The Verdict Is... IN!
I think we fucked up with Timur Bekmambetov's latest movie, Mercy. I just watched it, and as much as I've come to dislike Chris Pratt for no other reason than the fact that his irises seem like a weird shape and he seems like a bad Youth Minister, this was probably the best movie he's been in outside of the Marvel Universe—and Parks & Rec, which isn't a movie, but he was really funny in that and I think we should all remember it. Remember Parks & Rec and how fucking jacked he looked in that first Guardians of the Galaxy trailer? And remember how when he returned to Parks & Rec, he told Aubrey Plaza he got so fit just by giving up beer? Very meta.
He told the funniest and most life-affirming joke on Parks & Rec. Andy and April were at the hospital for some reason and he was talking with the doctor and said that sometimes when he wipes his butt, no matter how many times he wipes, a little still comes off and it was like a magic marker. It might be the funniest joke in TV history because who hasn't had marker butt at some point? And it was improvised. You can see Plaza break if you can find it on youtube, which I couldn't. Apparently I am told it was a blooper, but I saw it when it aired.
But I digress. Chris Pratt plays the unlikely named Chris Raven, who wakes up to face sentencing by a rather polite AI played by Rebecca Ferguson. He has 90 minutes or something to prove his innocence or he will be electra-murdered. Bekmambetov calls this type of movie Screenlife, and he did it really well with Unfriended. He also produced Searching with the delightful John Cho where [spoiler] Debra Messing is the bad guy. Both those movies were really good, but Searching was good not just because of the premise but because Debra Messing is a milquetoast centrist lib who is one bad day away from joining a Fox show as a host who is just asking questions. I hate her. The only enjoyment I got out of X before I left was trolling everything she said, though I doubt she read any of it.
Raven has been accused of killing his wife and he's already been found guilty, and I kinda don't want to spoil things, but I am guessing you can figure out how it is going to end as far as that particular plot thread is concerned. But Bekmambetov fills the movie with great, creepy red herrings that Raven must unravel in pursuit of the truth. Raven is a drunk, so no one really cares if he gets executed for his wife's murder. The movie isn't funny by any means, but it's a decent thriller.
And I can't emphasize this enough: Chris Pratt does a really good job in the movie. He's not holding his palm out in front of him to stop a velociraptor from disemboweling him. He's not some shady shadow ops guy you're supposed to take very seriously because he has to clean up some stuff before he dies of cancer. I think that was the plot of The Terminal List. To be honest, I don't remember.
Wow, I just looked at Chris Pratt's IMDb page and really it's this, dinos, Mario Bros. cartoons, and Marvel.
There are, of course, many twists and turns as Raven works with Rebecca Ferguson’s Judge Maddox, who is sometimes helpful and sometimes not. AIs or psychics (in the case of Spielberg's lamentable Minority Report) predicting or preventing crime is a rather boring topic, but Bekmambetov has really nailed this whole screen-sharing thing and it is used to great effect. During one scene, a SWAT team is raiding a location and a bomb goes off, and because of all the cameras present, Raven is right in the middle of it even though he's locked in a chair far from the tragedy.
The critics really hated this movie, and I am not sure why. I feel bad when any movie bombs unless it's made by someone I think deserves it, so I feel bad for the director and everyone else who worked so hard. The music is especially good, but it's by Ramin Djawadi, so of course it is. There's a certain way he shifts the music around the synthy score that makes it sound probable and futuristic; it's stunning, subtle work. The script by Marco van Belle (another unlikely name) is very tight.
I think this particular Chris Pratt movie works because a) you never really see his weird eyes and b) he's opposite Rebecca Ferguson, who has yet to make a bad movie I have seen. I am just glad she is in something after how wrong they did her in Mission: Impossible. Like, what the fuck was that about?
I feel the critics missed the mark with this one. It just popped up on Amazon Prime yesterday, so give it a chance. If you don't like it, I don't care. You can tell me you don't like it, but I'll just think, "Geez, what a joyless dork that guy or girl is." Because that's how my brain works. Rebecca Ferguson can also be seen in Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man, which is available on Netflix, but I haven't seen it because I haven't been able to get through one season of Peaky Blinders. And soon, more Dune, which I created.
Oh, the movie ends with a mix of the song Easy by Son Lux that is really good.
Go forth and watch, my children.
