Rebecca Ferguson's Twisty Sci-Fi Thriller Gets a Devastating Verdict on Rotten Tomatoes

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Portrait of Rebecca Ferguson against a blank wall

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Rebecca Ferguson’s latest sci-fi thriller has officially faced judgment — and the verdict is harsh. Mercy, the near-future crime thriller from director Timur Bekmambetov, has debuted on Rotten Tomatoes with a devastating 30% score, marking one of the roughest critical receptions of the year so far. While the film boasts a high-concept premise about AI-controlled capital punishment and a cast led by Ferguson and Chris Pratt, critics largely agree that the execution didn’t live up to the idea.

Several reviews pulled no punches. The Toronto Star called the film “lazily written” and compared its energy to a “convenience-store security video,” while MovieWeb suggested the film’s own “swift justice” system should be used to bury it on streaming. The Hollywood Reporter went for a dry burn, warning it should be “avoided by anyone suffering from screen addiction — which these days is pretty much everybody.”

The film stars Pratt as Detective Chris Raven, an LAPD officer accused of murdering his wife and forced to plead his case before an AI judge, played by Ferguson. The cast also includes Annabelle Wallis as Nicole Raven, Kylie Rogers as Britt Raven, Kali Reis as Jacqueline “Jaq” Diallo, Chris Sullivan as Rob Nelson, Kenneth Choi as Ray Vale, Rafi Gavron as Holt Charles, Jeff Pierre as Patrick Burke, and Tom Rezvan as the Governor

Is 'Mercy' Worth Watching?

Collider’s Jeff Ewing wrote our review of the movie and stated that Mercy was a surprisingly inventive evolution of the screenlife genre, anchored by strong performances from Pratt and a standout Ferguson. The film took the familiar screen-based thriller format and expanded it with futuristic crime-scene reconstructions that added scale, action, and momentum. While the central mystery proved engaging and twisty, the film struggled with underdeveloped worldbuilding and logical gaps surrounding its AI-driven justice system. Pratt delivered a committed, emotionally grounded performance, but Ferguson’s AI judge emerged as the film’s most compelling presence. Despite its narrative inconsistencies, Mercy succeeded as a tense, fast-moving sci-fi murder mystery that showed how the screenlife format could still evolve in interesting ways.

Where Mercy shines is by staying largely true to this element, but using futuristic crime scene reconstructions to shift us into the wider world. It breaks potential monotony and paves the way forward for new kinds of screenlife films. 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.

Mercy opens in theaters on January 23.