Waking to find himself strapped to a chair and accused of murdering his wife, LAPD Detective Chris Raven has 90 minutes to prove his innocence before an AI judge sanctions his execution.
This tantalising premise is the set-up for Kazakh filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov’s latest release. The director of 2008 actioner Wanted, has more recently made a name for himself by producing so called screenlife films, in which the story is told purely via a computer screen, tablet or smartphone.
If done well, this gimmick can produce engaging results (See 2018’s Searching) but the inverse can also be true (See last years terrible version of War of the Worlds).
With Mercy, Bekmambetov uses this style once again, as Raven, stuck in custody, is restricted to trawling through surveillance footage and iPhone clips in order to uncover the truth and stave off his impending execution.
As a staunch supporter of the new computerised Mercy court, it’s clear from the off that Raven is being set-up, but it’s the charisma of Pratt that keeps the film from going completely off the rails. In fact, with a less watchable lead, Mercy could’ve been a real stinker. The thankless role of the Mercy System’s emotionless AI Judge goes to a miscast Rebecca Ferguson and one could argue this is one of the only parts where employing an Artificial actor may have been deemed acceptable.
The cast also features Kali Reiss as Raven’s partner and Annabelle Wallis appears fleetingly as Raven’s ill-fated wife.
The single location works to the film’s detriment, restricting its star to a chair for the majority of the runtime, while the super serious script, which hints at subjects like social injustice and heavy-handed policing, never allows Pratt to show off his trademark comedy chops.
As a dystopian thriller, mercy has a very similar plot to 2002’s Minority Report, but lacks any of that films panache, and to make matters worse the tone here is far too poe-faced to be any fun.
When the big reveal finally arrives, it is satisfyingly twisty and salvages at least some credit for what is an otherwise rather dreary misfire
⭐️⭐️
Paul Steward
09/02/26
x @Grittster