In the near future, a detective (Chris Pratt) stands on trial accused of murdering his wife. He has 90 minutes to prove his innocence to the advanced A.I. Judge (Rebecca Ferguson) he once championed, before it determines his fate.
What We Thought:
Is Mercy the most original film in the world? No, absolutely not. It feels like Minority Report mixed with Ambulance with some Hardcore Henry and the TV series adaptation of Jack Carr’s The Terminal List. But the thing is, I like all those things so I really didn’t mind Mercy. I like Chris Pratt and find him very watchable so I had fun with the flick. It’s nothing groundbreaking and it won’t redefine the science fiction genre, but for a winter release it could be a lot worse.
In a near future Los Angeles (2029) crime, drugs and homelessness are rampant. Criminals are arrested and a new AI tech is the judge, jury and executioner to help level the playing field. Chris Pratt plays a cop who was one of the first to really push this AI. Now he finds himself as the defendant, accused of violently killing his wife. He has 90 minutes to use all the tools available to him to prove his innocence. Rebecca Ferguson plays the AI judge assigned to his case and provides video, emails, cell phone messages and everything else he might need to plead his case. She will be the one who judges him and ultimately be the one who kills him if found guilty.
The bulk of the beginning of the movie is Pratt locked into a chair interacting with Ferguson’s AI judge. His police co-workers do things for him and there are phone calls and video calls he can use to help clear his name. I’m not always a big fan of cell phone videos, video doorbell tech and stuff like that used in movies, but because it’s part of the plot and not just a gimmick, it works here. You need video and events happening outside the single location of Pratt & Ferguson. The third act has a big action set piece as the full extent of the drama unravels, but I don’t know if I can really call this an action flick. I’ve seen posters for it with Pratt holding a rifle, but I honestly don’t know if that even happens in the film. It’s sci-fi thanks to the AI premise, but it’s more a drama than anything else.
This is the second time Pratt has played an authoritative type accused of killing his wife. In Amazon’s The Terminal List, Pratt plays Navy SEAL commander James Reece who in the first season is accused of killing his wife and daughter. As someone who’s read all of the Jack Carr James Reece books, I know an AI named Alice plays a major role in the books so for me, Mercy feels like a hint at future seasons of The Terminal List. Fans of that series will like this film because of it.
Mercy feels like so many other movies that you’ll like it because of it or you won’t because of it. I wish it had a bit more action in it because I think Pratt handles action well and I really liked director Timur Bekmambetov’s action film Wanted. As a producer he is the king of screenlife movies like Unfriended, Searching, Unfriended: Dark Web and the Ice Cube version of War of the Worlds so seeing all the text messages, phone calls, video calls and what not on the screen makes sense. It might be a surprise hit because there isn’t much else to see at the theater right now. It could also end up being a bomb at the same time because I don’t know who will like it other than guys like me. If you’re looking for something to see at the theater it’s a fun enough time, but I can also see a lot of people waiting until it hits streaming to check it out.
Directed by: Timur Bekmambetov
Written by: Marco van Belle
Produced by: Charles Roven, p.g.a., Robert Amidon p.g.a., Timur Bekmambetov, p.g.a., Majd Nassif, p.g.a.
Executive Producers: Mark Moran, Todd Williams
Cast: Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson, Kali Reis, Annabelle Wallis, Chris Sullivan, Kylie Rogers
Genre: Science Fiction, Action, Suspense, Drama
Rated: PG-13 for violence, bloody images, some strong language, drug content and teen smoking
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