Mercy (2026) review

Due to civil unrest in the city of Los Angeles, a new court is created that uses artificial intelligence - in the form of Judge Maddox (Rebecca Ferguson) - to determine guilt or innocence, so when Detective Chris Raven (Chris Pratt) wakes up strapped to a chair and is accused of murdering his wife Nicole (Annabelle Wallis), he has to use technology (drone cameras, surveillance footage, cell phone recordings, etc.) to prove he didn't do it.  Having your lead actor immobilized for most of the running time isn't the smartest decision to begin with, and then the movie inundates both him and the audience with so many pop-ups it becomes downright headache-inducing to even look at, like an outdated computer infected with a virus where every click to close a box opens up three more.  It's all so convenient for the Judge's database to be able to access almost any video ever made (and often from multiple angles) and although the "central idea" is that AI (like humans) is fallible, it's a little ironic that the finale feels like it was constructed by a non-human: there are stolen explosives, a kidnapped teenager and an unethical police officer.