Lede

A film that sells you a giant screen, then makes you watch a digital courtroom like you have paid extra to stare at your own monitor.

Hermit Off Script

Mercy turning up in IMAX annoyed me more than the film itself, because everything about it feels made for streaming. Big screen, big sound, and then you get this phone-ish, “live” look that tries to sell realism by making the image feel like a feed. I don’t buy it. It doesn’t feel more life-like, it just feels smaller, like the film is shrinking inside the room. Without the big names attached, this would’ve been a normal “stick it on at home” watch and nobody would’ve argued about it. But you can almost feel Amazon needing to justify the budget and the badge, so it gets pushed into IMAX like that alone turns it into an event. The frustrating part is the idea is actually brilliant and plausible. AI has moved fast enough that an AI courtroom isn’t some silly sci-fi leap anymore, and the “no privacy left” angle is properly frightening because it’s not even future-talk, it’s basically now with better packaging. That should’ve been the main punch. Instead, I left thinking I’d have paid the same money, happily, to watch Rental Family (2025) in IMAX. Amazon Studios can afford the format. Real talent usually can’t.

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PS: I’m not saying it’s a bad film with no good parts. It’s the way it was filmed and sold for IMAX that got on my nerves. At home, it’s fine.

Mercy (2026) | Official Trailer

Mercy (2026) | Movie synopsis roast

Mercy is a near-future courtroom thriller where the AI judge has one question and the audience has another: why is this playing in IMAX?

In near-future Los Angeles, the city has decided humans are too slow and too messy for justice, so it hands violent-crime trials to an AI court system called Mercy. If you are accused, you do not get weeks, lawyers, or breathing space. You get ninety minutes, a chair that feels less like a seat and more like a polite execution device, and a virtual judge named Maddox watching your every digital footprint.

Chris Raven, an LAPD detective who helped champion this shiny new system, wakes up strapped in and discovers he is the one on trial for his wife Nicole’s murder. Evidence points straight at him, the probability meter is not being kind, and the clock is already running. So Raven has to scramble through surveillance, doorbell video, messages, and whatever else the system will cough up, trying to lower the AI’s confidence in his guilt before Mercy finalises the verdict.

The fun, if you can call it that, is the contradiction: Mercy sells itself as efficient fairness while functioning like a subscription service where the free trial ends with a sonic blast. The film plays out in real time, with the judge as both referee and product demo, and Raven learning that in a world with no privacy, the truth is just another searchable tab… if you are lucky.

Cast and credits

Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Writers: Marco van Belle
Genre: Science fiction thriller
Main cast: Chris Pratt; Rebecca Ferguson; Kali Reis; Annabelle Wallis
Composer: Ramin Djawadi
Production company/studio: Amazon MGM Studios (also reported: Atlas Entertainment; Bazelevs Company)
Runtime: 100 minutes
Release year and platform: 2026 theatrical release (Amazon MGM Studios)

What does not make sense

• If you film “for IMAX”, why does it play like the world’s most expensive screen recording?
• Selling a “future” court system while borrowing the emotional texture of a present-day corporate training video.
• A privacy nightmare premise, delivered in a format that makes surveillance feel like a design choice, not a moral emergency.
• The studio logic: spend like a blockbuster, stage it like a desktop.
• IMAX as a flex, not a need: the format is the joke, and the audience is the punchline.

Sense check / The numbers

1. Mercy released in the United States on January 23, 2026, and it was marketed as “Filmed For IMAX” with IMAX showings that date. [IMAX] [About Amazon].
2. Runtime is 100 minutes, and the core hook is a 90-minute window to convince an AI judge. [IMDb] [Box Office Mojo].
3. It opened at $11.2 million in North America, with an estimated $60 million budget mentioned in coverage. [AP] [Entertainment Weekly].
4. Reception data in one major report: 20 per cent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, plus a “B-” CinemaScore. [AP].
5. Box Office Mojo listed a domestic opening of $10,809,178 and a worldwide total of $20,044,453 at the time of listing. [Box Office Mojo].

The sketch

Scene 1: “Filmed For IMAX”
Panel: A vast IMAX screen. In the middle, a tiny courtroom window floats like a lost desktop notification.
Judge: “Welcome to the future.”
Viewer: “Why is the future the size of a pop-up?”
Usher: “Premium, sir.”

Scene 2: The Mercy Court Upgrade
Panel: A defendant sits under a countdown timer. Behind the judge, a wall of cameras blinks.
AI Judge: “You have 90 minutes to prove innocence.”
Defendant: “Do I get privacy?”
AI Judge: “You get a higher resolution.”

Scene 3: The Streaming Throne
Panel: Amazon executive on a golden chair labelled “IMAX”. A small indie filmmaker holds a perfect script outside the ropes.
Executive: “Look, we made it big.”
Filmmaker: “You made it bigger. Not better.”
Executive: “Same thing. Different invoice.”

What to watch, not the show

• Premium formats as marketing armour: bigger screen, smaller scrutiny.
• Surveillance normalisation: the UI makes the police state feel tidy.
• Star power as budget justification: names first, necessity second.
• Streaming economics wearing theatrical clothing: cinema as a loud trailer for later home viewing.
• The long-term risk: audiences learn to accept “screen-shaped” storytelling as the default for big money.

The Hermit take

A great premise should not need an IMAX megaphone to feel urgent.
If your future court fits neatly in a window, it is not cinema, it is compliance training.

Keep or toss

Toss
Keep the premise and the fear.
Toss the premium-format cosplay, and stop charging people extra to watch a desktop pretend it is a world.

Sources

• IMDb – Mercy (2026): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31050594/
• IMAX – Mercy page: https://www.imax.com/movie/mercy
• About Amazon – Mercy ticketing and IMAX note: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/entertainment/mercy-chris-pratt-amazon-mgm-studios
• AP News – Box office report with budget and reception notes: https://apnews.com/article/box-office-mercy-avatar-251344871602d5801351dd40617f30c1
• Entertainment Weekly – Box office report and budget mention: https://ew.com/mercy-topples-avatar-after-weeks-long-box-office-reign-11892150
• Box Office Mojo – Mercy totals and opening: https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt31050594/credits/?ref_=bo_tt_tab
• Rotten Tomatoes – Critics consensus page: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mercy_2026
• Tom’s Guide – Review and screenlife description: https://www.tomsguide.com/entertainment/movies/mercy-review-chris-pratt-stares-at-a-screen-for-90-minutes-in-this-lifeless-sci-fi-thriller
• Film Music Reporter – soundtrack and composer: https://filmmusicreporter.com/2026/01/22/mercy-soundtrack-album-details/
• Cineworld UK – runtime and listing: https://www.cineworld.co.uk/films/mercy-2026/ho00014089