As the hot-button topic of artificial intelligence forcefully pervades all aspects of our lives, including the entertainment we consume, Amazon MGM Studios presents us with Mercy — a future so ludicrous that it’s bound to become a reality somewhere down the road.
In the world of Mercy, crime in Los Angeles has become so rampant that an initiative was launched to expedite the justice process and keep the streets safer. An expository propaganda video opens the feature, informing viewers that the Mercy initiative combines the roles of judge, jury, and executioner into a Frankenstein’s monster of an AI known as Judge Maddox (Rebecca Ferguson).
Detective Chris Raven (Chris Pratt) is the latest individual to find their fate placed in the hands of the Mercy initiative after he was arrested for the murder of his wife, Nicole (Annabelle Wallis). With partial memory loss of the events leading to his arrest and trial, Chris is given exactly 90 minutes to prove his innocence using every resource he can before a lethal sonic pulse ends his life.
Taking a “screenlife” approach to its narrative, similar to movies like Searching (2018) and War of the Worlds (2025), Mercy is set almost entirely in one room as Chris uses every screen at his disposal to sift through evidence and defend himself in this futuristic court. He makes video calls to character witnesses and accesses a 3D reconstruction of the crime scene. He’s even able to retrieve police body cam and drone video, as well as social media footage and Ring doorbell camera video, in some not-so-subtle product placement.
Things start slowly. Writer Marco van Belle lets viewers adjust alongside Chris as he familiarizes himself with his situation and the tools he has access to. Once the preliminary settling-in phase ends, the film is often riveting, making stellar use of a literal ticking clock to add a sense of urgency, compensating for Pratt’s underwhelming performance. For someone playing a character who’s been told he has an hour and a half left to live, Chris never comes across as someone desperate and willing to do whatever it takes to make sure he survives once his time runs out. It’s unrealistic and jarring. Pratt has always had charisma to burn, but in a role like this, where something more intense is required, he doesn’t bring it when cameras are rolling.
Ferguson gives about as engaging a performance as someone playing an uncharismatic, emotionless program possibly can. She consistently serves face during her interactions with Chris, harnessing her piercing eyes to build Maddox into an imposing entity. Chris’s dynamic with Maddox is the most interesting part of the film, even if it’s largely left unexplored to its highest capability.
As one of the figures who pushed for the implementation of the Mercy program, even arresting the first criminal to be judged by the AI, there is an irony to Chris’s situation as he fights to save himself from the very thing he helped unleash upon society. As Chris fights to prove his innocence, he begins to question whether Mercy is really making the world better. More interestingly, as Chris makes his case, Maddox begins to question whether its own particular brand of justice is right. For as fascinating a concept as this is, the film disappointingly takes a surface-level approach to the philosophical questions it raises.
Even more frustrating, though, is that it doesn’t quite feel like the picture takes a firm stance in either direction of the AI conversation. It doesn’t necessarily display it as a potential force for good, but it certainly doesn’t portray it as a bad thing either. By taking a grey approach to exploring the core topic the movie is built around, the filmmakers forfeit the opportunity to add anything of note to the conversation.
When it comes to the investigation, the film’s route isn’t quite convoluted, as it telegraphs the answers so frequently that, when certain reveals happen, the viewer questions how they didn’t arrive at these conclusions sooner. Even if you don’t guess the “why” before it’s presented, you’ll likely guess the “who” before Mercy reaches its third act. All of the reveals make sense. There are just so many moving parts to the puzzle that you have to take more than a couple of leaps of faith to stay on the plot’s wavelength.
Luckily, director Timur Bekmambetov makes the journey to the answers visually thrilling. As Chris navigates an overwhelming amount of information on various holographic screens, constantly switching between them as they fly around and past him like he’s in Minority Report (2002), there’s a fast-paced nature to the editing and flow of the second half of the movie, especially as things begin coming together for Chris. When the story builds to a climactic action sequence that adds another race-against-time aspect, Bekmambetov changes things up from what the audience has grown to expect, making the finale feel fresh. While the change is jarring at first, it becomes clear that it was necessary to end the film in a bigger, more action-heavy way that will leave most viewers satisfied.
Mercy is nowhere near as groundbreaking or provocative as its premise would have you believe, but it’s a perfectly inoffensive and serviceable action thriller that, unfortunately, works better if you watch it with your brain off. Trying to engage with this film in a way that could be additive to the conversation about society’s growing reliance on AI won’t lead you to much of anything interesting. When all is said and done, Mercy does successfully show that AI is no replacement for Judge Judy Sheindlin. However, if the inevitable AI judge implemented into our society takes on the likeness and personality of Judge Judy, that could be a different story.
Review Courtesy of Evan Miller
Feature Image Credit to Amazon MGM via IMDb