Mercy

When detective “Raven” (Chris Pratt) wakes up, he’s shocked to find himself strapped to a chair and somewhat hungover. All he has for company is the rather assertive image of “Judge Maddox” (Rebecca Ferguson) on a screen before him telling him that he has been arraigned on a charge of murdering his wife (Annabelle Wallis) and is now subject to the automated “Mercy” justice system. This involves AI evaluating multiple sources of information and working out the probability that he committed the crime. His rate is up around the 97% mark and so it is looking like he is toast. Of course he denies the crime, and so he is given ninety minutes to review all the evidence, footage and interviews and to carry out some questioning of his own to try to prove that he is innocent. What now ensues sees him backtrack over a weekend where we discover some home truths about this policeman and he discovers some about himself, his marriage and his best friend. I recently watched “Incident” (2023), a real-time documentary that illustrates just how much of our lives are truly being filmed and recorded. Add to that, this fictional but not entirely improbable society that legally obliges us all to sign up our devices and social media accounts to a cloud that leaves nothing private or beyond the reach of the authorities, and we have something of the Orwellian about this plot. That’s the premise, and for a while our captive Pratt and his electronic judge/jury and juicer make for quite a compelling critique on just where things might be going if we don’t stop relying on the internet for everything we do. Sadly, though, once the story is teed up for us, the batteries run out fairly quickly and this descends into a fairly formulaic drama that we’ve all seen loads of times before, before a denouement that hadn’t any of the courage of it’s earlier, much more menacing, convictions. It’s a perfectly watchable, wordy, television thriller, but I left the cinema feeling really quite underwhelmed.

Full review: https://movieswetextedabout.com/mercy-movie-review-chris-pratt-and-rebecca-fergusons-talent-cant-save-a-careless-execution-of-a-fascinating-premise/ Rating: C- "Mercy is an experience that sits between a fascinating premise and a careless execution, presenting a scenario of algorithmic justice that gets lost in narrative contradictions and plot conveniences. Although the performances of Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson offer some stability, and the tension levels are maintained by an effective score and competent visual effects, the movie fails to deepen the ethical implications of total surveillance and technological inequality. It leaves behind a somewhat confusing reminder that no matter how much we try to automate the truth, justice without the context of human fragility is just a line of code devoid of a soul."