In this high-concept near-future crime thriller, an L.A. crime epidemic and civil unrest leads to offenders being speedily tried and - if necessary - executed by AI, and the film follows Chris Pratt as Chris Raven, a robbery/homicide cop accused of murdering his wife versus Rebecca Ferguson as his advanced AI courtroom judge. Told through a patchwork of digital/camera/internet sources, to which the accused is given access to mount his defence, the reliable Pratt and the usually-excellent Ferguson (plus a largely weak but negligible supporting cast) do as much as they can with the limitations imposed upon them as the film turns into what is essentially a hi-tech game of electronic Clue(do). Bekmambetov has long been a good and creative director, but here the film's flashy gimmicks - a ninety-minutes real-time trial, relentless CG visual overload, rapid-fire editing - do not distract from its odd mix of painful melodrama and dull court procedural that proves ultimately unsatisfying. With the bulk of the drama having Pratt sitting in a chair and Ferguson framed in immovable Medium/Close-Up Shots, it is not quite Ice Cube in a cupboard in War Of The Worlds, but there is some good-looking and purposeful aerial/drone footage used and it takes a rather bizarre U-turn into action movie territory for the finale.
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