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Mercy takes an interesting premise and removes all the interesting parts, making it the first frustrating film experience of 2026.
Posted in: Amazon MGM Studios, Movies, Review | Tagged: Amazon MGM Studios, chris pratt, mercy, Rebecca Ferguson
Mercy Tests Theory Of Having A Thriller With No Thrills {Review}
Mercy takes an interesting premise and removes all the interesting parts, making it the first frustrating film experience of 2026.
Article Summary
- Mercy offers an intriguing premise but strips away suspense, resulting in a dull thriller with little payoff.
- Chris Pratt is miscast as a father fighting to prove his innocence against Rebecca Ferguson’s AI judge.
- Cheap production values and lifeless performances squander any potential for engaging action or emotion.
- The film teases timely debates on AI and justice but fails to explore them beyond a shallow surface level.
Mercy takes an interesting premise and removes all the interesting parts, making it the first frustrating film experience of 2026. Chris Pratt is horribly miscast as a father who has 90 minutes to prove that he is not responsible for the murder of his wife, or the AI judge, played by Rebecca Ferguson, will execute him when the timer hits zero. Sounds like it could be a timely film that could spark debate, right? Wrong. Instead of delving deeper into what could make the story interesting, it devolves into a generic, cheap-looking action film that says nothing beyond the surface about its subject matter. Amazon MGM Studios has a miss here.
Mercy Thankfully Goes By Fast
Mercy owes a lot to a much better man-in-one-room-tries-to-solve-mystery film, Searching, from a few years ago. This is basically that film, only with much bigger stars and a much bigger budget. Though, besides Pratt and Ferguson, you would be forgiven for trying to figure out where the budget went, as many of the film's effects and finishes feel cheap. Two-thirds of the film takes place in a single room, with Pratt slinking back in his chair and wondering how he is making so much money to show up, sit, and look confused.
At least Ferguson takes being a soulless AI program to heart, though it feels like she just locked herself in a closet and sent in her dailies from her house. Neither feels like they care about what is happening, and Pratt especially comes across as cold and unsympathetic. This is not a great role for him, and any handful of actors would have been a better choice. He has done much better work in similar situations, but something about seeing him in that chair just feels off.
Photo credit: Justin Lubin
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Even when the film takes us out of that room for flashbacks or the climax, something about the production design feels way off. Everything has a green screen feeling, and for a film taking place in the sprawling area that is LA, everything feels claustrophobic and pinched. Maybe that is what director Timur Bekmambetov, who was also responsible for Searching, was going for, but where that story needed to feel confined and smaller, here the scale needed to be bigger to contrast what is going on in that room, and it fails. He's working from a script that tries to say something about AI, due process, and a number of other cultural touchstones that feel relevant these days, but the film is too afraid to get in the muck and really hash out anything of substance on these subjects.
Saddling Pratt's character with an alcohol addiction feels like an excuse to get him into the chair at the beginning of the film so that he doesn't remember how he got there, for example. When Mercy reveals the reason he turned to alcohol, no effort is made to show the deeper meaning, no effort is made to make us empathize with him, or the depths of how it destroyed his life, besides "I'm sad." It gets even worse when it ties into the film's climax.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios
Mercy makes its biggest mistake by trying to be a big-budget action thriller with no thrills until they are tacked on at the end. Look no further than the film's poster, featuring Pratt in an action-hero pose, explosions around him, a flying police car, and Ferguson's floating head. You would be forgiven for thinking this was a '90s-style thriller, when it couldn't be further from that. That film would probably have been less muddled and more of a semi-serious take on AI and how our actions affect those we hold dear. Watching it, you will mirror Pratt sulking in his chair, wondering why you are there.
Mercy
2/10
Mercy takes an interesting premise and removes all the interesting parts, making it the first frustrating film experience of 2026.
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