Mercy is almost the quintessential January release: action-packed, star-studded, and a little shallower than it thinks it is. The film sells itself as a thrilling mystery leading into a thought-provoking debate on artificial intelligence, but instead it contains a mediocre script, varying performances, and an oddly pro-AI stance with almost no debate to back it up.
The sci-fi/crime film stars Chris Pratt (Jurassic World) and Rebecca Ferguson (Dune), and is directed by Timur Bekmambetov (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter). It follows detective Chris Raven (Pratt) in a futuristic, drug-ridden Los Angeles, trying to prove his innocence on trial for killing his wife. Unfortunately, the judge, jury, and executioner is Judge Maddox (Ferguson), a difficult-to-sway artificial intelligence who is stoically convinced that Raven is the perpetrator.
Following films like Searching and Rear Window, most of the movie is set in a single interrogation room, where Raven and Maddox scour their extremely comprehensive database of evidence to find anything to exonerate him of his guilt. But while the opening is solidly engaging, the film starts to fall apart when more and more strange developments start to invade the script and the novelty of the single-room gimmick wears off, as do some of the performances.
The positives, luckily, are pretty great. As previously stated, the first act is really interesting and entertaining, with the mystery seeming complex, and viewers are never quite sure if Raven is to blame or not. Additionally, Rebecca Ferguson has such a menacing and powerful energy about her, similar to her other best roles like Lady Jessica in Dune. The CGI is decent, blending with the world well enough, even if it does look a little bit too much like the Apple interface to fully invest viewers.
Unfortunately, it starts to fall apart pretty severely in the second act. The mystery takes a few too many turns, and it just doesn’t seem logical that the supposedly all-seeing and all-knowing AI wouldn’t catch on to at least a few of them, especially considering the hungover detective under duress figured them out with relative ease. Speaking of the detective, Chris Pratt again proves himself to be one of the weakest stars performing today. He was alright enough in his earlier roles like Guardians of the Galaxy and The Lego Movie, but by this point he just never looks like he’s trying as hard as the actors around him.
Finally, one of the main criticisms audiences have is the blatantly pro-AI messaging that catches viewers off-guard at the very end of the film. While the beginning seems to point out the problems at having a completely logic-oriented justice system, by the end Maddox feels like less of an AI looking at the facts than a real person that can just type fast enough to pull up all of these web pages. All of these, combined with the fact that it just kind of becomes boring near the end, makes for a mostly disappointing experience that likely isn’t worth your while, unless you really enjoy AI or the voice of Garfield.
