (even though I've never actually seen the supposed marketing). Of course it is MY kind of movie, but this is definitely not the kind of movie you expect to get $500m worth of viewers, right? I hope the financial failure here doesn't discourage them from making more good movies.