Mercy
In 2029, if accused of a crime you have 90 minutes to prove your innocence to an A.I. Judge using available surveillance video. Detective Chris Raven (Chris Pratt) finds himself strapped to an execution chair in front of Judge Maddox (Rebecca Ferguson) without being able to remember what happened the night before, when his wife Nicole (Annabelle Wallis, "Annabelle") was murdered. Maddox informs him he's already at 97.5% on the guilt probability scale but A.I. is incapable of giving him "Mercy."
Laura's Review: C
Back in 2004, director Timur Bekmambetov ("Wanted") made history with what may have been Russia's first blockbuster, "Night Watch." It boasted flashy visuals but a hodgepodge of a story, its sequel, "Day Watch," actually the better film. But since he started making films in Hollywood, with the exception of "Wanted" his output has been dismal, last year's "War of the Worlds," on which he served as a producer, just nominated for multiple Razzies. His latest, featuring his usual schlocky visual flash, coasts for a while on its cheap thrills concept before sliding off the rails into cheap spectacle and incestuously contrived conspiracy.
A Fox News wet dream vision of a Los Angeles so crime-ridden, jails are over-crowded and portions of the city have been cordoned off as 'Red Zones,' has purportedly been brought under control by a new 'Mercy Court,' an A.I. system which flips the entire idea of 'innocent until proven guilty' on its head. Raven and his partner Detective Jacqueline “JAQ” Diallo (Kali Reis, HBO's 'True Detective') were the first LAPD officers to champion it, bringing it its first perp, David Webb (Ross John Gosla), who was promptly found guilty and executed.
Writer Marco van Belle ("Arthur & Merlin") stuffs most of this exposition into the government issued video which greets those send to Mercy Court and which Chris comes to out of a drunken stupor in the middle of, horrified when he figures out just what his circumstances are. Maddox convinces him that his objections are merely wasting his trial time as she provides a run down of the crime, home surveillance video showing him entering his home after his wife refuses to let him in, leaving some twenty minutes later before his teenaged daughter Britt (Kylie Rogers, "Beau Is Afraid") enters, a scream emanating from the house a moment later. Then Maddox starts the clock. And things look even worse when additional footage shows Raven in a bar, so drunk he violently resists arrest, his wife's blood splattered on his suit.
Van Belle isn't as crafty using up Raven's trial time filling in his back story for the film's audience. We see footage of his wedding, presided over by Chris's then partner Ray Vale (Kenneth Choi, "Spider-Man: Homecoming"). Years go by in familial bliss until Ray is killed, most horrifically, during a routine traffic stop. Chris captures his killer, but the man gets off. Chris reacts by becoming an alcoholic, which strains his marriage, and embracing Mercy Court. Then Chris begins to try and prove his innocence in earnest, using phone calls - to his daughter, his
AA sponsor and wife's co-worker Rob Nelson (Chris Sullivan, "Presence") and Diallo, who enters the crime scene on his behalf while stating that she will stand by Mercy if he's proven guilty.
The plot goes through all kinds of convolutions, the discovery of Nicole's burner phone leading to Patrick Burke (Jeff Pierre), an affair which turns out to be a dead end but also a lead into a conspiracy which turns literally quite explosive. The film leans heavily on CGI and it shows, Raven's chair bolted to a glass grid where images can be projected when they're not floating through the air in layers, the better for those who see the film in 3D. Cinematographer Khalid Mohtaseb's ("Uncle Frank") digital lensing veers from static, centered shots of Pratt and Ferguson to the type of handheld confusion of found footage films.
Pratt sweats through confusion, horror, anxiety, determination and a dose of action hero, if not enough grief for a man who's just learned he's lost his wife. Ferguson's A.I. is initially believable, but as the film goes on, she's required to use emotions she's rejected earlier as part of her make-up, the entire concept of Maddox crumbling. Kali Reis seems so uncomfortable on screen one gets the sense she doesn't believe what she's playing.
Thankfully, "Mercy" wraps with a condemnation of its upside down justice system but it goes to some pretty ridiculous lengths to get there. Enjoy the popcorn while the film builds, then abandon yourself to its absurdity.
Amazon/MGM releases "Mercy" in theaters on 1/23/26.
