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Marvel star Chris Pratt and Dune star Rebecca Ferguson's new AI thriller Mercy has debuted to less than impressive reviews just days before its release.
Set in the near future, Mercy follows Pratt's detective, who stands on trial for the murder of his wife and is given just 90 minutes to prove his innocence to an AI judge, played by Ferguson. Despite the dangers of AI being a hot topic right now, critics are saying that Mercy fails to offer up a new, more timely take on the subject – and instead regurgitates themes explored in previous sci-fi movies such as Minority Report and Blade Runner.
"Ultimately, Mercy isn't aggressively bad, it's just really dumb. It borrows the aesthetic of superior sci-fi films, without grasping the soul of the genre," says HeyUGuys writer Linda Marric. Alonso Duralde from The Film Verdict adds that the film "purports to be a cautionary tale about putting legal justice into the hands of AI, but the movie’s real agenda is promoting the surveillance state as a way of fighting crime."
Many critics are finding fault with the overall storyline, with Toronto Star's Peter Howell suggesting it's, "lazily written, chaotically directed and played out with all the zest of a convenience-store security video." IndieWire's Wilson Chapman echoed: "The work of everyone involved – from the sleepy performances to the crew doing an okay but never exemplary job – suggests a first draft, a sense of wanting to get the thing out and move on."
However, it seems that some people were able to enjoy the film, though, as Peter Bradshaw from the Guardian calls Mercy, "ingenious and watchable stuff, with cheeky twists, although the final escalation to full-on action mayhem is maybe a step too far towards pure absurdity." Variety writer Owen Gleiberman ultimately concluded, "the movie turns out to be a notch or two better than you expect."
At the time of writing, Mercy sits at 18% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 44 reviews. Aside from Netflix movie The Electric State, this marks the Guardians of the Galaxy star's lowest-rated movie in almost 13 years, since Movie 43. As for Ferguson, this is the Mission: Impossible star's lowest-rated movie since 2017 horror movie The Snowman.
Mercy hits theatres on January 23. For more, check out our list of the best sci-fi movies, and keep up with new TV shows heading your way.
