Directed By Timur Bekmambetov
Starring – Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson, Kali Reis
The Plot – In the near future, a detective (Pratt) stands on trial accused of murdering his wife. He has 90 minutes to prove his innocence to the advanced A.I. Judge (Ferguson) he once championed, before it determines his fate.
Rated R for adult language, some violent/bloody images and brief drug use.
POSITIVES
Say what you will about the limitations of the screenlife genre, but “Mercy” surprisingly crafts a compelling mystery in the depths of A technological procedural that sees one grieving alcoholic husband in the fight of his life to clear his name against an artificial intelligence of a system that initially conveys the man to be guilty until proven innocent. As to where movies like these from the past typically illustrate a dark and morally compromising look at a desolate future, Bekmambetov’s vision of 2029 feels merely days from our own emerging addictions with A.I used technology in the many industries that drive our society, particularly the ever-growing invasiveness of its accessibility, which in the case of Chris (The character name and Pratt), paints a compromising disconnect of overcoming an entity that simply does not feel, all against the backdrop of a publicized shaming in the media that has already crafted the narrative as another crime of passion adding to the toll of another husband murdering his wife. Bekmambetov’s most effective decision is to craft the investigation nearly in real time with the parallel of the movie’s runtime, allowing urgency within the inevitability of Chris’ bleak outlook that not only keeps audiences and their wandering minds free from checking their phones, as a result of on-screen visuals conveying the ticking clock, but also allows the film and its expansive investigation to never overstay its welcome to the point of tedium, keeping me from ever assessing that “Mercy” is a bore, even when it is guilty of so much more. On top of this, the performances are admittedly a mixed bag, but remarkably it’s Ferguson’s artificial judge who easily commands the most intoxicating elements of screen presence in the movie’s favor, proving the actress to be a constant professional, even in a film that she’s clearly too accomplished of an actress to be a part of. Ferguson’s initial stoic stature and unflinching responses during her rocky interactions with Pratt, effortlessly conveys the seriousness of the situation and the unforgiving of a system with the primary mission of justice, and while her imposingly dry demeanor eventually gives way to a caustically sarcastic underlining during assertive dialogue, that does unlock some unforeseen laughs towards a movie that continuously plays it one hundred percent from the hip with its seriously strict tone, we never lose sight of the psychological control that Ferguson has over the audience or her contested prey alike, allowing her to make something effortlessly digestible with the shitty ingredients that this opportunity has supplied for her.
NEGATIVES
From the producer and studio that brought you last year’s audaciously awful “War of the Worlds”, comes a film that once again combines the intensity of people looking at computer monitors with the scintillating spectrum of words exchanged between them, all towards mustering a morally compromising and creatively inept experience that bleeds every ounce of its January quality in 95 agonizing minutes. To be fair, “Mercy” isn’t quite as bad as that predecessor, but the script is just as much of a bumbling mess, led by clunky plot mechanics, overwhelming convenience, and flat characterization that not only makes it difficult to thoroughly invest in the plight of the protagonist, but also remain continuously at eye level with the integrity of the established rules that the movie lays out for itself, in which every waking moment of life is somehow recorded on camera devices of some kind, with this Mercy program given unlimited access to invade them at their disposal. It’s tough enough to go along with a camera being present for so many spontaneous moments that come out of nowhere, especially when it makes no sense whatsoever that these devices would be the first thing reached for when their lives are at stake, but it’s even harder to understand why 90 minutes are needed for an artificial intelligence judge who already knows all of the answers, long before Chris can competently conjure them out of thin air, making the trial seemingly a societal showcase between two parties, the accused of which is thankfully a detective able to sift through a system that he himself helped build and champion to the general public. Despite some fascinating components of imperfection leveled to Pratt’s flawed protagonist, the script never digs any deeper to make him an endearing presence worth fighting for, especially the ways it shamelessly sweeps alcoholism and spousal abuse under the rug like growing pains to the tedium of a relationship, leaving the overall mystery underdeveloped before it’s convolutedly resolved during the final twenty minutes of the movie. The big reveal itself is lacking illogically in both motive and meaning, with the landing power of a light fart after a bowl of chili to the movie’s grand reveal, and while I did successfully pick the person responsible, as early as the fifteen minute mark of the movie, the bigger problem to the speculative insight of the case seems to spawn from on-the-nose dialogue of these interactions, that never feel naturally authentic or believably insightful to those involved, requiring the convenience of characters to give away valuable information without the realization that they’re doing so. This problem is secondary to the movie’s morality in messaging, which similar to “War of the Worlds” feels objectified to shamelessly shell out product placement, instead of surmising a cautionary urgency against the dependency of Artificial Intelligence. Being that this is an Amazon produced picture, it should come as no surprise that Ring cameras are used accordingly to sift through the abundance of events played out on monitors, with even the unmistakable Ring logo remaining a constant in the upper right corner of the imagery, and while I’m somewhat desensitized after Amazon’s previous film resolved the brink of Armageddon with one of their drone delivery bots, Bekmambetov’s ignorance with overlooking the current bouts of real-life invasion of privacy with the product’s well-documented spying capabilities, prove the movie to be every bit as irresponsible as it is classless, leaving a bad taste in the mouths of the audience, long before the film even has a chance to get going towards finding its momentum. When it does find a comfortable rhythm, it’s sacrificed by horrendously lifeless aesthetic choices that made this a lifelessly shallow engagement to experience on the big screen, a fact made all the more appalling by the movie being released in 3D IMAX to fortunate audiences. It’s bad enough that so much of the movie’s events play out on a monitor, crafting an internalized disconnect to the action or peril of the characters, but it’s so much worse when you consider the oversaturation of greenscreen influence to the backdrops for the primary setting rob it of any defined style or even flashy graphics, proving how little effort went into rendering such a futuristic concept and undoubtedly one of the year’s most ugly presentations. Counter this with the nervous ticks of the neurotic camera work auto focusing its surveilling motions in and around Ferguson’s facials, an inexplainable black shadowing encompassing Pratt’s appearance, as well as the claustrophobically contained framing feeling a bit too close to the candidness of the coldly clammy consistency of Pratt’s demeanor, and you have visual choices that stand out as glaringly distracting to an engagement that is 95% driven by dialogue, feeling so amateur and frenetic for an experienced director like Bekmambetov, who feels unprepared for this movie to see the light of day on the silver screen. Speaking of Pratt, long gone are the days of the actor’s radiantly dependable charisma, exchanged for this coldly damp and emotionally flat series of deliveries that not only dramatically undersell the magnitude and vulnerability of his every intention, but also outline how out of place and improper that he feels as a character with his own antagonistic demons to his outline. Pratt’s success as a comedic and action actor only pave the way for his desire to dramatically deliver, but unfortunately he never brings the energy and vulnerability to explore Chris’ (It still feels weird that they named his character that) humanity, and considering the movie spends a majority of its imagery firmly focused on his sagging demeanor, it underscores the film’s most dramatic moments with a complete absence of detectability in their influence, making this feel like an obligation instead of an opportunity for the once household name.
OVERALL
“Mercy” is an appropriately flawed ticking clock thriller that has all of the potential of a captivating blockbuster but falls frenetically flat by its abundance of clunky plot mechanics, shameless cash-grabbing commercialism, and a mean-mugging turn from Chris Pratt that strips away all of the every-man charm that he has made a decorated career out of. While the film constantly maintains its urgency with a real-time execution that enacts some relentless pacing in the movie’s favor, its serviceable tension grows stale in the confines of a lazily thankless murder mystery that takes the most ridiculous route to unfulfilling infamy, leaving only a mindless action film guilty of the irresponsible ambition to play on the biggest screen conceivable
My Grade: 3.4 or F