Title: Mercy
MPA Rating: PG-13
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Starring: Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson, Chris Sullivan
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins

What It Is: Los Angeles police detective Chris Raven has been accused of killing his wife, Nicole (Annabelle Wallis). Now the LAPD’s new AI-run Mercy Court, overseen by Judge Maddox (Ferguson), will determine whether the detective is to be immediately disposed of or declared innocent. Chris must use every file and circumstance at his disposal to prove his case. With an unproven AI system and a mountain of evidence stacked against him, the judgment may be a very simple one.

What We Think: What a crock of shit this is. Pro-AI and pro trampling on First Amendment rights is already a rough start. Then the actual movie begins, and it somehow gets even worse. The script is thin and stupid. Chris Pratt is stuck in one location, draining all the charisma out of the room, while Rebecca Ferguson completely phones it in as an AI presence.

Director Timur Bekmambetov has made better films, and I sincerely hope I never have to sit through another Marco Van Belle script for the rest of my life. The third act is borderline negligent from a screenwriting perspective. Narratively, this thing is an absolute mess, and I am genuinely ashamed that Amazon and MGM greenlit it. I constantly felt like the film was talking down to me, as if I were an idiot who had never seen a movie before.

Our Grade: F, I take no pleasure in failing a film, but audiences appear to agree, as this thing is flopping hard. From the stale cinematography to the mindless plot to a completely charisma-free lead trapped in a chair, this movie sins on every possible level and offers nothing to the audience or to the poor performers forced to appear in it.

January is actually shaping up to be a solid movie month, and this film stands in direct opposition to that trend by embodying all the usual early-year cinematic garbage. Chris Pratt should seriously stop being cast in things. It is exhausting watching him stare into the camera with a constipated expression while delivering his lines badly.

This in the immortal words of Duffy “had my beggin for Mercy”

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