written by: Marco van Belle
produced by: Charles Roven, Robert Amidon, Timur Bekmambetov, and Majd Nassif
directed by: Timur Bekmambetov
rated: PG-13 (for violence, bloody images, some strong language, drug content, and teen smoking)
runtime: 100 min.
U.S. release date: January 23, 2026

Release dates are a curious, albeit purposeful thing. Studios know that we know that January theatrical releases typically mean that they have no confidence in their movie and just need to drop it to make some kind of profit. Maybe we’ll get one worthwhile new release in the first month of the year (so far, this year it’s “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple”), but for the most part, we’re getting B-movie material like director Timur Bekmambetov’s “Mercy”, which is being marketed as a sci-fi AI thriller, but is more like a nauseating VR experience. It’s not a bad movie. But despite being competently made, it’s a movie whose lead takes a seat (literally) to a vapid, forgettable story.

In the near future, the judicial system apparently sucks… at least it does in Los Angeles. Due process and the right to an attorney are replaced by AI judges. If the accused cannot prove his innocence, by way of a plethora of screens and technology, within that time period, he or she will be executed in the chair they are strapped to. The AI judges of the Mercy Courts make decisions based on biometric analysis and evidence. What could go wrong?

As “Mercy” opens, a groggy Detective Chris Raven (Chris Pratt) wakes up in a Mercy courtroom, strapped to the kill chair that he’s found perps he’s arrested in the past sit in. He hears the sound of a Mercy Courts commercial, which plays just as much for the movie’s audience as it provides a setting for the main character, and soon meets Judge Maddox (Rebecca Ferguson), who appears on a large screen to inform him he has 90 minutes to prove that he didn’t murder his estranged wife, Nicole (Annabelle Wallis). Known for having a hot temper and accused of breaking his sobriety within the past year, Raven scrambles to clear his mind and grasp the details. He’s able to reach out to his friend and sponsor, Rob Nelson (Chris Sullivan), his hoverbike-riding L.A.P.D. partner, Jacqueline “Jaq” Diallo (Kali Reis, from HBO’s “True Detective: Night Country”), and his 16-year-old daughter, Britt (Kylie Rogers), to acquire details that can exonerate him. Judge Maddox is there to hear his side and assist him with finding facts, which means tapping into phone records, video recordings, various camera feeds, and computer systems. If he can’t lower his 98.6% guilt rating to around 92% within the set timeframe, Raven will be executed.

First of all, 90 minutes? 90 minutes to collect and examine evidence to support someone’s innocence. Why? It’s one of many questions that “Mercy” elicits from its viewers right from the start. The aforementioned commercial serves as an expositional info dump, and even that leaves viewers with a half-dozen questions.

Nothing about “Mercy” adds up, from the moment Pratt’s Chris Raven wakes up from a drunken bender, locked in a Mercy Court chair. First of all, the guy was arrested by the police before noon after causing a ruckus at a bar. So many questions. What bar is open that early, and how much is this guy drinking to get this violent with the barkeep and officers? What closeted alcoholic, who has kept his non-sobriety a secret from family and friends, is gonna get plastered in broad daylight? He knows how Mercy Courts work and that they literally have access to every camera everywhere. After all, Raven was part of the team that introduced and promoted this AI justice system in the past two years.

It would be one thing if “Mercy” offers an example of Mercy Court in process on someone else before we get to Raven in the hot seat. How would someone who is not a detective fare in such a situation? Imagine the sheer panic and anxiety that would overcome one’s rational thinking. Plus, not everyone has functional analytical thinking, which is why they would need a lawyer assigned to represent them. Nope, not in this judicial system.

In general, “Mercy” is hard to take seriously, and it would be nice if it were at least funny, but any humor here is solely unintentional. It also doesn’t help that Marco van Belle’s screenplay doesn’t do any of the actors any favors for many of the reasons (and questions) already presented.

There is also a problem with casting, with Pratt’s delivery rarely meeting the material’s needs. He’s not an actor known for his dramatic range, but most of his line readings are flat, and his character lacks genuine horror and desperation. The role requires the actor to be sedentary for most of the movie and, therefore, should rely on a different set of skills. That’s not happening here.

Most of “Mercy” has Pratt’s protagonist locked in a legal war with Ferguson’s Judge Maddox, with her magic wand of surveillance at his disposal. As an AI judge, she’s supposed to offer no emotion, but that proves challenging for an emotive actor like Ferguson. Bekmambetov keeps the movie’s pace zipping along, with all body cams, security cams, and doorbell cams doing all the heavy-lifting, much like last year’s “screenlife” flop “War of the Worlds”, which was also made by Amazon. There’s also a ton of drone footage available, allowing us to monitor everything, everywhere, all at once, which kind of takes the mystery out of the dilemma.

It’s a no-brainer that Pratt’s character didn’t do what he’s accused of, and we know he’ll figure out a way to prove his innocence. So, knowing that, the process should be much more engaging and thrilling than it actually is. That’s hard to do when the clock is ticking, and you basically take the human element out of the procedural process. By the movie’s third act, Bekmambetov goes into full-on action mode, releasing Pratt out of his chair like it’s part of his contractual obligation, with explosions and gunplay replacing any real detective work.

Bekmambetov has had an interesting and curious career path in the moviemaking industry. Early on, he made some two back-to-back riveting Russian fantasy thrillers with 2004’s “Night Watch” and 2006’s “Day Watch”, and then went on to adapt a comic book with 2008’s “Wanted” and a 2012 historical fiction adaptation, “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”, and then made the bone-headed decision to helm a “Ben Hur” remake in 2016. In recent years, Bekmambetov has created a new subgenre as a producer by pioneering the screenlife movement, exploring how people live online and rely on their screens and technology to function. Some legitimately good thrillers have come from that, such as “Searching” in 2018 and “Missing” in 2023, which address our reliance on technology in compelling ways.

“Mercy” is the director’s attempt to combine all that he’s done in the past into an engaging multiplex thriller. It fails at that, and it really only succeeds visually, and only if viewers are watching it in IMAX 3D. Amazon MGM Studios apparently thought that screenwriter Marco van Belle was on to something with this ridiculousness, and that viewers and their TikTok attention span would be entertained. You just can’t write off humanity this easily.

RATING: **