MOVIE SCENE CANADA
MERCY
​I Amazon MGM Studios Canada I January 23, 2026 I 100 mins. I
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22%
* As of 1/21/26
CAST:
Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson, Kali Reis, Annabelle Wallis, Chris Sullivan, Kylie Rogers
DIRECTOR(S):
Timur Bekmambetov
In the near future, a detective (Chris Pratt) stands on trial accused of murdering his wife. He has 90 minutes to prove his innocence to the advanced A.I. Judge (Rebecca Ferguson) he once championed, before it determines his fate.
REVIEW BY: Darren Zakus - 2/21/2026
RATING 3 out of 5
Mercy fails as legal thriller with an uninformed exploration of artificial intelligence and a flawed understanding of fairness within the courtroom that creates a frustrating first half to the film, but when Timur Bekmambetov takes the action outside of the court room, the film capitalizes on the long forgotten 90s action thriller formula to deliver an entertaining (albeit ludicrous) conclusion to the film.
Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, the studio system was turning out thrillers like no tomorrow. Smart premises, twisty plots and big stars were the formula for success, especially with their more modest budgets and great word of mouth as audiences flocked to theatres to uncover the big reveal for themselves. It is something that Hollywood has sadly forgotten about since the dawn of the blockbuster franchise, but Mercy tries to bring back this smaller scale thriller as it evokes the legal thrillers of John Grisham. While inherently flawed in its writing, as the screenplay struggles to understand the legal system and develop an interesting commentary on the use of artificial intelligence in it, Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson are dependable and keep the film afloat, so once it stops trying to create a smart legal thriller and transitions into a pure action revenge thriller, Mercy finds the fun, outlandish thriller it should have been from the start.
Given the mass adoption of AI technology in the world in the past year alone, the premise of Mercy is interesting with AI taking on the role of judge, jury and executioner in determining the guilt of those charged with the most serious crime: murder. While the film’s opening montage tells you of the statistical correlation with this perceived omniscient being acting as a deterrent to individuals committing violent murders due to AI’s capability to fully utilize all the information available to it to help uncover the truth, the system’s incredible shortcomings are immediately evident. As Pratt’s Chris begins navigating the Mercy Court system, the fallacies within this system become glaring: it presumes guilt without a proper investigation to build a case against the accused before trial as seen with a recently sobered Chris standing trial within hours of his wife’s murder without him even knowing she was dead before being placed before the AI judge, there is no testing of evidence as it is presumed all possible evidence is available to the defendant, and the lack of representation and time constraint of an untrained defendant removes any notion of a fair trial for the accused being able to mount a proper defence and prove their innocence after examining the case set against them. It is painfully evident that writer Marco van Belle does not have a firm understanding of the legal system and what encompasses a fair trial, which is the plot’s fatal flaw as it wants to be a smart John Grisham-esque thriller without the legal basis to support its goal.
The writing poses the question of how smart an AI judge truly is if it wasn’t able to find the truth that Chris was with the same information available to him, further highlighting the importance of human judgement within the legal system. It could be argued that shortcomings of the system that van Belle has written is the point he is trying to state about AI assessing guilt which removes the logical reasoning role that human jurors have always played in the court system, especially with the absence of any elements of a fair trial. But the exploration of AI within the legal system remains incredibly surface level, defaulting to the sentiment that AI is inherently bad and leaving the film’s premise being ridden with obvious problems from a legal standpoint. Had the elements of a fair trial been more present within the screenplay, a more meaningful exploration of the use of AI could have been had as Chris searched for the truth about his wife’s murder, instead of allowing every obvious legal shortcoming of the system to become the obvious plot twist later on in the film, making it hard to get invested in the stakes of the story.
Though, there is a turning point in the film’s second half where the story shifts to a technology based manhunt for the true killer. It is frustratingly far too late into the trial to fully believe this change in heart within Chris and not question how he didn’t come to this realization much quicker, but at this point the film becomes an entertaining thriller reminiscent of the action thrillers of the 1990s. Bombastic, loud, full of numerous twists and turns (albeit ones leading to a predictable ending for any viewer watching closely enough), van Belle channels the energy of Speed with pure popcorn entertainment that ensures a non-stop race to the film’s conclusion that makes the film’s one hundred minute runtime go by quickly. Aided by one massive set piece in the film’s third act of a high speed chase through the streets of Los Angeles, it’s hard not to be swept up by the spectacle of Mercy as Hollywood has long forgotten this type of thriller that used to be prevalent, even if below the spectacle it’s a very flimsy setup that offers little narratively to truly engage audiences.
While the film has its narrative shortcomings, there are elements that help make it better. Ferguson is excellent as always, bringing an intellectual prowess to Judge Maddox, while capturing the testing of her system programming as Chris tries to appeal to the traces of humanity he sees within the programming. Pratt delivers his usual performance, full of his charisma and mega-watt presence, that though it feels similar to what he has done on screen time and time again, there is no denying that it works well in this film. Though it is Bekmambetov’s direction that truly helps elevate the film. Having directed screen based thrillers as Searching and Unfriended, the immersive experience he creates for Chris and viewers within the courtroom from the use of heightened technology to examine evidence or the three dimensional crime scene recreations does show how AI can be used as a tool within a legal system, not a replacement for the system we already have.
With January’s reputation for being a dumping month at the theatre, it is no surprise that Mercy is not a great film by any means. The surprise with it is that there is fun to be had with it and it is not as bad as many viewers will have feared it to be. Writer Marco van Belle is truly out of his comfort zone as he tries to develop a legal thriller, as it is evident he does not truly understand the structuring of fairness within it to properly critique artificial intelligence being integrated into it, which nearly sinks the entire film. But, with the star power of Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson who both deliver good work despite the painfully obvious reveals of the screenplay, Mercy finds a guilty pleasure 90s action thriller within itself that not only saves the film from complete disaster; it finds an entertaining conclusion if audiences are willing to give it a shot.