Mercy (2026)

Mercy was a mystery screening and the signs weren’t good before I even walked into the cinema when I was asked if I needed 3D glasses. It is 2026 and they are still trying to push 3D films onto us. Another red flag was the fact that this film is directed by Timur Bekmambetov who made Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter and Ben-Hur very boring and seems to prefer style over substance. Chris Pratt struggles in his post Jurassic World/Guardians of the Galaxy career as he finds himself literally sat in a Timur Bekmambetov film. He plays Chris Raven who is accused of killing his wife and has 90 minutes to prove to an A.I. Judge (Rebecca Ferguson) that he didn’t do it. As set ups go, its pretty good and by good I mean simple. It doesn't have much more than that and so the film can just get on with being dumb. 

It turns out that his sponsor killed his wife because Chris Raven and the Mercy programme framed his brother over the death of someone but it turns out that nice cop Jaq was the one that framed the brother because they needed Mercy to be a success might be a bit of an eye roll revelation especially given that a couple points of the film we see a huge neck tattoo which is the films equivalent of saying that there is something not right with her. The film does attempt to throw a few red herrings but to be honest you would only be shocked of the revelation if you were that involved in the story and I wasn't. I was just thinking that this must have been a pretty good and simple payday for spending 90% of the running time sitting down. I felt bad for Rebecca Ferguson. She’s been in Mission: Impossible films and yet is reduced to playing an AI judge.

Using AI as a plot device is already boring and this film does very little to make it interesting. There are some action scenes but they do involve either of the big names so dont have any weight to them. The 3D is completely pointless and is only there to show some of the graphics that are brought close to the screen. Mercy is a B-Movie that happens to have A-List talent. Credit to Pratt and Ferguson who give their best and make this film far more entertaining that it had any right to be but I think I would have waited for this to come to streaming if I was going to watch it at all.