Mercy Review - For a January release, it could be worse

Chase Gifford
4 days ago
4 min read

“A judicial system is corrupt if truth is denied the right to be a witness.” - Suzy Kassem

Ah yes… January. The month after Christmas when the lights come down and the incessant H&R Block and TurboTax commercials plague our every waking moment to remind us that the most corrupt and incompetent government in the history of this country still expects to collect come April 15th. Along with all this pleasantness comes the end of award worthy cinema and in its place comes what I like to call, “January Dreck.” Admittedly this name is a bit misleading as it insinuates that the trash only falls in January and come February 1st, so too do the good movies again.

Generally speaking it isn’t usually until March at the earliest that we tend to get decent movies again. Now there are exceptions of course, thank you Danny Boyle, Alex Garland, and Nia DaCosta for your transcendent efforts with The Bone Temple. Send Help also looks to break this all too common recurrence but time will tell. There are exceptions as I’ve just given examples of but seemingly for every 28 Years Later and (hopefully) Send Help, we get the annual studio dump of tired efforts they simply don’t have faith in.

I was absolutely certain that’s what we were getting with Timur Bekmambetov’s latest (he directed Wanted for reference), Mercy. Let me be clear, this movie will be forgotten before January is over. However, expecting so little out of it possibly allowed me to leave my brain at home because for all of my doubt, it exceeded my exceptionally low expectations. I didn’t hate it. I’m almost certain people and other critics will rip it apart, being low hanging fruit, and that’s fine and honestly not totally unearned. Maybe I’m seeing this thing with a beer goggles equivalent (whatever that may be) but at its most rudimentary it’s entertaining.

Think of something like Minority Report but with less ambition. It takes the hot topic of the moment, artificial intelligence, and embellishes in the “soullessness” of A.I. and what it could be capable of doing to things like our judicial system. I’d like to say that with this current regime, I mean administration, an artificially driven court system doesn’t sound all that frightening. But I digress. And much the same as Minority Report, its biggest supporter ends up in the “hot seat.” Ooh, What a twist! And much the same as MR he is forced to prove his innocence before a truly awful fate ensnares him. I could go on about the similarities but that might be considered spoiler territory so I’ll refrain. Let’s just say the similarities don’t end there.

I feel like I kind of built this movie up only to start tearing it down but I’m making a point. It has many faults and provides little to no original concepts but despite its many shortcomings, it has a kind of friendly disposition about it. There’s a sweetness to how badly it wants to come off as clever and complex but in the midst of its earnestness lies within it a not completely offensive way to spend an afternoon at the cinema.

Beyond its similar story traits to other much better science fiction, it also has some genuinely welcome likeness to another similarly structured thriller and its subsequent spiritual sequel, Searching and Missing. The main character must use technological assets to assist him in trying to prove his innocence. Much like Searching and Missing, much of Mercy is set within CCTV footage, mysterious text messages and ominous voicemails. It’s an investigation in the modern age where everything is recorded in one way or another. Nothing is truly a secret anymore.

Mercy immediately introduces us to Detective Chris Raven, hooked into a chair that looks as if it’s about to electrocute him. Disoriented and hungover, a face appears before him proclaiming him on trial for the murder of his wife only hours before. In this not too distant future, judge, jury, and executioner have been rolled into one ninety minute session whereby the accused will likely meet an untimely end. Given all the resources this new system used to collect evidence against Chris, he now has access to in hopes of proving his innocence within those extremely brief 5,400 seconds. The catch is proving his innocence would mean to prove a fault in the system which is all but impossible or as close to it as can be. To put it bluntly, Chris isn’t long for this world.

I don’t know, maybe I’m supposed to hate this movie. I’ve already heard from other critics that were there who said it was outright awful. I expect I’ll be in the minority (see what I did there?) with this one but so be it. Unlike people I try to see the best in the movies I spend my time with. Some are more deserving than others but if I can leave a theater after a hundred minutes and not feel insulted from sheer stupidity then that’s a win in my book. Small and unassuming, but a win nonetheless.

Chris Pratt is serviceable as is Rebecca Ferguson. One might call their involvement in something like this a “paycheck performance.” In other words, easy money. You can feel the lack of budget, most of it likely going to Pratt. It feels constrained but makes the most of what it’s allowed to explore, however little that is. It’s surface level entertainment and I maintain there’s nothing wrong with the occasional mindless thriller. Like junk food, consumed sparingly, there’s nothing to be concerned about.

Mercy isn’t so much terrible as it is just a retread of much better films. Some movies should be forgotten immediately. Mercy lies somewhere in the pile of forgettable but not without merit. I’ll likely share this opinion with few others but I can’t deny, I was entertained. I wonder what I would think of it had it come out in June or July. That said, it comes out in January, and for a January release, it could be a lot worse. Low bar? Maybe.