Continuing to take advantage of the pandemic-driven movie theater collapse, Netflix is promising to release an astounding 71 new movies in 2021. Let's hope most of them are better than Outside the Wire, a generic and overly muddled sci-fi/military-action thriller that the streaming network dropped this past Friday. Starring Anthony Mackie (Marvel's Falcon) as an android super-soldier, the Mikael Håfström-directred film is overstuffed with ideas but underserves each and every one of them, resulting in a picture that's very busy without ever being the least bit fun.
The year is 2036, and the United States is embroiled in an Eastern European civil war, having sent legions of troops — both human and robotic — to try to keep peace between various warring factions. Most of the robot troops are hulking metal brutes called "gumps," a more threatening version of a Star Wars battle droid. But Mackie plays Leo, the next generation of synthetic soldier, who can pass as human and utilizes an artificial intelligence that allows him to curse like a sailor and gives him something close to free will. Outside the Wire opens with a young drone pilot, Lt. Thomas Harp (Damson Idris), ignoring a "stand down" order and deciding to unilaterally launch a drone strike that results in the death of two U.S. soldiers. As punishment, Harp is reassigned to Leo, and the two go undercover to track down a terrorist (Pilou Asbæk, Game of Thrones' Euron Greyjoy) who's attempting to launch a nuclear strike against American using hidden Russian missiles.
So the movie basically runs on a James Bond plot but then forgets to include any of the style and wit that makes James Bond plots bearable. Instead, Håfström, along with writers Rob Yescombe and Rowan Athale, gamble on a number of big thematic concerns like the morality of drone strikes, the increasing reliance on technology in wartime operations, and America's habit of getting involved in international disputes to serve its own dubious purposes. (That last one feels a bit untimely, as, these days, America is much too busy proving it can't even take care of itself on home soil.) The movie fails to tackle any of these ideas in a particularly engaging way, and attempting to do so backfires by blanketing the film in a suffocating soberness. There's a version of this film where a lot of fun could be had with Mackie playing a Terminator-esque character let loose in a hellish war zone, but Outside of the Wire ignores those tendencies to steer in more serious directions at every opportunity. It's kind of a bummer.
One nice thing: Here's an action movie with two black leads. (Netflix continues to be a champion for diversity.) But Mackie and Idris are left stranded by the script. It's particularly bizarre that Mackie's Leo really isn't much different from a regular human soldier. We see his translucent insides a few times, but, when fighting, he's basically just doing stuff we expect the hero of any action movie to be doing without any sci-fi embellishments. There is also some dicey editing throughout. An opening action sequence is cut to pieces and hard to follow. Later on, an enemy sniper misses an easy, uninterrupted kill-shot for no reason other than you can't lose your leading man halfway through the movie. More of a mixed bag is Outside the Wire's commendable habit of showing the collateral damage that pretty much every action movie should result in but few rarely show. One on hand, multiple civilian deaths — and the characters' reaction to them — contribute to the movie's relentless humorlessness, but, on the other, you avoid the suspension of disbelief that so many action films require. (Remember when John McClane embarked on a car chase through Moscow, resulting in the likely deaths of untold Russian motorists, and nobody seemed to care in the least? Consider yourself lucky if you don't.) At the least, Outside the Wire acknowledges the destruction its characters are leaving in their wake.
Last May, I remarked on how the future of mid-budget action cinema looked bright thanks to the release of Extraction, Netflix's excellent, Chris Hemsworth-led beat-'em-up. But since then I've been let down by what should have been a slam dunk with The Old Guard, and now Outside the Wire has kicked off the streamer's 2021 plans with a fizzle. We're all still stuck at home with months and months to go until theaters are likely re-open, bringing the big-budget event movies back with them. If we're going to stay entertained until then, Netflix needs to do better.
