(2.5 stars)
In the sci-fi thriller “Mercy,” chaos reigns. It’s 2029, and crime is so rampant in Los Angeles that the local justice system has introduced a new form of due process: Suspects charged with capital offenses can be tried by an AI judge, which gives them 90 minutes to prove their innocence before executing them on the spot.
The Mercy Court program, as this startling new enterprise is known, has so far killed off all 18 of its defendants. Chris Raven (Chris Pratt), a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department, is case No. 19, accused of murdering his wife at their home. Despite having been instrumental to the creation of Mercy Court as part of his role in the LAPD’s robbery and homicide division, Raven finds himself strapped to a chair in front of the virtual Judge Maddox (Rebecca Ferguson).
This film, directed by Timur Bekmambetov (“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” “Ben-Hur”), masquerades as an urgent warning against misusing artificial intelligence technology before doing a 180 and deciding that overbearing robots are good, actually. What starts out as the story of an officer coming to terms with a corrupt justice system becomes a muddled argument for increased policing. Raven channels his righteous indignation at Maddox’s unfeeling nature into an effort to help the AI become more sentient.
Almost every narrative choice is ludicrous. And yet, “Mercy” is also a hoot and a half.
Bekmambetov has produced a number of films in the “screenlife” genre, meaning most of the action unfolds on devices such as a computer, tablet or smartphone. He helped finance the 2015 horror flick “Unfriended,” in which six teenagers on Skype are haunted by a recently deceased classmate, as well as the 2018 mystery “Searching,” starring John Cho as a dad who tries to find his missing daughter by examining her digital footprint.
Mercy Court doesn’t grant the detective an attorney, but it does, for whatever reason, allow him access to search engines, phone calls and evidence collected by an apparent surveillance state. Raven combs through texts sent by his wife (played by Annabelle Wallis in flashbacks), video recordings and even footage from their neighbor’s bird-feeder camera to make the case for his innocence. He is permitted to FaceTime his friend and Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor (Chris Sullivan) and LAPD partner (Kali Reis), who even walks him through the crime scene.
“Mercy” takes itself — and its increasingly absurd premise — so seriously that it inspires plentiful laughs. The discovery of his wife’s affair isn’t enough to cast doubt on Raven’s guilt; he must also dramatically declare that he is “wondering how the hell I could commit a crime of passion when there was no passion left.” A ticking bomb plot comes so far out of left field that you wonder whether you were transported to a different theater. The cherry on top is a throwaway moment in which Jay Jackson shows up as a solemn local newscaster. (Those who watched Pratt in the sitcom “Parks and Recreation” will remember Jackson as news anchor Perd Hapley, a fan favorite.)
Pratt is decent in this leading role. He delivers a serviceable performance as a distraught man who was so drunk the night before his wife’s murder — he relapsed a year ago, after his former partner (Kenneth Choi) died on duty — that he doesn’t remember half of what occurred the next morning. Bekmambetov’s clever depiction of digital life aids Pratt’s efforts, providing him with ample opportunity to react in believable shock.
But if anyone truly threads the needle here, understanding the subtle menace underlying modern society’s intensifying reliance on AI, it’s Ferguson. She delivers Maddox’s dialogue in the precise tone associated with virtual assistants, gentle and polite while impervious to human emotion. Maddox’s programmed movements, such as a slight head tilt signifying that she is “listening” to Raven, become looser and more natural as she warms to him (somehow). Even if the assignment is confounding, Ferguson aces it.
Not every movie needs to send a coherent message; some simply exist to entertain. In its wildest moments, “Mercy” recalls the insane yet exhilarating antics of Michael Bay’s 2022 action-thriller “Ambulance,” in which adoptive brothers played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II hijack an emergency vehicle after their bank heist goes awry. But with its elaborate depiction of new criminal proceedings and advocacy for being tough on crime, this film does have something to say. The problem is that Bekmambetov, working off a screenplay by Marco van Belle, cannot decide what that is.
There is little information provided about the world in which “Mercy” takes place, other than the expository assertion that Mercy Court was created as crime and homelessness reached unprecedented rates among Angelenos. What caused this to happen?
And for a film about the criminal justice system, there is startlingly little mention of race. We are expected to take at face value that, in the city that famously erupted into deadly riots over police brutality against a Black man, the character most insistent on Mercy Court’s mission to execute potential offenders is Raven’s partner in the LAPD, Jacqueline, an Afro-Indigenous woman.
It is unclear how the rest of society feels about AI. While scrolling through her Instagram feed, Raven sees that his teenage daughter (Kylie Rogers) has been posting about its potential dangers. But this goes unremarked upon as he holds on to his belief in the technology. You almost feel bad for Pratt as he delivers lines that could very well have been written by a tech executive, like, “Human or AI, we all make mistakes.”
But oh, the laughs. Every glorious moment of accidental humor is worth witnessing, even when it promotes the robot agenda.
PG-13. At area theaters. Contains violence, bloody images, some strong language, drug content and teen smoking. 100 minutes.
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