| Amazon MGM Studios | Release Date: January 23, 2026 | CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
|
Positive:
4
Mixed:
16
Negative:
15
|
Critic Reviews
ColliderJan 21, 2026
There are successful elements in the script, certainly, but there are also several frustrating moments that simply needed another draft to work the knots out. All that said, it's a successful foray into sci-fi territory thanks to a willingness to stretch the subgenre's established rules, making for a fun murder mystery that keeps audiences guessing.
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The GuardianJan 21, 2026
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 film is also a bit lenient on AI: “Human or AI – we all make mistakes.” Uh … yeah. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Raven and Judge Maddox revive their human-digital chemistry for a sequel.
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IndieWireJan 21, 2026
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. At every minute of “Mercy,” you can practically hear the filmmakers saying: “Eh, it’s January. Good enough."
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Jan 21, 2026
Mercy takes a more bombastic approach with more speculative technology, only to chicken out of using that bombast to do anything other than jostle the audience through a series of contrived absurdities. If this is the future of crime thrillers, everyone needs their screentime severely curtailed.
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Jan 21, 2026
For all that flash and bash, it does feel as if we spend a lot of time staring at Chris Pratt looking worried and a Rebecca Ferguson increasingly bored of sounding increasingly boring. Too much dialogue plays like a conversation with an automated phone service only marginally more animated than the one that fails to direct you to customer services.
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Next Best PictureJan 21, 2026
There’s certainly entertainment value in “Mercy,” especially in a late-film chase captured largely via dashcam, and in the film’s gamified version of criminal court, which has a video-game-like appeal. But with a concept so close to the real world, you need to engage with the ideas to connect with the audience beyond the surface, truly.
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Jan 21, 2026
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. The result plays less like the tongue-in-cheek mystery-thriller director Timur Bekmambetov seems to be aiming for, and more like an advertisement to tech investors, making the movie chilling in unintended ways.
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SlashfilmJan 21, 2026
Mercy is a sight that may induce sore eyes, a punishing experience for those with even the lowest of expectations, and appears destined to land among the dregs of the year. But, worst of all, this feels like an alarming glimpse into a world I want no part of — one where our entertainment isn't so much as created by AI, but explicitly tailored for those who no longer care enough to see the difference. On the bright side, 2026 can't get any worse than this ... right?
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The Travers TakeJan 23, 2026
LooperJan 21, 2026
Mercy is not a good movie, with hackneyed dialogue and stock performances that, ironically, seem like they themselves could have been generated by AI. But worse than that, it's a movie that pushes insidious views about AI, law enforcement, and privacy laws under the guise of a brains-off action thriller.
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