On August 14, 2029, “Mercy” (2026) refers to the name of a Los Angeles court that AI Judge Maddox (Rebecca Ferguson) presides over. Detective Chris Raven (Chris Pratt), a lead supporter of the court, wakes up strapped to a chair with ninety minutes sentenced guilty until proven innocent of the murder of his wife, Nicole (Annabelle Wallis). Is ninety minutes enough time to clear his name and find the killer? I went into the movie expecting dog shit, but after the hysterics stop and the actual investigation starts, I leaned forward in my chair a bit although if you have ever seen a movie, you will know the murderer’s identity and a lot of the key plot points did before they are laid out.
Oh, Chris Pratt, a bankable performer who was once a joy to watch when he stuck to playing lovable lugs who crack jokes and do silly little dances. Who didn’t love him in “Parks and Recreation,” which he leveraged nicely into an artsy fartsy supporting role in “Her” (2013). The MCU was a comfortable fit as Star-Lord, Peter Quill in the “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise, but his personal life made him messy and burst the bubble. Poor Kumail Nanjana’s stand up asks when did it become uncool to get fit? Chris Pratt. He got high on his supply, and in a world where men leave their families every day without a scratch, he keeps recruiting people to Team Anna Farris and their son. Really good actors and really hot actors get away with worse, physical abuse, but he is neither, and he violated the affable everyman persona that he carefully cultivated. His sins may be more quotidian than egregious, but he is also too ordinary to escape the ire of some. He has a really good agent who knows how to get him into franchises such as “Jurassic World” (team Velociraptor killing the trainer), “The Lego Movie” and “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (I don’t know them). Who thought it was a good idea to strap him into a chair to do an impression of what a mediocre actor believes a cop with an alcohol problem and marital problems would act? It divorces him from all his natural gifts and has moviegoers focus on his acting. A compelling actor would have eaten up that role and made the movie so much better. On the other hand, the material is not that great so maybe he is perfect in it. If Pratt is in a movie, I try to avoid it, but I did not for two reasons.
Ferguson has more range of emotion as an AI than Pratt as a man with his life on the line. How is Ferguson more riveting, and she is not even a full torso, just shoulders, neck and a head?!? She has more acting skill as a fraction of a person than Pratt has in her whole body. Yes, playing RoboJudge is basically Ferguson pursing her lips, giving side eye and giving automated customer service voice with a hint of attitude, but when reasonable doubt comes in, and RoboJudge begins to question her judgment and the system, it gets interesting and glitchy. At some point, the trial segues into a genuine investigation with the pair like an odd couple cop movie working together to solve the crime. Chris even nicknames her Max. It feels like the second coming of Spock, which the prophets foretold. The right actor can make schlock interesting. When Chris uses the honorific “Your Honor,” she consistently gave a satisfied smirk for his respect of the process.
Another reason to check out “Mercy” is director Timur Bekmambetov who basically made a found footage courtroom crime thriller mystery, which feels worthy of something. It is not just Ring cameras, body cams, dashboard cams and surveillance cams, but the graphics of highlighting evidence or the glorified, immersive holodeck courtroom that plunges them into the action. When an explosion occurs, Chris and Max get engulfed in flames without burning, which is a very Biblical image. No one will suggest that this movie is an example of Bekmambetov’s best work, but it is watchable. The CGI budget was clearly limited, but a Quadcopter could have looked Ed Woodsian in the wrong hands.
Writer Marco van Belle was so close to deriving the right lessons from the overall setup, but it is only his second movie, so I’ll try to pull some punches. This man watched “Law & Order,” probably thought it was too hard and decided to shred the US Constitution without cracking open a history book even slightly. Here is a compliment. The trial is real time. An AI courtroom that moves so quickly is clearly a kangaroo court and sadly very similar to the human counterpart that occurs in virtual courts in which impoverished litigants are relegated to proceedings via Zoom and expected to have expensive smart devices and tech know how to access justice without entering the buildings that their tax dollars paid while richer litigants are allowed to use pen and paper, stand before the judge while tons of personnel help the judge, all usually possessing more education but similar technological frustrations that get taken out on the little guy. In the film, as in life, the system is easier to navigate if you are familiar with it, and even for Chris, it is still a challenge because of the heightened emotion. The AI judge offers a fire hose of evidence and resources for a defendant to sort through, and it takes a homicide detective to sort through it. Instead of condemning the system because an ordinary person could never navigate such a rushed, flawed proceeding, its flaws get fobbed off on to a human being with little to no motivation, but an effective character scapegoat that I saw coming miles away while the AI is ultimately vindicated and shows that the system works. It is the information, and the people who are flawed, not the AI. People kill people, not AI. Tom Cruise almost died to stop AI.
An accurate part of “Mercy” was how the AI overlooked certain facts. When people gnash their teeth over AI taking over the world, I only gnash mine out of frustration and experience. AI does not know simple facts and requires a human being to bring considerable expertise to maneuver it at a minimum of its functionality so AI is kind of pointless. If a person must be able to spot what AI does wrong to use it, what is the point of using it? Similarly, there is a scene where there is literally an image of the killer on the screen, and she requires motive! Um, dust the area for fingerprints. Yes, the movie would end earlier, but it is so dumb that it is almost possible.
“Mercy” feels like a futuristic “Law & Order” spinoff where the criminal justice system is no longer separately segmented into cops, prosecutors, judges and only people with terrorist impulses are alarmed at the obvious procedural injustice. It is a wild, bad idea before examining how the movie implies that the government becoming more of a surveillance state as an asset, not invasive.
“Mercy” was released in theaters on January 23, 2026.
