AI has taken over our world. Every Monday morning in my history class, we watch a ten-minute video on a news channel. This week, I found out that in parts of Africa, farmers are using AI to decide how to grow their crops, determine whether their crops are healthy, and assess soil conditions. This shocked me because AI should never take over something that produces our food and sustains our health, especially something that humans have evolved because of.
Mercy, released in early 2026, is about a futuristic advancement in AI in which a courtroom is controlled entirely by a single AI mind, serving as the judge, the jury, and the executioner. Judge Maddox (Rebecca Ferguson) is the AI mind displayed to the defendant, convicted of various criminal actions, and has access to all digital and physical surveillance data. This includes security camera footage, messages, phone calls, cloud data, and more. This is all provided to the defendant to help them prove their innocence within 90 minutes. 90 minutes to prove that you didn’t kill someone. Chris Raven (Chris Pratt) is sent on trial for murdering his wife.
Now, this system seems like a fair way to defend yourself and to prove as much as you can. But when I was watching this with my dad, who is a lawyer, he said that the story is completely inaccurate and goes against human rights. Although set in the near future, 2029, this movie presents an inaccurate viewpoint on how people can defend themselves, especially in a life-or-death situation.
Although I really enjoyed Chris Pratt’s performance, like always, I felt that this really didn’t suit his normal roles. He is a typical role of the funny and charming character, like in one of my favorite franchises, Guardians of the Galaxy. With that being said, in contrast, I think that Rebecca Ferguson matched her role perfectly. She gives a serious portrayal that makes her face, plastered on the screen, a judge-like appeal to me. I also think the script for an advanced AI judge was very well written. AI can sometimes give you the perfect answer, but other times it malfunctions to the point that it just gives up. The humor and horror built into an AI bot whose job is to execute a criminal show a lot of how our world could come to be.
The entire length of this movie has a great buildup of suspense and a literal countdown. But by the end of the movie, when the final choices of the group were made, it made me question the entire film. Though inaccurate and slightly confusing, Mercy was a great film under pressure, with a “Who Done It” storyline and a new and improved point of view on the power AI might gain.
