“Mercy” key art featuring Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson.
Amazon MGM Studios
Mercy, starring Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson, is getting blasted by many Rotten Tomatoes critics.
Directed by Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted, 9), Mercy opens in theaters nationwide on Friday. The logline for the movie reads, “In the near future, a detective (Pratt) stands on trial accused of murdering his wife. He has 90 minutes to prove his innocence to the advanced A.I. Judge (Ferguson) he once championed, before it determines his fate.”
Rated PG-13, the artificial intelligence sci-fi thriller also stars Kali Reis, Annabelle Wallis, Chris Sullivan, Kylie Rogers and Jeff Pierre.
As of Friday, Mercy has received a 22% “rotten” critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 93 reviews. RT’s Critics Consensus, audience summary and Popcornmeter score based on verified user ratings are still pending.
What Are Individual Critics Saying About ‘Mercy’?
Lindsey Bahr of The Associated Press is among the top critics on RT who gives Mercy a rotten score, writing in her review summary, “At times, it feels as tedious as watching a stranger’s increasingly frustrating call with a robotic customer service representative play out in real time.”
Manohla Dargis of the New York Times isn’t thrilled about Mercy, either, writing in her RT review summary, “In the end, all that remains is a guy who, much like the hapless audience member, is unhappily stuck in a chair watching a lot of onscreen nonsense.”
Peter Howell of the Toronto Star also ripped Mercy in his RT review summary, writing, “Lazily written, chaotically directed and played out with all the zest of a convenience-store security video, it lacks not only vision and purpose but the faintest hint of entertainment.”
Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter includes a warning in his RT review summary that reads, “It should be avoided by anyone suffering from screen addiction. Which these days is pretty much everybody.”
Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian, meanwhile, is among the top critics on RT who gives Mercy a “fresh” review score, writing, “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.”
Richard Roeper of RogerEbert.com also gives Mercy a “fresh” review score, but with reservations. Roeper writes in his review summary on RT, “By the halfway mark of the screen-popping and kinetic but ultimately tiresome and borderline dopey AI thriller Mercy, I found myself yearning for a wireless mouse so I could log off.”
Sonia Rao of the Washington Post also found positives in Mercy, writing in her “fresh” RT review summary, “Almost every narrative choice is ludicrous. And yet, Mercy is also a hoot and a half.”
Mercy, starring Chris Pratt and Rebecca Ferguson, is new in theaters nationwide on Friday.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/timlammers/2026/01/23/mercy-rotten-tomatoes-critics-show-no-mercy-to-ai-crime-thriller/
