‘Mercy’ Review: Atrocious Chris Pratt-led Pro-AI Screenlife Sci-Fi Thriller Deserves the Chair
We need to go back in time and prevent Timur Bekmambetov from discovering Skype.
When you watch any screenlife movie (Unfriended, Searching, Missing, Unfriended: Dark Web, Profile), there’s a high percentage chance that Bekmambetov was involved, either as a producer or a director. Hell, I’d argue he pioneered it during the mid-2010s, as we became completely tech-pilled, and it was somewhat innovative at the time. What felt like the next stage in evolution, following the found footage resurgence, quickly became stale. Nothing proved as such more than last year’s Amazon commer—I mean, Prime Video disasterpiece that was War of the Worlds, which Bekmambetov produced.
Whereas WotW was the straw that broke the camel’s back and the crowbar that paralyzed its legs, the Minority Report in the way of Searching ripoff, Mercy is the fatal blow to said camel. The filmmaker who once made Wanted, if you can believe it, arrives like Peter Pan with this film, refusing to grow up from these gimmicky screenlife movies. Not even a deliciously smug Rebecca Ferguson can save it.
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MPA Rating: PG13 (for Rated PG13 for violence, bloody images, some strong language, drug content and teen smoking.)
Runtime: 1 Hour and 40 Minutes
Language: English
Production Companies: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Atlas Entertainment, Bazelevs Company
Distributor: Amazon MGM Studios
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Writers: Marco van Belle
Cast: Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson, Annabelle Wallis, Kylie Rogers, Kali Reis, Chris Sullivan, Kenneth Choi
U.S Release Date: January 23, 2026
It’s LA in 2029, and the LAPD is equipped with hovercrafts and has thrown out the human judicial system. Now AI stands as judge, jury, and executioner, literally. An implemented program called “Mercy” turns criminal trials into a game show; whoever sits on the “Mercy” chair must act as their own lawyer and prove their innocence within 90 minutes. Failure to prove their innocence leads to immediate execution.
One of the system pioneers who helped implement Mercy into law, detective Chris Raven (Chris Pratt) wakes up hungover, strapped to a Mercy chair, accused of murdering his wife (Annabelle Wallis). A trial commences with humanoid AI Judge Maddox (Rebecca Ferguson). Raven must investigate every person in his and his late wife’s social orbit and gather information to acquit him. However, what he uncovers is a bigger plot than his wife’s murder.
If you’ve seen a screenlife movie, then you’ve seen Mercy.
Chris Pratt stars as Chris Raven in MERCY, from Amazon MGM Studios. | Photo Credit: Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios | © 2025 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved
Structurally, Mercy is every screenlife movie you’ve seen before with slight differences. For starters, it’s largely a two-hander between Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson (an unfair one at that). Not only due to the context of Judge Max Headroom’s power over Raven, but the disparity of acting strength between Ferguson and Pratt was documented in real time. She may be playing an emotionless program, yet Ferguson is shedding unbridled sassiness and personality while actively running circles around Pratt. Ferguson’s unflinching assuredness in her powerful deliveries shapes the tension and often uplifts Pratt’s performance. A quarter of the film’s shot composition is rack focuses of Maddox smirking in the background as Raven tries to concentrate on whatever digital mumbo jumbo is brought before him as evidence or a phone call he’s having with either his angsty teen daughter, Britt (Kylie Rogers), detective partner Jaq (Kali Reis), or AA sponsor Rob (Chris Sullivan).
Meanwhile, Pratt proves (again) that he’s simply not a convincing dramatic performer. Raven is somewhat sympathetic, given that he’s a recovering alcoholic healing from his old detective partner’s (Kenneth Choi) death, which he blames himself for. His falling off the wagon, terribly timed with his wife's demise, leads him to exhibit erratic and destructive behavior. Any actor besides Pratt would’ve been fit for the job. He’s consistently inconsistent, evoking a dull stiltedness, particularly when required to express hurried and heightened emotions in distress. His bizarre line delivery during the trial is less human than that of the AI program. Supporting actors Reis, Sullivan, and Rogers naturally provide the emotions required to add oomph to the investigation, and most of their interactions with Pratt are on video chat apps.
Mercy's near-future setting lacks creativity.
Kali Reis stars as Jaq in director Timur Bekmambetov’s film MERCY, from Amazon MGM Studios.| Photo Credit: Justin Lubin | Copyright © 2025 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.
The added sheen to Mercy, such as its flashy futuristic environment and trial-then-police procedural format, fails to introduce innovation. It already shares the Minority Report production designer, Alex McDowell. Despite the single-room Mercy building, the near-future elements extend to a singular police hovercraft car integrated within body cam footage overseeing LA, and every video format is presented like controlling your iPhone while wearing a VR headset. It’s flashy and only impressive in its well-done 3D conversion and Lam T. Nguyen’s tight editing, which makes the clockdown trial seem as if it's occurring in real-time, lending to a breezy pace. Nevertheless, they’re all slight whims that ultimately wind up in the same screenlife storytelling beats we’ve seen in any of its previous non-horror fare.
Marco van Belle’s script is the same rote narrative as every screenlife film (we should make bingo cards for those tropes) compiled with every usable modern-day video camera, wherein a flawed dad tries to fix his family problems from one location, using just his laptop. Hell, Maddox herself might as well be a glorified iMac the way she pulls up various apps in seconds. Nevertheless, by using tech and their know-how to investigate, they both save the day and get their shit together. Oh yeah, and usually the “twist villain,” who is always either third- or fourth-billed, shares some ludicrous vendetta against the protagonists, leading to a stupid finale. Mercy has it all, even down to an extremely dumb action-packed climax and villain reveal.
Mercy frustratingly yet expectedly takes a tone-deaf stance on AI.
Kali Reis stars as Jaq and Chris Pratt as Chris Raven in director Timur Bekmambetov’s film MERCY, from Amazon MGM Studios. | Photo Credit: Justin Lubin | Copyright © 2025 Amazon Content Services LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Each of these screenlife movies feels like a Searching variant, increasingly reductive and more tone-deaf. It’s not as if I was expecting it to take a bold or even clever “AI bad” stance, especially considering how digital tech-obsessed Bekmambetov is to the point he happily produced a pro-Amazon commercial. I was still taken aback that in the big 2026, while addressing the current growth of AI and tech becoming aggressively present in human-made roles, this film goes “human, AI, we’re all the same.” As if we’re all equal to the tech that's actively limiting the job market and making people dumber. Even by movie standards, it’s a ridiculous stance to take. Yet, why expect much from a Peter Pan who is too tech-pilled to make a non-digital-oriented film? Man, what a bad Wanted reunion.
