SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Artificial intelligence is being put to controversial new uses every day. Suppose it was entrusted with the justice system. Movie critic Bob Mondello says that is the premise of a new thriller called "Mercy."
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: It is 2029 - just three years from now - and Detective Christopher Raven is the poster boy for a new law enforcement initiative.
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CHRIS PRATT: (As Christopher Raven) We live in a world where murderers walk free in a justice system bogged down by red tape and human error. That all ends with Mercy, a judicial system powered by artificial intelligence. If you commit a capital crime, you have 90 minutes to prove your innocence to an AI judge, or you will be executed.
MONDELLO: So imagine his surprise when he awakens at the film's start...
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PRATT: (As Christopher Raven) What the...
MONDELLO: ...Hungover and shackled and facing...
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PRATT: (As Christopher Raven) Get me out of his chair.
MONDELLO: ...An AI avatar on a screen.
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REBECCA FERGUSON: (As Judge Maddox) Detective Raven, I'm Judge Maddox, and this is the Mercy Capital Court.
MONDELLO: Worse still is the accusation - the murder of his wife, an event he learns of as she shows him police bodycam footage of their blood-spattered kitchen.
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PRATT: (As Christopher Raven) I'm not guilty. I can't be. I wouldn't hurt her.
FERGUSON: (As Judge Maddox) Based on available evidence, I have already judged your probability of guilt to be 97.5%.
MONDELLO: But there's good news, accompanied by flashy graphics.
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FERGUSON: (As Judge Maddox) This is the Los Angeles municipal cloud. Every private citizen and organization is mandated by law to connect their devices to it. I have full access to the servers during trials. You may use any and all resources available to this court to provide me with evidence of your innocence. Should you be found guilty, you will be executed in precisely 90 minutes.
PRATT: (As Christopher Raven) Oh.
FERGUSON: (As Judge Maddox) Your trial will now commence.
PRATT: (As Christopher Raven) No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
MONDELLO: So not "RoboCop" but Robo Court, or maybe "Minority Report" with its precognition technology replaced by AI. Kind of a nifty premise, except that no one involved seems terribly intent on interrogating the central notion of AI fallibility. Considering that one of the chief problems with artificial intelligence in the real world is that it keeps making stuff up, it's weird to hear Detective Raven, played by Chris Pratt, argue that it should make more wild guesses.
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PRATT: (As Christopher Raven) And I'm beginning to think this court could do with a little human intuition.
FERGUSON: (As Judge Maddox) This court deals only in facts.
PRATT: (As Christopher Raven) The facts aren't where the investigation ends. It's where it starts. Facts are black and white. The truth is always in the gray in-between. I guess this court overlooked that. Or were you just programmed wrong?
MONDELLO: Filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov doesn't really care much either way, as long as he can indulge his fondness for cramming screens within screens, quick-cutting from doorbell cams to iPhone screen grabs to computer searches. He can't quite paper over holes in the plot, but with enough frantic editing he can distract you from the really dumb stuff.
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PRATT: (As Christopher Raven) She was seeing someone. How's my guilt looking now?
FERGUSON: (As Judge Maddox) It has risen to 98%. You just provided me with a strong motive of why you murdered her.
MONDELLO: Bekmambetov does give the film a certain propulsive quality, which is not nothing, considering that his hero spends most of the movie strapped to a chair, and the judge, played icily by Rebecca Ferguson, isn't allowed emotions. A smartly choreographed chase sequence finally widens the focus...
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character) There's a bomb in that truck.
MONDELLO: ...And at least turns the last act of "Mercy" mercifully brisk.
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PRATT: (As Christopher Raven) Get me out of here.
MONDELLO: But the overall effect is secondhand, sort of cinematic junk food - roughly what you'd expect of a "Minority Report" knockoff that was crafted not by Steven Spielberg, who also directed "Lincoln," but by Bekmambetov, who also directed "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter."
I'm Bob Mondello.
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