Mercy

When we watched the trailer, the film seemed current and interesting — we’re into AI and everything related to it, so we went to see it in the cinema. It started out pretty cool, but quickly went downhill, and by the end you realise the movie has a lot of plot holes, bad writing and some moments that are just openly dumb.

The first problem shows up right from the start: does everyone have access to police assistance and crime scene visits, or is this an exception because the suspect has direct connections to the police? Even if they do have access, many people don’t know anything about criminal investigations — which means certain people (police officers, judges, lawyers — those who are trained and know how the system works) will have a huge advantage in these trials over ordinary people.

If the AI justice system has access to everything and everyone, why wasn’t a quick check of the victim’s connections and potential suspects done from the start? What’s the point of AI if the actual work is still done half-heartedly by humans?

There were several cringe-worthy moments where the main character just stared into the camera with a brooding expression and delivered some “meaningful” quotes — too performative and too on-the-nose.

The ending was also extremely strange and out of place. It would have been much better to keep everything inside the courtroom — moving the action outside was simply unnecessary.

The attempt to humanise the AI also felt odd. I’m the kind of person who chats with AI like a friend, but I still understand the difference — which, unfortunately, many people don’t, and a film like this isn’t helping.

On the positive side: the film had good potential, lol, and the visuals were certainly top-notch. But unfortunately that’s not always enough, especially when the creators want to tackle such relevant topics.

After finding out that Timur Bekmambetov directed and produced it, I can’t shake the feeling that that was the problem all along, lmao. If you know, you know.