Film Review: “Mercy” Falls Short as Pro-AI Propaganda Piece

In a troubling trend of tech-driven cinema, “Mercy” joins a growing list of films that appear to champion corporate surveillance technology, raising alarms among media critics and viewers alike.

The new Amazon MGM Studios film follows Detective Chris Raven, played by Chris Pratt, who finds himself accused of murdering his wife and facing judgment from an AI-powered legal system called Judge Maddox. Once an advocate for this algorithm-based justice, Raven has just 90 minutes to prove his innocence before the system executes him.

What begins as a promising dystopian premise quickly devolves into something far more concerning. Rather than examining the inherent dangers of automated justice systems, “Mercy” surprisingly endorses them as preferable alternatives to human-run courts. Throughout the film, the AI system is portrayed as infallible, making logical deductions and only reaching incorrect conclusions when manipulated by human saboteurs.

Director Timur Bekmambetov, known for films with sometimes questionable sociopolitical undertones, steers this thriller away from critical examination of AI surveillance and toward outright advocacy. In one particularly telling moment, Pratt’s character proclaims, “Human or AI, we all make mistakes and we learn”—a false equivalency that glosses over fundamental differences between human learning and machine processing.

The film follows last year’s widely criticized “War of the Worlds,” another Amazon production that was lambasted for promoting corporate surveillance technologies. In that film, the protagonist saved humanity using privacy-violating monitoring skills, ultimately choosing to join the private sector to “monitor the government.” Critics noted how the film positioned corporate surveillance as benign compared to government oversight.

Industry analysts see these productions as part of a concerning pattern. As major tech companies invest billions in AI development and implementation, films that normalize surveillance technology and algorithmic decision-making appear to be increasing in frequency and prominence.

“We will see more haphazardly produced, lazily written films promoting an ideology attempting to make us more submissive to the kind of society megacorporations want to build,” notes one industry observer.

From a technical standpoint, “Mercy” suffers from numerous flaws. The single-location setting with its heavy reliance on digital interfaces creates visual confusion rather than tension. An omnipresent on-screen timer undermines attempts at suspense. Pratt’s performance veers between overacting and misplaced levity, while supporting cast members deliver uneven performances throughout.

The film’s villain suffers from poorly conceived motivations, orchestrating an elaborate scheme when simpler actions would have achieved the same goals. The only bright spot comes from Rebecca Ferguson’s portrayal of the AI system Judge Maddox, bringing occasional moments of compelling screen presence to an otherwise uninspired production.

What makes “Mercy” particularly concerning isn’t just its technical shortcomings but its ideological positioning. As companies like Amazon continue to develop and deploy AI technologies affecting everything from employment to law enforcement, entertainment that portrays these systems as trustworthy and superior to human judgment deserves scrutiny.

Critics argue these films represent more than poor filmmaking—they reflect deliberate attempts to condition audiences to accept increasing technological control in their daily lives. As one reviewer put it, the film’s message appears designed to help “prop up the AI bubble and cheer on attempts to force it into every aspect of society.”

With AI regulation still developing and public understanding of these technologies limited, the growing trend of pro-surveillance, pro-algorithmic governance films raises important questions about the responsibility of entertainment media in shaping public perception of transformative technologies.