In book vs movie, the book usually wins – is this also true for Mickey?

The book has been promoted as “for fans of Andy Weir” – the author behind the also filmatized book “The martian” starring Matt Damon and his fan favorite “Project Hail mary” (also becoming a movie with an expected release march 20, 2026 starring Ryan Gosling).

Does Mickey 7 compare to these two hit novels? Having recently read Project Hail Mary and Mickey 7, I found Mickey to be a much lighter book and focusing more on a quirky, action packed and humurous story than anything else. While Weir feels more realistic and slow (and yet with urgency!) with heavy science made fun for everyone. The Martian was two hours of Matt Damon alone on mars growing potatoes and we were all glued to the screen in some miraculous way, so I doubt Weir has any reason to quiver in his space boots. Weir has also sold millions and The Martian had a similar budget but grossed almost six times the amount of Mickey 17 – which was close to just breaking even.

I think the comparison is unfair, so I’m gonna leave it at that. But did Mickey 17 do Mickey 7 justice?

First of all let’s go through the plot – Mickey 7 is an expendable or an immortal if you will. This is his 7th life. When Mickey 7 gets captured by “creepers” on the planet they are exploring and he’s presumed dead, Mickey 8 steps out of the tank full of goo. The only problem is that Mickey 7 returns only to find Mickey 8, and they are NOT supposed to exist at the same time. Sharing space, rations and missions between them isn’t ideal, but what else can they do? They only have to make sure nobody else catches them or one of them, or both might be sent to the tank and terminated. 

“The way they sell you on becoming an Expendable is that they don’t call it becoming an Expendable. They call it becoming an Immortal. That’s got a much nicer ring to it, doesn’t it?“

Mickey 7

The answer to if they did the book justice is – they sure tried. I feel like they poured all they could into this movie, with a stellar cast, a great director and a major budget.

Robert Pattinson is extremely funny, and I think he was perfectly cast as Mickey. Steven Yeun as his friend Timo and Naomi Ackie as his girlfriend Nasha were both great. And let’s not overlook the director Bong Joon Ho – the guy behind “Parasite” that won the oscar in 2019. I personally still think about that movie, so I had high hopes for the director here.

BUT there were some MAJOR changes made to the script here (we know they’re never 100% true to the book) and those changes were not for the better. The changes made tried to elevate the story and make it bigger, but instead ended up removing the small heart of it all.

WARNING – SPOILERS AHEAD!

I instantly liked the book because it keeps it light and charming and had me laughing several times. It’s also full of reflections and moments that give it heart. But this didn’t quite come through in the movie. The tension in the book that is created around Mickey 7 and Mickey 8 trying to live as one is drastically shortened and they are exposed almost right away and the connection Mickey 7 gets to Kai just isn’t there.

Instead in the movie we get a Trump carricature played by Mark Ruffalo and his wife Ylfa played by Toni Collette, both of whom give off the vibe of coming from the district in Panem. (Hunger games reference.) The only scene I slightly enjoyed this take in, was the dinner scene, where they invite Mickey 17 to dinner. While Mickey thinks he’s being rewarded and getting a nice meal instead of paste rations for once, he’s simply being used again for more research. It was the only scene I tolerated Ruffalo and Collette – two actors I actually love and respect very much. The rest of the time they were just insufferable and I don’t think it benefitted the story.

Mickey 8 or Mickey 18 also had some changes to him. While Mickey 8 was a bit of a wet rag constantly complaining about how he just got out of the tank, Mickey 18 is an aggressive take charge kind of guy. He has no patience for anything and he does what he well pleases without thinking of the consequenses. I far cry from the clone in the book. I actually liked both these clones, and it just felt like a different choice for Mickey 18 and he did bring some more action than the whiny one. But we were very surprised by his aggressive nature, if only he had been a bit more pliable so the Mickeys could have worked more together, then it could have worked. The main issue for me was really that we lost the tension of them trying to live as one.

Other than that the set design and space monsters was all good and it was almost exactly as I had envisioned it while reading, so it felt like everything was in place to make this movie a fun experience just like the book.

Mickey 17 was released in theatres in march 2025 – less than a month after it’s release with disappointing ticket sales, Warner Bros pulled the movie and announced it would hit streaming services. While the movie was projected to lose around 75 million dollars – if I’m reading Imdb correctly and the gross of ca 131 million is correct, then by now the movie has broken even and even made the studio around 10-12 million. But it is still considered a flop. (Except for the director since this was his largest opening to date at 19 million, parasite didn’t even reach 400,000 opening weekend. Parasite however cost a lot less to make and has since grossed over 200 million.)

The book, after the release of the movie currently has ca 35,000 reviews on goodreads, which is a solid number, but if we’re comparing here – the martian has over 1,2 million. So the book was hardly a great motivator to see the movie and the movie hardly boosted the book sales. Overall Mickey had a decent run, but it’s not the masses favorite space story, but that not to say it wasn’t good.

So in conclusion book or movie? Book was definitely better, funnier and had more heart.

What did you think?