- Starring
- Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson
- Director
- Timur Bekmambetov
- Rating
- PG-13
- Genre
- Crime, Drama, Thriller
- Release date
- Jan 23, 2026
Overall Score
Rating Overview
Rating Summary
In Mercy, a detective awakens in a stark interrogation room in a future where he is strapped to the chair of an all-seeing AI judge he once helped create. Accused of murdering his wife, he has only a handful of minutes to confront the evidence—and the system itself—before an irreversible verdict is delivered.
Mercy REVIEW
Ten million dollars for four weeks of work, most of it spent strapped into a chair. No doubt that was the pitch that got Chris Pratt onboard for Mercy. The so-called “action” thriller comes from the same production team that delivered the otherworldly awful War of the Worlds starring Ice Cube, and it uses the same basic gimmick—this time juiced up with a little creatine and a lot more charisma. Somehow, almost miraculously, the formula mostly works.
Like it or not, AI is here, and no amount of whining from spoiled Hollywood actors is going to shove it back into its digital bottle. It’s already been onboarded into the daily routines of most Americans, and with its exponential growth in both sophistication and accessibility, it’s hard not to wonder if Skynet is lurking just around the corner.
That murky space between chrome-plated nightmares wiping out humanity and our first real experiments in handing over genuine authority to machines is where Mercy plants its flag.
Comic-level convenience and contrivance propel the story forward, relying on wild leaps of logic and intuition that function less as problem-solving and more as connective tissue between plot points. Still, thanks to solid pacing and some welcome stylistic flair from director Timur Bekmambetov, the movie is never boring. Dumb? Absolutely. But never boring.
That’s the film’s Achilles’ heel. To enjoy it, you have to power down the logic centers of your brain and commit to a herculean act of willful suspension of disbelief. If you can manage that, Pratt delivers, and the premise raises just enough unsettling questions—ones we’re going to be forced to confront in the real world sooner rather than later—to make the ride worthwhile.
Is it worth buying a ticket? No. Is it even worth a rental? Probably not. But once it hits streaming, Mercy is absolutely Worth It.
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James Carrick
James Carrick is a passionate film enthusiast with a degree in theater and philosophy. James approaches dramatic criticism from a philosophic foundation grounded in aesthetics and ethics, offering insight and analysis that reveals layers of cinematic narrative with a touch of irreverence and a dash of snark.
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I’m in the minority here, but I really enjoyed this film. Pratt brought a different side of himself to the role, and Ferguson was great. They probably tried to throw too many twists in for their own good. But the mystery and setting do a good job of building tension throughout. Is it Minority Report with an AI twist? I don’t think so, but I can see the argument, there are similarities. But I found the concept to be pretty unique and interesting. And very little in the way of woke tropes to roll your eyes at.