‘Parasite’ director’s latest is a letdown

Don’t come to “Mickey 17” looking for “Parasite 2.”

Director Bong Joon-ho’s first film since his brilliant thriller won Best Picture in 2020 has much more in common with his science-fiction catalog than that cinematic page-turner.

Too much, really. Steady-as-she-goes “Mickey,” which is in English, comes off as an overly wacky retread of “Snowpiercer” (which it can’t touch) and “Okja.”  

It’s far from terrible and a pleasure to look at. But, perhaps inevitably, after such a raging success, Bong’s latest movie is a disappointment.

The familiar satire hangs on a great premise, though: a futuristic society that depends on sacrificial clones.   

That warped idea is a fitting canvas for Bong’s usual themes and messages — class disparity, capitalism, environmentalism — only they’re held together with bubblegum. Massive in scope, this rather long sit overindulges and underwhelms.

The titular duplicate is played by Robert Pattinson, who entertainingly acts as though he was let out of a straitjacket seconds before Bong yelled, “Action!” He’s never less than unhinged.

Admittedly, I can’t look away from former Hollywood franchise idols making bonkers career choices. See: Daniel Radcliffe playing a farting corpse in “Swiss Army Man” and Elijah Wood in … everything. 

This is one of those curveballs from the adventurous star of “Twilight.” Sometimes, he does “The Batman,” and sometimes he does “The Lighthouse.”

With a squeaky voice and the frightened face of a baby bird, Pattinson plays Mickey, an “expendable” who’s on a futuristic space journey to settle an ice planet called Niflheim. A dumb name. That means he’s pretty much a human lab rat with feelings.

Whenever Mickey dies during an experiment on a dangerous mission, the scientists simply reprint him and upload his memories to the new body. They’ve burned through 17 Mickeys so far. 

It’s a traumatic routine. Everybody constantly pesters poor Mickey with questions along the lines of, “What is it like to die?” 

Like many movies about sentient robots, that brings up moral and ethical questions. Is he a person? Does he have rights? Spoiler alert: The answer isn’t “no.”

However, the set-up is a tasty challenge for an actor, and Pattinson is more than able to play several clones, sometimes in the same scene, who look exactly the same but are each a little different. 

Just as his brogue was totally unrecognizable as a chain-smoking bird in the animated flick “The Boy and the Heron,” he completely transforms his mannerisms for the Mickeys. He’s nothing if not committed. He probably should be committed.

And Pattinson’s leagues better than Mark Ruffalo, who ridiculously plays a power-lusting politician who wants to establish “a planet of purity,” and Toni Collette as his aloof wife Ylfa, who’s stupidly obsessed with dinner sauces. 

The viewers’ sighs get louder with every entrance.

Where “Mickey 17” most glaringly fails is the comedy. So many jokes, especially from that conniving pair, fall flat as they send up the ruling class’ clueless excess. 

Steven Yeun and Naomi Ackie are also campy, as Mickey’s pal and girlfriend, and, therefore, are never quite believable. But they’re nowhere near as obnoxious as Ruffalo and Collette.

Why did I get the sense of “Okja” vu? The pro-environment plea comes in the form of Niflheim’s (still a silly name) native population — giant armadillo-like creatures that blanket the world. Mickey has an inexplicably close connection to the animals; the politicians obviously would prefer to kill or eat them.

It’s “Star Trek”’s “The Trouble with Tribbles” meets “Avatar.” And a mediocre rehash of the greatest hits of Bong Joon-ho.