Mercy

In the year 2029, crime in Los Angeles has risen to historic rates, particularly capital crimes such as murder. Overwhelmed by the extraordinary levels of crime, the LAPD has invested in millions in what they call the Mercy Court.

Mercy Court is reserved for the most heinous of cases. If you commit a capital crime, you are heavily strapped to a plastic reclining chair and face the judge, JUST a judge. But this is no ordinary courtroom, oh no. This courtroom is run by an AI Program serving as the judge, jury and executioner.

In Mercy Court, you have 90 minutes to convince the Judge, Judge Maddox (Rebecca Ferguson), of your innocence (this, as we learn, is an attempt for the LAPD to speed through capital crimes and be able to focus on other cases like robbery, home invasions, etc.). You have access to all the evidence found by police. You have access to street cameras, witnesses, anything and everything that is in the LAPD’s cloud (which, we also learn, all residents of Los Angeles must connect their electronic devices to). In order to be acquitted, your guilt likelihood must fall under 80 percent. If not, you will be executed, right there via an incredibly painful and lethal sonic blast from the chair.

One such unfortunate being is Detective Chris Raven, a shining beacon to the LAPD. His crime? The horrific and graphic murder of his beloved wife, Nicole Raven. His fingerprints are the only ones to be found on the murder weapon, he was the only person spotted on his indoor family camera at the time of Nicole’s death. His guilt percentage rating is 97 percent. Seems like a shut and door case right? Guilty as charged… or maybe not.

“Mercy” is a story of one man determined to prove his innocence, when everyone else says otherwise. Tick tock Chris… tick tock…

When the modern computer was first introduced back in the 1970s and 80s, people weren’t sure what to make of it. Typing out reports on a computer as opposed to a typewriter? Then came the birth of the Internet in the 1990s. At the time of its release, many believed that the Internet would be dangerous, lower the IQs of the everyday man, and open the world to breaches in privacy, explicit content and misinformation. While these things did come from such an innovation, there was also a lot of good that came too.

Now we are in the 2020s and in a period of just 30 years, technology, computers and programming have advanced far beyond. In a previous review, probably less than a year ago, I shared with everyone that I was watching a reel from NBC News. They had an exposure on some of the amazing innovations with AI and also the shocking and somewhat terrifying advances made in the AI field. I mentioned that someone asked an AI program to write a legitimate will and testament for them with specific parameters. This AI program, at the time the newly formed ChatGPT, wrote an entire will and testament in 5 minutes, no lawyer needed. Another AI program was asked to create a painting that was asked to make an exact copy of a famous painting. The program did this in a matter of minutes, not hours, not days… minutes.

It’s no secret I’m not the largest supporter of AI. AI can never replace tried and true human intelligence and judgment. AI does not bring emotion to a piece of music like a human can. AI cannot dance like humans can, it cannot dream, it cannot have aspirations or emotions. However, society must grow, technology along it. It is the natural order of things, and depending on where you stand, AI is a part of the innovation.

The film “Mercy”, if it is trying to send a message, albeit a very weak message, it is that AI is not necessarily reliable. It is a program, and programs are made by people and people have bias, motives and secrets. The Mercy program, to the masses of the citizens of LA, seems like the answer to a broken criminal justice system—due process be darned. The people believe it to be flawless—error proof. When we begin to prop up technology over humanity, “Mercy” tells us that it becomes easy to let our guard down and that is when technology can become our downfall (again, if this is the lesson “Mercy” is trying to teach, it doesn’t teach it very well).

At the same time, “Mercy” confusingly tries to convince us that while AI is not 100 percent reliable, AI is still an inevitable part of life and we just need to accept that (a message I’m not completely in favor of). “Mercy” relies so much of its story on technology: videos, text messages, surveillance, phones, electronic bank statements, etc. That, at times, things become quite chaotic filmmaking-wise.

I found myself, too often, trying to connect the dots, as Judge Maddox, who let’s be clear is NOT an unbiased party, continually provides evidence to Chris. As Chris would look at the evidence and try to investigate his wife’s murder, he would do so in such a rapid, frantic pace that if there were puzzle pieces to put together, one like myself failed miserably. When we are finally given the “ah ha” moment, the moment when everything is relived regarding who killed Nicole, it felt, pardon the pun, like a cop-out. I ended up saying, “This was the best they could come up with. How did you go from point-A to point-C back to point-B, to -U, and then suddenly to -Z?”.

To the film’s credit, Chris Pratt really tries to give us a reason to care about the detective. As we see him relive his most recent troubled history with his wife and his marriage, we come to understand, slightly, while he ended up in the chair (though honestly I felt this characterization of the detective was far too cliché). While Rebecca Ferguson plays a very stoic and very monotone AI character, the lack of emotion from the other human characters, like Detective Chris’ friends and family, was what really got under my skin. Likewise the overall pacing of the film felt far, far too rushed (and yes I understand that this was somewhat intentional, but my opinion still stands). Lastly, the language was a bit much; it really pushes the PG-13 rating to the max, as does the sexual content and the violent content.

Content of Concern

VIOLENCE: We witness the discovery a deceased female, massive amounts of blood encompassing her. A very drunk detective is seen on security cameras at a bar fighting other police officers who are just trying to get him out of the bar. He hits several officers with items, including chairs, from around the bar. This detective eventually hops in a car and escapes the officers but is later caught and resists arrests. Two people fall off of a roof while fighting each other. A detective is seen destroying someone’s phone in an aggressive manner.

An officer is shot, and the perpetrator backs his car into the officer, pinning the him against the hood of another car, killing him. During a pursuit, a suspect’s car flips over and the suspect comes out of the car (someone later admits he wished he had killed the suspect). Someone throws a vase on the ground and the pieces cut another individual. There is a police raid on someone’s home. We find chemicals that are mainly used to create a chemical bomb. This particular home is booby trapped, and it explodes with several SWAT team members inside, burning them alive (we witness one person running out of the building screaming and on fire). A teenage girl is seen being abducted.

A truck, carrying a massive chemical bomb, is seen destroying numerous police cars and other civilian vehicles during a pursuit. Cars are seen going through businesses nearly hitting sitting customers. A teen is threatened and used as a hostage. A main character is shot from behind before being apprehended.

VULGAR LANGUAGE: F*cked (1), Fr*cking (1), Sh*t (13), B*llsh*t (5), T*ts (3), P*ssing (1), Go scr*w yourself (2), A**-hole (3)

PROFANITY: J*sus Christ (3), G*d-d*mnit (2), D*mnit (2), Swear to G*d (1), H*ll (10), What the H*ll (6), H*ly Sh*t (2)

SEXUAL CONTENT/NUDITY: A young teen has a secret Instagram account her parents don’t know about. On it she has pictures of herself in very revealing and scantily clad clothing. She is also seen talking to a young boy via Facetime. The boy is seen in a bathtub but thankfully all we see is his bare chest. There is also a scantily clad woman wearing revealing clothing on a poster in someone’s home.

ALCOHOL: A man is seen getting extremely drunk on several occasions.

DRUGS: People are shown snorting cocaine, smoking weed, and injecting themselves with heroin in a homeless camp.

Morals

If there is a lesson to draw from this film is that putting anything in your life, especially technology, before God is dangerous and ungodly. When we become addicted to our devices, social media, AI or whatever it is, we make them our new god instead of worshiping and honoring the One True living God. This breaks the first and second commandments.

“You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. —Exodus 20:3-6

Other Scriptures reaffirm these commandments…

And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’” —Luke 4:8

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” —John 14:16

Closing Thoughts

Ironically, there is little mercy to be found in “Mercy.” Characters are cruel to each other and particularly the detective, not giving someone, whom they know forever, the benefit of the doubt. Justice is backwards in “Mercy”: you are guilty until proven innocent and while this might have been an interesting message to examine, particularly in the days where everyone on Facebook or Instagram thinks they know everything about every situation, including the situations that have been occurring over the last few months in Minneapolis and Minnesota, simply by watching a 10 second video clip.

Instead we are given a “Here’s an interesting message, but look! A house blew up! Isn’t that cool?” kind of narrative, and the film just lacks substance, lacks purpose, lacks, well, the human aspect. Add to this the violence is intense at times and the profanity is just plain unacceptable for a supposed PG-13 rated film, this isn’t really a film for anyone.

If you do decide to see “Mercy” go in with very low expectations and expect the plain and ordinary rushed action/suspense based film. My recommendation? Skip it.

• Vulgar/Crude language: Moderately Heavy
• Violence: Moderate
• Profane language: Moderate
• Nudity: Moderate
• Sex: Mild
• Drugs/Alcohol: Mild
• Wokeism: Mild
• Occult: None

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.