Mercy
This review contains spoilers
Notes:
- I think this premise deserved more. Yeah, there's some Minority Report vibes, but this delivers a related (though different) premise in a different way (Screenlife). It feels a bit like a sci-fi Saw, which is pretty cool.
- I wish we could care about the characters. There are two main twists: who killed his wife and the corruption within the police. We knew he didn't kill his wife because that's the predictable way to go. I don't really try to guess in movies like this because I'd prefer to just go along for the ride. I didn't guess who did, but I suppose I could have if I tried. I wouldn't have guessed the police corruption angle... I think that was good. But regardless, I didn't care about any of these people.
- As for the messaging, it tells us that humans and AI make mistake, and tries to show us the horrors of letting everything to AI. AI has, and will, replace/change a lot of the human experience, in good and bad ways, but you can also Grok something and it will be so horribly off-base it makes you laugh. So yeah, the core message is relevant though not especially unique. But with that said, I think it's important to have movies that remind us of the dangers of doing something like this.
- But with THAT said, there's some stupid shit in the setup.
1: There's been something like 18 Mercy trials (I can't remember exact number but it's low) in a couple years. But we are supposed to believe it's this huge deterrent that dropped crime by something like 68-70 percent (again, can't remember). This is silly.
2: You have an hour and a half to make your case. For a movie, again, it feels like Saw which I appreciate. But really? 18 hour and a half trials and there's been this huge drop in crime and this is such a great thing? Meh.
Though I suppose you could make the point that 2 does show the flaws of the system. Webb was put to death as a violent criminal but maybe had their been more time and less reliance on AI, he might have lived. And someone like Pratt's character is going to succeed at something like this more because he's used to digging through evidence.
But even if I grant the movie this good faith argument, 1 is still stupid.
- I think this premise deserved more. Yeah, there's some Minority Report vibes, but this delivers a related (though different) premise in a different way (Screenlife). It feels a bit like a sci-fi Saw, which is pretty cool.
- I wish we could care about the characters. There are two main twists: who killed his wife and the corruption within the police. We knew he didn't kill his wife because that's the predictable way to go. I don't really try to guess in movies like this because I'd prefer to just go along for the ride. I didn't guess who did, but I suppose I could have if I tried. I wouldn't have guessed the police corruption angle... I think that was good. But regardless, I didn't care about any of these people.
- As for the messaging, it tells us that humans and AI make mistake, and tries to show us the horrors of letting everything to AI. AI has, and will, replace/change a lot of the human experience, in good and bad ways, but you can also Grok something and it will be so horribly off-base it makes you laugh. So yeah, the core message is relevant though not especially unique. But with that said, I think it's important to have movies that remind us of the dangers of doing something like this.
- But with THAT said, there's some stupid shit in the setup.
1: There's been something like 18 Mercy trials (I can't remember exact number but it's low) in a couple years. But we are supposed to believe it's this huge deterrent that dropped crime by something like 68-70 percent (again, can't remember). This is silly.
2: You have an hour and a half to make your case. For a movie, again, it feels like Saw which I appreciate. But really? 18 hour and a half trials and there's been this huge drop in crime and this is such a great thing? Meh.
Though I suppose you could make the point that 2 does show the flaws of the system. Webb was put to death as a violent criminal but maybe had their been more time and less reliance on AI, he might have lived. And someone like Pratt's character is going to succeed at something like this more because he's used to digging through evidence.
But even if I grant the movie this good faith argument, 1 is still stupid.
Mini Review: Basically just agree with ADragon91. Premise is neat though implemented generically. Ferguson is misused here but it's nice to see her. Pratt was mostly passable though some line delivery (like the first line he even says) was hokey. Plot twists were fine, but it's hard to care about most of it because it doesn't do much to get us invested. Visually, it's not much. Kind of generic. Not the worst example of Screenlife, though certainly not the best.
More Reviews of Mercy
decatur555
The basic idea is more interesting than the film's first impression suggests. At first, all the screens, percentages, data and technological language felt somewhat heavy to me. ...
moraesfelipe
its acting and writing are so sloppy -- pratt's final line about humans and machines learning from their mistakes lol -- that i couldn't help but find it a bit charming, actuall...
Janomi
This is one of those films that is more disappointing than outright bad because the underlying idea has so much potential. On paper, the premise is excellent and easily could ha...
Dr.Necrow
2/20/2026:
Ah man, I was hoping to love this because it had a really interesting premise and some pretty good acting at first. The main issue with this is how it reveals th...
Ah man, I was hoping to love this because it had a really interesting premise and some pretty good acting at first. The main issue with this is how it reveals th...
See all 5 reviews of Mercy
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