When I saw the previews for the movie Mercy I was intrigued. It reminded me a bit of one of my favorite movies, Minority Report. Probably because it is a sci-fi scenario based on a system solving crimes rather than people working in a system that solves crimes.
It wasn’t Minority Report. It was a little different and had that John Henry man vs machine quality to it. It wasn’t a dark fatalistic sci-fi but a warning that if we continue the way we are that we will remove the very heart of our identity. The line at the beginning that all defendants in the Mercy Court are presumed guilty until proven innocent hit as intended. It was shocking, but then things quickly devolved.
The film is about an abusive and alcoholic cop dealing with the trauma of the death of his partner. His wife ends up murdered and he is the number one suspect, because of the rules of the court he has to solve his own crime against an AI judge that is only looking at the facts it is presented.
One big issue with the movie should be apparent right there. The trail is taking place the afternoon of the murder. Even when a defendant doesn’t waive their right to a speedy trial it takes 60 days just to get to the trail. In that time the investigation continues, the defense gets discovery and conducts their own investigation, and often times new facts are discovered.
This is never addressed in the movie. Instead of the very obvious garbage in, garbage out dynamic the entire system creates it becomes man vs machine. The gut instincts of a long time cop vs the just the facts attitude of the AI, and eventually the cop and AI end up working together to stop the real bad guy and bring down the entire system.
There are good parts to the movie. It is an effective thriller, but it isn’t a great sci-fi movie. It presents some obvious issues and then refuses to dive into them. One of the biggest is the protagonist is overall unlikeable. He is an abusive alcoholic played by Chris Pratt. That puts rooting for him behind the eight ball before the movie even gets going.
This is an interesting premise with a good set-up, but it skirts the real issues it presents and dives into a cliched race against time thriller and redemption arc for the falsely accused protagonist. Overall I enjoyed watching it but wouldn’t do so again, and now I want to see Minority Report.
David Huzzard Writes 