Chris Pratt stars as Chris Raven in ‘Mercy’, from Amazon MGM Studios. Photograph: Justin Lubin. © 2025 Amazon Content material Providers LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Opening in theaters on January 23 is ‘Mercy,’ directed by Timur Bekmambetov and starring Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson, Kali Reis, Annabelle Wallis, Chris Sullivan, and Kylie Rogers.
“Show your innocence to an AI choose or face execution.”
Launch Date: Jan 23, 2026
Run Time: 1 hr 40 min
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Preliminary Ideas
(L to R) Kali Reis stars as Ana and Chris Pratt as Chris Raven in director Timur Bekmambetov’s movie ‘Mercy’, from Amazon MGM Studios. Photograph: Justin Lubin. © 2025 Amazon Content material Providers LLC. All Rights Reserved.
‘Mercy,’ a brand new sci-fi crime thriller starring Chris Pratt, arrives at a moderately unlucky time. The movie’s scenes of a dystopian Los Angeles riddled with crime, anarchy, and medicines could seem to be sure authorities officers’ feverish imaginations of how large cities actually look, whereas the fixed video surveillance and prompt sentencing in A.I.-run courts – the place trials are over in 90 minutes – may seem to be a constructive method to them as nicely.
We’re not fairly there but, however the doubtlessly provocative message half-heartedly offered by ‘Mercy’ will get muddled and buried on this in any other case flat thriller. Directed by Timur Bekmambetov within the Screenlife fashion that he favors today (which options prominently in motion pictures he is produced like ‘Unfriended’ and ‘Looking out’), ‘Mercy’ has some eerie parallels to the present second however is an in any other case by-product, generic procedural.
Story and Path
(L to R) Actor Chris Pratt and director Timur Bekmambetov on the set of their movie ‘Mercy’, from Amazon MGM Studios. Photograph: Justin Lubin. © 2025 Amazon Content material Providers LLC. All Rights Reserved.
The yr is 2029. Crime runs rampant all through Los Angeles and different main cities, main the federal government to institute an enormous surveillance community through which each citizen’s cellular machine, each doorbell cam, each public digital camera – each type of audiovisual communication – is monitored by the authorities. And will an individual be accused of a criminal offense, they’re arrested and brought to the Mercy Courtroom, the place an A.I. acts as choose, jury, and – if on the finish of a 90-minute trial you might be convicted – executioner, killing you proper there within the so-called Mercy Chair.
Detective Chris Raven (Chris Pratt), a recovering alcoholic, wakes up within the Mercy Chair with no reminiscence of the earlier night or morning to study that he’s accused of murdering his spouse (Annabelle Wallis) of their house. The A.I. presiding over his case, Decide Maddox (Rebecca Ferguson), has a wealth of video and circumstantial proof with which to convict him. However Raven – a proponent of the Mercy system – is satisfied that even together with his issues, there’s no means he would kill his spouse. Can he assemble his personal protection – together with testimony from his daughter (Kylie Rogers) and sponsor (Chris Sullivan) – in 90 minutes, all whereas strapped to the loss of life chair?
(L to R) Actor Kali Reis, director Timur Bekmambetov and actor Chris Pratt on the set of their movie ‘Mercy’, from Amazon MGM Studios. Photograph: Justin Lubin. © 2025 Amazon Content material Providers LLC. All Rights Reserved.
It wouldn’t be off-base to say that ‘Mercy’ reads like an off-brand mixture of ‘Minority Report’ and ‘Decide Dredd,’ with Pratt’s Raven a mixture of each protagonists. This can be a near-future distillation of the concepts expressed in these and different properties about freedom, totalitarianism, and so forth, with the floor relevance of A.I. sprinkled over it. However whereas extremely by-product, ‘Mercy’ doesn’t add something new to the dialog. And at a time when each A.I. and authoritarianism are authentic existential threats to society, the movie pays transient lip service to these concepts earlier than turning right into a routine police procedural with predictable villains and a pre-ordained final result. It by no means digs into what’s actually improper with the system within the movie — A.I. virtually comes out because the hero.
Bekmambetov has apparently shot the film for IMAX, which makes the Screenlife presentation – a big chunk of the story is informed by way of screens, telephones, cams, and the like in an more and more frenetic, cluttered style – an odd selection. The remainder of the film consists of utmost close-ups of both Pratt or Ferguson’s faces, making the entire thing appear even smaller. There may be some pleasure and suspense generated throughout a number of sequences, however in any other case ‘Mercy’ by no means absolutely involves life.
Solid and Performances
Rebecca Ferguson stars as Decide Maddox in ‘Mercy’, from Amazon MGM Studios. Photograph: Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios.© 2025 Amazon Content material Providers LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Chris Pratt is nice at taking part in both lovable, action-oriented goofballs or everyman motion heroes, however something past that could be hassle. Chris Raven is meant to be an honest cop introduced down by the bottle and grief, however Pratt doesn’t fairly have the gravitas to tug off what’s alleged to be a deeply flawed character. Nor can he painting something complicated with the digital camera caught on his face for a lot of the operating time. This isn’t a great function for him, and between this and final yr’s woeful ‘The Electrical State,’ he must recalibrate.
The perfect efficiency in ‘Mercy’ is from Rebecca Ferguson, whose piercing eyes and unnerving stillness truly make for fairly an eerie simulation of synthetic intelligence. There are moments when an odd smile slips throughout her face, and others the place she goes creepily clean, that may have you ever consider you’re watching some type of sentience attempting to mimic a human. The script lets her down too ultimately, however she’s plausible as an unknowable entity with the facility of life and loss of life.
Closing Ideas
Kali Reis stars as Ana in director Timur Bekmambetov’s movie ‘Mercy’, from Amazon MGM Studios. Photograph: Justin Lubin. © 2025 Amazon Content material Providers LLC. All Rights Reserved.
The by-product nature of ‘Mercy’ and its claustrophobic use of the Screenlife aesthetic to inform its story would maybe be alleviated if there was a narrative there price telling. However the film can’t even get its blended messages straight. At a time after we’re seeing the very actual injury that A.I. can do, ‘Mercy’ virtually sidesteps that query fully.
The simplistic ‘everybody makes errors’ theme doesn’t actually hack it right here, not with the sophisticated points that the film offers with solely in probably the most superficial means. For a film that touches on points affecting us actually as that is being typed, ‘Mercy’ feels prefer it’s exploiting those self same points for a throwback to a much less clever type of sci-fi film.
‘Mercy’ receives a rating of fifty out of 100.
(L to R) Kenneth Choi stars as Ray Vale and Chris Pratt as Chris Raven in director Timur Bekmambetov’s movie ‘Mercy’, from Amazon MGM Studios. Photograph: Justin Lubin. © 2025 Amazon Content material Providers LLC. All Rights Reserved.
What’s the plot of ‘Mercy’?
Within the close to future, a detective (Chris Pratt) stands on trial accused of murdering his spouse. He has 90 minutes to show his innocence to the superior A.I. choose (Rebecca Ferguson) he as soon as championed, earlier than it determines his destiny.
Who’s within the forged of ‘Mercy’?
- Chris Pratt as Detective Chris Raven
- Rebecca Ferguson as Decide Maddox
- Annabelle Wallis as Nicole Raven
- Kylie Rogers as Britt Raven
- Kali Reis as Jacqueline “Jaq” Diallo
- Chris Sullivan as Rob Nelson
- Kenneth Choi as Ray Vale
- Rafi Gavron as Holt Charles
‘Mercy’ opens in theaters on January twenty third.
Checklist of Timur Bekmambetov Motion pictures:
Purchase Tickets: ‘Mercy’ Film Showtimes