Mercy

Mercy (2026)

Image From IMDB

Seeing all the bad reviews, and honestly being pretty bored from the trailer, I wasn’t expecting much from Mercy, and while I have no intention of shouting about the film from the rooftops and putting it forward for any awards, I thought it was a pretty decent watch. Further research into the reviews after watching the film seemed to indicate that Chris Pratt isn’t as popular as he once was, but also everyone’s main issue with the movie seemed to be that they believed it was pro-A.I. Having watched the film for myself now, I don’t think I agree with that. It’s not anti-A.I. but I wouldn’t class it as pro either. (Either way this A.I witch-hunt is boring me, and i’m anti A.I)

Mercy follows the story of Chris (Chris Pratt) who is accused of murdering his wife and is put in front of the A.I justice system Mercy. He’s then given the opportunity to prove his innocence during the hour and a half duration of the trial. He has everything at his disposal to try and prove his innocences, but if he fails to do so, he’ll be executed. Chris was a big proponent of the system, but now he’s the one on trail does he still believe it’s a hundred percent foolproof?

It’s a decent concept and obviously very much of the moment. The presentation is interesting too with the film pretty much running in real time and spending a lot of its screen time in a single room. I thought Pratt gave a good performance in what was a difficult role, and Rebecca Ferguson was her normal great self as Judge Maddox, the A.I Judge.

The thing with these sort of movies when you know the protagonist can’t be guilty is the mystery of who-done-it, and while I think it was a little obvious (actually very obvious as I never work out who the killer is and I knew straight away) I still enjoyed learning the how and the why. The action was fun within the unique presentation and the movie moved along at a good pace considering it was mostly a bottle episode.

But I guess the only question that seems to really matter at the moment according to 90% of the reviews I saw is whether the film was pro A.I. or not? And like I said, I don’t think it is. The movie is about the uses A.I could afford us. The capabilities we have at our finger tips with these super advanced search engines, but it is also about how they’re not ready yet. How they can be flawed. And most importantly. how they can’t replace humans. A.I can interpret facts, but it has no instinct. No gut feeling. It can’t think for itself. To me, that doesn’t sound like a ringing endorsement.

Instead, I think the movie made a fair attempt at presenting both sides and showing the pro’s and con’s. I’m all full that. I don’t like A.I in a real world sense, but I like seeing and having interesting discussions about it. Seeing the evolution of it all. And I always have time for films about A.I. Sci-Fi often reflects what’s going on in the real world, so movies debating A.I should be allowed and not dismissed if they don’t share the same viewpoint as you. If however you just think the movie as a whole was shit, then that’s fine.