That, in a nutshell, is Mercy. A telling of a tale set in a dystopian American future.
Much of the movie is in screenlife format - in fact, the director is Timur Bekmambetov, who also did Unfriended and Searching. And - ugh - War of the Worlds 2025.
Warning - major spoilers ahead!
This actually makes the movie sound more exciting than it really is. I assure you, other than the odd twist here and there, there are almost no surprises in this one. Consequently, whatever I reveal here could hardly count as a spoiler, much less a major one.The Premise
Chris Raven awakes to find himself in an AI-controlled courtroom where he is being tried for the crime of murder. His guilt has been set at a level of 98%, and he has to use all material at his disposal to bring that figure down to 92%, within 90 minutes.The Characters
A barely likeable Chris Pratt as detective Chris Raven. Pratt is actually a decent actor when he puts his mind to it despite that annoyingly distracting chiselled jawline. I know this because I recently saw him in The Terminal List, and he just about blew me away with the intensity of his performance. He takes things up a notch for this movie.Rebecca Ferguson is largely underutilized as Judge Maddox, the A.I personality presiding over Raven's case. It's a failed endeavour. I say this because from what Ive seen of Ferguson in the Mission Impossible and Dune movies, this woman is incapable of a bad performance. But wasting her hugely expressive face and undeniable acting chops for the robotic role of an AI... now this should be a crime, dammit.
Kali Reis as Jaq Diallo. Last saw her in True Detective: Night Country. That neck tattoo was hella distracting, but I'd recognize those badass vibes anywhere. She was a tad one-dimensional here, but still awesome.
Chris Sullivan as Rob Nelson, who's actually secretly the brother of David Webb. He's out for revenge against Chris Raven and the Mercy Court. Did the nice guy act a little too well at the start, which immediately led me to think he was hiding something.
Jeff Pierre as Patrick Burke. Sleazy dirtbag who used cooking and conversation as a way to seduce a married woman. Felt zero sympathy for the ass-kicking he eventually got. Which means the actor did a fantastic job here.
Rafi Gavron is the ultra-suspicious Holt Charles. Looks like a little rat, and really leaned into it. I respect the craft that went into his limited appearance.
Kenneth Choi as dead partner Ray Vale. I dunno if this is Prototype Bias, but this little Asian dude looked the furthest thing from a cop imaginable.
Annabelle Wallis as Nicole Raven, Chris Raven's murdered wife. Not a very likeable character even if we're supposed to sympathize with her for having a alcoholic husband. Something about the character just came across as whiny.
Kylie Rogers plays Britt Raven, the daughter of Chris Raven. The kid did well. She met the emotional beats and did the whole supporting cast member thing to a tee. Not a step out of place.
Ross Gosla as David Webb. Honestly, when I heard the name, I thought this might be a Jason Bourne tie-in. No such luck. Gosla doesn't say much in the role - it's meant for backstory purposes.
Mark Daneri cameos as as Chris Raven's father-in-law. What a sanctimonous prick. I was amused by that performance. It was way too short, though.
The Mood
The entire show physically takes place within the sterile confines of an A.I-powered courtroom. However, one could be forgiven for forgetting that fact because a lot of the story is told in flashbacks and video sequences. It starts off as a whodunit, with the protagonist racing against time to prove his own innocence.There's a fair bit of action around the last third of the movie with a bomb threat and a vehicular chase scene, but by then most of the mystery is gone and it's basically straight-up action thriller territory.
What I liked
The begininning expository sequence was neatly tied into the introduction of the system that Raven wakes up to. It was a nice stylistic choice - the startup sequence that also serves as exposition.The futuristic vehicle Jaq is riding for most of the car chase sequences, is beyond cool. It's like this sleek hover bike.
I did enjoy the little VR sequences where things happening in real-time are reflecting in an AI-regenerated reality happening around Chris Raven. So an explosion happening miles away looks like it's happening right around him. Very cool.
What I didn't
The movie is set in 2029, only a few years from now. I'm supposed to believe that in the space of a few years, the American Justice System would have devolved to one that presumes guilt, has no legal representation and a joke of a due process? As crazy as the world is today, that's a tough sell. And the movie does not come close to selling that ridiculous premise to me.Nelson's plan made no sense. Instead of going for Jaq who's arguably the bigger villain, he chose the long-ass route of befriending Chris and Nicole, and then murdering Nicole. This was a headscratcher.
Jaq's motivations for destroying evidence also made no sense. David Webb being found innocent due to evidence being correctly processed, would also serve to show that the system was working as intended.
The little twists kind of predictable. Come on, who didn't see the reveals coming?
Chris Raven stops snivelling and starts getting into detective mode when his life is on the line, viewing everything through a compartmentalized, professional lens. This was nice to see, but unfortunately, it also highlighted why the rules governing the Mercy Court are impractical to begin with. Chris Raven, a trained police detective, manages to obtain the evidence neccessary and plead his case sufficiently to prove his innocence to the A.I. But even he barely makes it within the time limit, which basically means the average layperson has no chance in hell.
Conclusion
It was an interesting idea, marred by an implausible plot, unfathomable logic and unrelatable motivations. There were some nice spots in between, but not enough to make this qualify as "watchable". The screenlife format is no longer a novelty, and it's no longer an adequate selling point on its own.My Rating
5 / 10
Guilty as charged,
T___T
T___T
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