We follow Robert Pattinson’s character Mickey, an “expendable” (the name given to people who are disposable and can be cloned after death) as he moves through a new planet that begins to be colonized by Mark Ruffalo's character Kenneth Marshall as he slowly starts an uprising.
The plot cannot be explained further than that without giving away what makes it incredible, it’s beautifully unassuming with no defining genre. It gracefully moves from comedy to action to drama with incredible fluidity that only Bong Joon-ho could achieve.
The performances of the whole cast are incredible with even more minor characters (like Steven Yeun’s Timo) making it impossible to take your eyes off the screen. My personal favourite performance was Mark Ruffalo's character who is a maniacal dictator who has many resemblances to world leaders today - despite Joon-ho’s denial. Marshall is the perfect villain. In a strange trend of villains getting redemption or having to have a reason, it was so refreshing to see a truly evil character.
It's perfectly timed in today's political climate whilst still being light-hearted (mostly)
Pattinson delivers a stellar performance, managing to make each clone individual whilst still having the same core character traits. Some of this credit must also go to the hair and makeup department, who manage to only slightly alter his appearance so you know which clone is which whilst still being the same person.
One unique aspect of this film is the sound design, it doesn’t follow the usual mono sound in which it all comes out in the same levels of one channel. Instead it creates an immersive experience as characters who are speaking away from the camera are put to the left or right of the speakers. When I first heard this it startled me as I thought people were speaking behind me, but when I realised it was the characters speaking to the side - even background chatter and laughter - it only elevated my experience.
The alien design is also unique, they aren’t human-like in the slightest making it easier to sympathise with them. There’s one scene in particular in which we hear them speak and, of course, don’t understand them, yet despite them being practically all CGI the emotion is there and it's impossible to not have empathy.
The film does have some flaws. I found the over 2-hour runtime to be a bit too much for what actually happens and Toni Collette's character’s running “sauce” joke to be tedious - but these have little effect on how great this film is.
The film may be long but it is truly worth the watch. It's perfectly timed in today's political climate whilst still being light-hearted (mostly). The acting is superb and the writing shows off its wit in a charming way. To me, it’s the best action film since The Batman, maybe Pattinson is made to re-do the genre.