'' MICKEY 17 '' MIGHTY : FILM REVIEW

Beyond Dystopia : Bong Joon-ho's absurdist clone drama Mickey 17 is highly entertaining - despite its flaws.

Written, directed and co-produced by Bong Joon ho, Mickey 17 is another exciting, discussion worthy film from the acclaimed Korean director.

For fans of the previous work, such as Oscar-winner Parasite [2019], it's well worth seeing - even though the film is not without wrinkles.

Like Bong's earlier films, Mickey 17 combines artful world-building, an impeccable cast, social satire, anarchic humor and a taste for the grotesque [ a shot of a severed hand floating past the porthole of a spacecraft's cafetaria lingers in the mind.]

It's a measure of Bong's success to date that, as well as granting him full editorial control of the film, Warren Brothers reportedly provided a budget of US$ 120 million.

It's a large sum by current Hollywood standards, though still only half that of mega productions such as Avatar [ $ 237 million ] and The Dark Knight Rises [ $ 250 million ].

Set in 2054 Mickey 17 follows a mission to establish a human settlement on an inhospitable alien planet. In this imagined future, it has become possible to replicate human beings with total accuracy using an advanced form of 3D printing.

Although outlawed back on Earth, human printing is legal in the remote regions of space, where disposable workers known as '' expendables '' can be reprinted on demand each time they perish.

At the start of the film, Mickey is killed and reprinted 16 times before an accident leads to two Mickeys [ numbers 17 and 18 ] coexisting in what is referred to as a ''multiple violation.''

'Mickey's existence is nightmarish : an endlessly repeated cycle of exploitation, death and rebirth.

The World Students Society thanks Sean Seeger, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Literature, Film & Theater Studies [ LIFTS] at the University of Essex, UK.