It’s not entirely unexpected for films to have a gap between the critics’ ratings and reviews and those of the general audience. We see it with just about every movie on sites like Rotten Tomatoes, with critics loving some and audiences disliking them, and vice versa. But this new addition to the sci-fi genre has the second-highest discrepancy in its critics vs audiences ratings for a major release, receiving a dismal 20% score on the Tomatometer and a much cheerier 81% on the Popcornmeter—the largest percentage gap since Boondock Saints, which has a 65% difference between the two scores. It’s followed up by Kraven the Hunter, which has a 57% difference.
Mercy, the incredibly divisive new sci-fi film, stars Rebecca Ferguson and Chris Pratt, and centers around a police officer (Pratt) who is accused of killing his wife and brought before the AI court system that he helped create in an attempt to stem the flow of unchecked crime in his city. Now, Judge Maddox (Ferguson), the AI judge, informs him that he has 90 minutes to prove his innocence using the tech implanted within its systems, or he’ll be executed on the spot. The premise itself sounds incredibly interesting and particularly timely, but the film failed to live up to the expectations that it set for itself.
Why Mercy is So Hated By Critics
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There seems to be a laundry list of things about the film that set critics’ teeth on edge. Namely, the ham-handed use of technology and the fact that it seems to take itself entirely too seriously while simultaneously going against the ethos it’s pretending to preach. “A dystopian thriller that looks like a warning but plays like propaganda. Mercy borrows the aesthetics of classic sci-fi while quietly endorsing surveillance, police states, and algorithmic justice. Stylish noise, hollow ideas,” says Dionar Hidalgo of Algo Más Que Cine. Peter Travers of The Travers Take agrees, noting, “Chris Pratt sits in a witness chair for most of the action while I sit in wonder about how a movie with such timely potential—an AI arbiter (Rebecca Ferguson) serving as judge, jury and executioner— manages to fall so hard on its fatuous pretentions.”
And those are the kinder reviews. Dana Han-Klein of We’re Watching What says, “Have compassion for yourself and skip this perspective-less gimmick of police / AI propaganda. The ‘real-time’ aspect backfires: instead of creating suspense, it reminds you how much of your life you’re wasting AND how much of this dreck is remaining.” Michael Compton of The Bowling Green Daily News rates the film a D-, and adds, “It’s a film that lacks suspense, relies way too much on its tech gimmick, and is anchored by one of the most uninspired performances by a lead in recent memory.” All in all, it seems the film failed with critics in every way it could have, with the possible exception of casting Ferguson, a queen of the genre, in a lead role.
What are your thoughts on Mercy? Let us know in the comments. And don’t forget to check out the ComicBook forum to keep the conversation going.