Mercy
⭐⭐⭐1/2
Expectation: 😶
Reality: 😮
Set in the future(ish), Mercy is about a detective (Chris Pratt) who stands trial with an A.I. Judge (Rebecca Ferguson) and no jury, accused of murdering his wife. He has 90 minutes to prove his innocence or be executed.
With this premise, there are only four possible endings:
He’s innocent, and proves it in time (likely. probable.)
He’s innocent, but does not prove it in time (unlikely; audiences don’t like when filmmakers off the main character)
He’s guilty, but tricks the A.I. into thinking he’s innocent (likely, would be a fun, interesting twist, but less probable because it would be harder to get the audience on his side)
He’s guilty and cannot prove otherwise (definitely not happening, what would be the point in watching the movie?)
As the film goes on, it becomes very apparent very early which ending it’s moving towards, but the predictability doesn’t take away from the excitement of the film.
I correctly guessed who did it, but couldn’t guess any of the details around how or why the crime was committed.
Chris Pratt is held against his will in a chair talking to an A.I. the entire film, so any other characters we see are in phone calls or video footage that the A.I. shows Chris. This didn’t bother me, I thought it was engaging. It’s a similar vibe to 2018’s Searching and 2023’s Missing where the entire film takes place on a computer screen, so if that bothers you, I’d skip it.
Mercy is not an award-winning film. There’s nothing ground-breaking happening here. But it’s a lot of fun.
The story is solid—some parts are predictable, but it has some twists and overall makes sense for the world.
If you like a action and suspense, Mercy is an enjoyable experience.
If you’re scared of A.I., this could help or hurt…
If you like to debate the possibility of A.I. exhibiting emotions, this could be a fun piece to reference.
If you see it — come back and let me know on my contact page. I’d love to hear your thoughts!
