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These days, artificial intelligence, or AI, has crept its way into just about everything, and the movies are no exception. And we’re not just talking about the shortcut cheats of AI filmmaking, we’re talking about actual plot points – movies about AI. Movies about helper AIs are everywhere, from M3GAN to Margaux, from AfrAId to (SPOILER ALERT!) Companion. But what about the justice system? With all the advances in technology, could Minority Report be far away? That’s kind of the crux of Mercy.
Mercy takes place in a near-futuristic Los Angeles where crime has run out of control. A new procedure called the Mercy Court System is developed, which pits an AI judge named Maddox (Dune’s Rebecca Ferguson) against accused criminals, giving the suspects all of the cloud tools they need and 90 minutes to prove their innocence. If they can’t, Maddox acts as Judge, Jury, and Executioner, doing away with the now-convicted criminal by, well, executing them. And the Mercy Court is an effective deterrent, with crime rates dropping steadily since its inception.
Enter Detective Chris Raven (Star Lord himself from the Marvel movies, Chris Pratt), one of the most enthusiastic proponents of the Mercy Court System, who now finds himself in its chair, accused of killing his wife. Like all other suspects, Raven is given his 90 minutes to convince Maddox of reasonable doubt, or he becomes the court’s next victim.
Mercy director Timur Bekmambetov has made vampire movies like Night Watch, Day Watch, and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, but more significant here is his work as a producer on movies like Missing, Searching, and the Unfollowed series. Because Mercy is one of those screen-life movies, immersing the audience in Raven’s experience gathering evidence from security cameras and phone logs in real time as he desperately tries to prove his innocence. The concept is a pretty creative way to tell the story, despite being a bit derivative of the movies that Bekmambetov has produced.
The big problem with Mercy is its screenplay. Writer Marco van Belle (Arthur & Merlin) tries to craft a suspenseful mystery that’s as engaging as Bekmambetov’s concept, but it doesn’t quite fit the bill. Actually, that synopsis up there makes Mercy sound like a way better movie than it is. Because the mystery that Raven is trying to solve starts out ridiculous and only gets more so as the movie goes on. In his attempt to keep his audience guessing, van Belle winds up throwing twist after twist into a blender and, unfortunately, none of it sticks.
The ridiculousness of Mercy’s plot is only compounded by its treatment of AI. Sure, modern AI is advanced (and is advancing more every day), but Judge Maddox is an all-seeing, all-knowing, god-like entity that makes the viewer wonder why the trial is even necessary in the first place. She’s hooked up to just about every device in the city and has access to all kinds of information. And what she does is practically instantaneous, seemingly only limited by localized internet outages or the inability to reach certain “witnesses.” The level of big-brother is apocalyptic. It’s reminiscent of last year’s awful War of the Worlds (upon which Bekmambetov also served as a producer).
But that’s not the worst part. Even worse is the fact that Maddox, the supposedly logic-based, fact-driven AI judge, seems to exhibit emotions and sympathy. It’s hard to not feel sorry for Rebecca Ferguson, as everyone knows that she can hold her own as an actress and the fault of this performance lies completely within the script and story. She tries to make her AI magistrate stoic and unfeeling, but the dialogue with Raven and the lines she’s forcing out don’t feel computerized at all. It seems as if an AI character would be the easiest archetype to write, but van Belle struggles to make it believable, even within a science fiction setting.
In the end, Mercy is a concept movie that is betrayed by its screenplay. Bekmambetov’s vision of the hi-tech judicial system is compelling, even chilling at times, but van Belle’s story wastes that cyber-thriller concept on a narrative that is just too far-fetched. And that’s saying a lot for a movie that has a premise that doesn’t feel like it’s too far off from reality.
GRADE: D
Rating: PG-13 for drug content, bloody images, some strong language, teen smoking, and violence
Release Date: January 23, 2026
Running Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
Studio: Amazon MGM Studios
The post ‘Mercy’ Review: Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson Can’t Save This Disjointed AI Thriller appeared first on ShowbizJunkies.
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