Sometimes a movie comes around that you just know is going to be bad. Whether it be the January release date, the far too familiar premise, or the poster that looks like the kind of fake one gullible people will repost on Facebook, everything about Mercy made it seem destined to be a flop. Sure enough, Mercy follows a long line of January sci-fi movies clearly released early to be forgotten.
The film follows Chris Pratt as Chris Raven, an LA detective accused with the murder of his wife. In this near-future LA, crime has become rampant leading to the implementation of the Mercy program, an artificial intelligence judge that expedites the prosecution and execution of dangerous criminals. Chris finds himself in the Mercy chair, where he and Judge Maddox (Rebecca Ferguson) have 90 minutes to prove his innocence or be executed on the spot.
To start, the premise of the film doesn't really make sense. It opens up on essentially a commercial showing all the good the Mercy program has done, but then says only 18 people have been put through the trials in its two years of existence. The claim is that its implementation drastically decreased the crime rate, but it seemingly only handles murder cases and much of LA is still in courted off areas filled with crime. Maybe I'm reading into it too much, but when a film opens with an exposition dumb as egregious as this one, I do expect the details to actually have some semblance of plausibility.
Once that opening commercial is done playing we're introduced to Chris strapped into a high tech chair, where Judge Maddox comes on screen to tell him what's happening. We are then thrown into more or less a sci-fi version of screen life thrillers like Searching or Missing, only all through the lens of Chris Pratt sitting in a chair for an hour and a half. Admittedly there were moments where the whodunnit aspect of the film hooked me, but for the most part the mystery unravelling is formulaic and eyeroll inducing. Pratt is okay in the lead role, and Rebecca Ferguson's presence is strong, but the supporting cast around them is pretty rough. Chris Sullivan starts out strong but his performance falters here and there, while Kali Reis is either being betrayed by a terrible script or just didn't know what she was doing here.
There are pieces of the premise that are interesting, but for the most part it feels like a lazy attempt at being a new Minority Report, coming off less as a big-screen sci-fi thriller and more like something you'd scroll past on Amazon Prime. The look of the film is a big issue there, with bland cinematography and visual effects that just don't feel up to par for a film like this. While watching I did find myself more entertained than I expected going in, but the way the film tackles AI left a pretty bad taste in my mouth. AI is such a hot button topic in Hollywood right now, and Mercy winds up essentially making it the hero. I'll always love Rebecca Ferguson, but just because she's the AI judge doesn't mean that's a sentiment I appreciate.
In the end this was slightly better than I expected, but my expectations were on the floor. The mystery can grab your attention here and there, but the world of the film isn't thought out nearly enough and the craft on display is underwhelming around the board. On a positive note though, there's a clock counting down from 90 minutes the whole time so at least you know roughly how much longer you have to sit through it. Also the poster has Chris Pratt wielding a shot gun which doesn't happen at any point in the movie. 1.5/5 but the poster is a 0/5
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