Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Starring: Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson, Kali Reis, Annabelle Wallis, Chris Sullivan, and Kylie Rogers
Movie Length: 1 hour 40 minutes
What it’s about: In the future in a crime ridden Los Angeles, criminals who have been charged with a violent crime are given a 90 minute trial by The Mercy Capital Court. The court uses AI judges and the criminals have to prove their innocence in that time frame. Chris Pratt’s character of Detective Christopher Raven is now on trial for the murder of his wife.
What Dan thought: A great premise and the use of screens that Detective Raven is watching to help remotely with the investigation was well done but can be a bit of overload for people who are trying to avoid screentime, as we see all the action via various remote cameras (drones, doorbell cameras, etc).
The movie was done in a real-time setting with a timer counting down to the end of the trial where Raven has to prove his innocence. I didn’t like that part of it as you knew when the ending of the movie was coming, and the end felt a bit rushed in my opinion.
Chris Pratt did good but was underused in what I thought was more of an action movie but ended up being more of a thriller/whodunit. Rebecca Ferguson as the emotionless AI judge was terrific. The rest of the supporting cast including Kali Reis as Detective Raven’s partner helped carry the movie outside of the screen filled court room in which the Detective is stuck in.
Dan’s rating: 6.5/10. Good premise on paper but the ending felt a bit rushed. The movie was enjoyable, but didn’t give a big action star like Chris Pratt much to do for the majority of the movie.
Mercy is now in theaters.
Check out Dan’s interview with director Timur Bekmambetov at NYCC 2025 where we talk about the movie.
Are you going to see the movie? Have you already? Feel free to leave a comment below or chat with us on Threads at @theconventioncollective, or Bluesky at @theconcollective.bsky.social
