Mercy lands in cinemas tomorrow, and the name might be appropriate based on the first reviews for the new sci-fi thriller. The new movie star Chris Pratt as a detective who is put on trial for the murder of his wife and must prove his innocence to an AI judge (Rebecca Ferguson).
After its first reviews were released yesterday, Mercy stands at a brutal 18% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 44 reviews. It’s a rating that could climb up as further reviews land today and tomorrow, but right now, it’s not looking good.
We’ve rounded up a selection of the first reviews for you to judge yourself if you fancy seeing Mercy at the cinema this weekend.
“A baffling piece of work that happily swipes the mood and aesthetics of Hollywood’s police state dystopias (Minority Report, RoboCop, Blade Runner etc), while presenting such horrors as an agreeable norm.”
“A headache-inducing screenlife film that straps Chris Pratt to a chair and holds its audience hostage too, Mercy squanders its potential as a sci-fi thriller about the dangers of entwining justice and artificial intelligence.”
Sony Pictures
“Mercy isn’t aggressively bad, it’s just really dumb. It borrows the aesthetic of superior sci-fi films, without grasping the soul of the genre.”
“It’s ingenious and watchable stuff, with cheeky twists, although the final escalation to full-on action mayhem is maybe a step too far towards pure absurdity.”
“The premise of Mercy makes it sound like the sort of thin, doctrinaire anti-technology, anti-police-state thriller that Arnold Schwarzenegger would have starred in 40 years ago. But the movie turns out to be a notch or two better than you expect.”
Sony Pictures
“Designed in every way to make one bleary eyed, it’s the new year’s dreariest, and goofiest, film.”
“The work of everyone involved – from the sleepy performances to the crew doing an okay but never exemplary job – suggests a first draft, a sense of wanting to get the thing out and move on.”
Mercy is released in cinemas on 23 January.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy  Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor.  Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world.   After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
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