action, Annabelle Wallis, Chris Pratt, Chris Sullivan, Kali Reis, Kenneth Choi, Kylie Rogers, Mercy, movies, Rebecca Ferguson, reviews, Ross Gosla, Ross John Gosla, sci-fi, science fiction, Timur Bekmambetov
January 21, 2026
by Carla Hay
Directed by Timur Bekmambetov
Culture Representation: Taking place in 2029, in Los Angeles, the sci-fi action film “Mercy” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some African Americans, Latin people and multiracial people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A police detective goes on trial for murdering his wife, in a society where the judge is an artificial intelligence being, and the accused is strapped to an electric chair and has 90 minutes to prove innocence during a trial, or else he will be executed.
Culture Audience: “Mercy” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and idiotic action movies full of plot holes.
“Mercy” is a mindless sci-fi action flick where an accused murderer has 90 minutes to prove his innocence during a trial. There’s a lot of yelling at video screens in this moronic movie. Viewers will feel like yelling at the screen too, with all the stupidity on display.
Directed by Timur Bekmambetov and written by Marco van Belle, “Mercy” takes place in Los Angeles, in 2029. The movie has a very flawed concept that in 2029, an “advanced” society has decided that human judges and human juries will be replaced by artificial intelligence (A.I.) that looks like a human judge and can only be seen on a video screen. All of the accused are guilty until proven innocent. This is not an “advanced” society. It’s a backwards society that robs people of basic legal rights.
There are no attorneys in this warped society’s trials. Instead, an accused person wakes up to being strapped and cuffed to an electric chair (unironically called the Mercy Chair), facing the A.I. judge, and having only 90 minutes to prove innocence. The accused has access to computer records, crime scene evidence and all of the accused’s digital footprint to gather as proof for the case. If the judge finds the accused guilty at the end of the 90 minutes, the accused will immediately be executed in the chair.
It’s explained in the beginning of this film that this law-and-order system was put in place because rampant unemployment and homelessness led to an increase in crimes, and this A.I.-driven trial process is supposedly a way to reduce crime and to eliminate human errors and human biases in trials. But apparently, it’s okay in this “advanced” society for the government to strap people to an electric chair and give them only 90 minutes to defend themselves in a trial where the guilty verdict always results in execution. It’s a recipe for even worse corruption and abuse in the legal system.
A police detective named Chris Raven (played by Chris Pratt), who was an early advocate for this so-called Mercy legal system, now finds himself at the wrong end of it. Chris wakes up to find himself bound and handcuffed to the Mercy Chair. He is told by presiding A.I. official Judge Maddox (played by Rebecca Ferguson) that he’s been accused of murdering his estranged wife Nicole Raven (played by Annabelle Wallis), who was brutally stabbed to death in their home. Chris doesn’t have an alibi, and he vehemently denies he committed this murder.
The rest of the movie shows Chris’s frantic 90-minute race-against-time to prove his innocence. There’s also some nonsense about Judge Maddox having to be at least 92% sure that Chris is guilty, in order to find him guilty. If Chris’s defense for himself causes Judge Maddox’s certainty of his guilt to fall below the 92% threshold (which is seen on a video monitor), then he will not be executed. It goes without saying that the concept of “beyond a reasonable doubt” means nothing in this very unjust trial.
Judge Maddox is supposed to be perfect and impartial. But you already know she really isn’t perfect and impartial, because anyone with common sense knows that A.I. can be programmed by humans to have biases. In addition, A.I. can’t fully account for things that are based on human emotions and human psychological nuances.
It’s obvious from the beginning of the film that Chris has been framed by the real killer or killers. Because Chris is restrained by the chair for most of the movie, most of the story is about Chris reacting to lot of “playback” video footage and to phone calls that he can make during this ludicrous trial. Expect to see a lot of Chris in an empty room, as he shouts at video screens.
Among the people in Chris’s life whom he reaches out to for help are his tough police colleage Jacqueline “Jaq” Diallo (played by Kali Reis); his supportive Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor Rob Nelson (played by Chris Sullivan); and Chris’s rebellious 16-year-old daughter Britt Raven (played by Kylie Rogers), who doesn’t know what to believe because Chris and Nicole (who were married for 20 years) had a bad marriage, due to Chris’s alcoholism and anger issues. There are also backstories about Chris’s former cop partner Ray Vale (played by Kenneth Choi) being murdered and a vagrant named David Webb (played by Ross John Gosla, also known as Ross Gosla), who was the first person executed in the Mercy legal system.
Of course, when Chris gets access to technology data and surveillance footage that he needs as evidence, he finds out secrets that affect his case. These secrets are not shocking. Most of the secrets are easy to predict. In fact, all the screaming and yelling are just time-wasting distractions to all of the movie’s plot holes and formulaic storylines.
None of the acting in “Mercy” is that special. Some of the performances (particularly from Pratt) are laughably corny and are made worse by the atrocious dialogue, which gets sanctimoniously preachy. The preachiness is an unnecessary pretension for a movie with such a low-quality screenplay. This movie is the very definition of “lack of self-awareness.”
Because “Mercy” is supposed to be an action film, you already know that at some point in the movie, Chris is going to be able to get out of that electric chair. “Mercy” is just a jumbled and incoherent countdown to when a big “reveal” with a plot twist happens in the movie’s climax. There’s no getting around the brain-dead plot that someone strapped to a chair is supposed to defend himself during a trial judged by artificial intelligence. Hapless and hotheaded Chris can’t even get up to use a restroom during this pathetic excuse for a trial.
“Mercy” was filmed in IMAX and is being released in IMAX theaters, with 3-D as an option. The movie’s unremarkable action scenes are not good enough to recommend seeing on an IMAX screen. The 3-D is also unnecessary and does nothing to enhance the quality of the movie. In other words, “Mercy” is a waste of the IMAX and 3-D formats and just makes the awfulness of the movie look larger and more in your face. It’s also not worth seeing on a smaller screen either, unless you want your intelligence insulted by a movie that makes humans and artificial intelligence look equally foolish.
Amazon MGM Studios will release “Mercy” in U.S. cinemas on January 23, 2026. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in U.S. cinemas on January 19, 2026.