January 27, 2026 – LAPD Detective Chris Raven tied to a chair and hung over from a bout of heavy drinking and being hit on the head, is forced to solve a murder case in 90 minutes online, or be executed. No pressure.

In the future, an artificial intelligence program called Mercy is judge, jury and executioner for capital crimes in Los Angeles, and Raven (played by Chris Pratt of the “Jurassic World” and “Guardians of the Galaxy” movies) is a vocal proponent of the system, but has second throughts as is the one sitting in the hot seat facing the A.I. system. He wakes up, bound to a chair, to discover he is facing an execution in 90 minutes for murdering his wife.

The AI Mercy Judge Maddox (played by Rebecca Ferguson of “Mission: Impossible - Fallout”) dispassionately lays out the circumstantial evidence against Raven, and it is overwhelming. Raven knows he did not commit the crime, but in order to get a reprieve, he has to reduce the statistical probability of his guilt from 98 percent to less than 92 percent, as determined by the A.I. judge.

Raven is tied to a chair, but is allowed access to all police records, bank records, all videos, and police personnel to help him prove his arguments. There is no privacy in this city. Judge Maddox can access any video in anybody's phone, computer or video surveilance system, or any other digital information it needs to make a decision in this case. Judge Maddox can also remotely control police vehicles and command police to aide in the investigation.

Raven quickly sobers up and gets to work on the investigation into his wife's murder. He relies on his intuition and instincts developed by years of police work to solve the case. Judge Maddox doesn't understand intuition, but she does learn to respect Raven's ability to investigate this crime, and is willing to bend the rules a bit.

Raven and Maddox learn of not one, but two conspiracies related to the murder, and how it is related to an earlier case that Raven investigated. It turns out this is not just about one murder, but a quest for vengeance that threatens Raven, and the entire Mercy computer complex.

Raven is aided in his investigation by his police partner, Jacqueline 'JAQ' Diallo (Kali Reis of “Rebuilding”) who flies all around Los Angeles in a contraption sort of like the Jetson One flyer. She uses the flyer to rapidly move from one investigation scene to another.

The investigation reveals a number of surprising things that Raven did not know about his wife's and daughter's activities in recent months and about how a trusted friend betrayed him. Raven's wife, Nicole is played by Annabelle Wallis of “Boss Level” and his daughter, Britt is played by Kylie Rogers of the “Yellowstone” series).

I probably would not have bothered watching this in a movie theater, except for the fact that it is being shown in 3D, and I actively support this format. This movie had not been getting good reviews (Metacritic has it rated 34 out of a hundred). I was pleasantly surprised. It is a good whodunit with a fine performance by Chris Pratt. The movie is ably directed by Timur Bekmambetov of another 3D movie, “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.” This movie rates a B.

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