Sometimes a film comes along that happens to be the only film screening that lines up with the ending of another film, and you don’t want to waste a day off by going to the cinema to see 1 film when you could see 2, and have a free ticket to use, as well as having seen most of the films that are currently out.

Mercy is set in the near future, where an AI Judge will serve as judge, jury and executioner for trials where there is a high probability the defendant is guilty. Police detective, Chris Raven (Chris Pratt) is accused of killing his wife, and has just 90 minutes to prove his innocence and solve the murder.

Honestly I went into this film with low expectations, I don’t particularly think Chris Pratt is a strong serious actor, he can do comedy very well and his peak for me was certainly in Guardians of the Galaxy and Parks and Recreation. His career outside of those films and series, has struggled with flops like The Electric State, The Kid, The Tomorrow War and far too much voice work. He does an okay job in this film, and was likely a very easy paycheck for him, as he spends 99% of the film strapped to a chair in a plain room, acting opposite what I actually assume was just a screen.

I really like Rebecca Ferguson as an actress. She consistently delivers fantastic performances in both Dune films, Doctor Sleep and she was a standout when she joined the Mission: Impossible franchise. But like Pratt, she will pop up in random flops like Reminiscence, Men in Black: International, The Snowman and deliver an okay performance, but when the film doesn’t hit neither does her performance. Which tells me that when shes working with a great director she can truly thrive and trust each other. Again, a difficult job for her this one, where she’s just acting looking down the barrel of the camera and is playing an emotionless AI, doesn’t give her a whole lot to do.

The writing is extremely important in any content like this where it’s primarily set in one room. It reminded me a lot of Searching in a way, which is a crime film that is set entirely a computer screen, and that’s essentially what this is apart from the screen is in front of Chris Pratt’s face and we change angles multiple times. It also felt a lot like someone had an idea for a Black Mirror episode, but would’ve needed some dark twist to fully nail home that comparison. For a film that’s 99 minutes long, it has decent enough pacing, but struggles at points where it feels like characters are focusing on one thing when they should be focused on another, and then course correct. The twists of the story aren’t subtle, and are quite telegraphed, but if you don’t pick up on certain moments if you’re half watching it while scrolling at home when you’re watching on streaming, then it might catch you by surprise.

Overall, I found Mercy an entertaining enough watch and an easy watch. It doesn’t do anything that changes the game, or delivering anything impactful. I’m sure this film will do okay numbers once it hits streaming and reaches the audience that refuses to watch anything longer than 2 hours.

What did you think of Mercy?

• Facebook
• Instagram
• X