Review: Outside the Wire

You know when you're on the couch, it's late and you literally can't think of anything to do but browse Netflix? It's times like that when nothing beats a good old, Netflix, "Dad" sci-fi movie. What's Dad sci-fi? It's those hi-concept sci-fi movies with decent production value that would have been a really bad TV movie back in the 90s or a bargain bin rental from Blockbuster video (ask your parents/ grandparents, kids). You think you've seen a movie similar to it before and you remember liking those similar movies, so by proxy, you have to like this movie too, right? And wow, these Netflix movies do look exceedingly decent. Not quite movie-theater worthy, but the special effects are more than passable.

Outside the Wire is a Frankenstein's monster of Terminator 2, Training Day, Ex Machina and Elysium. You like some or all of those movies, don't you? You like violence? You like robots? You like safe political commentary? So why does Outside the Wire have such terrible reviews?

It is what it is.

The story follows a drone pilot played by Damson Idris in  the year 2035. His character breached the chain of command during one of apparently many skirmishes that have been taking place between the United States and a Russian insurgent in Ukraine. The villain wants to get codes to get control of some atom bombs and blow up. . . I don't know. Whatever bad guys want to blow up when they get their hands on nukes.

And yes, that doesn't sound great.

I lost my chain of thought. 

Oh yeah, the movie really does have some great ideas. Did I mention Anthony Mackie plays a robot? But he's a super charismatic, sarcastic robot who ends up being something of a mentor to our protagonist. The themes here end up being a surprisingly compelling. Mackie's character is a robot who was programmed to be emotional because some crazy scientist decided emotional robots make better decisions in war. I know that goes against everything we know about making robots, but in the context of this movie it makes sense when contrasted with the main characters cold decisions when weighing the value of human lives during war.

The elephant in the room: why would the United States government make a Black guy robot? The obvious answer is that the people making this movie wanted Anthony Mackie to star in it. The movie gives another answer that I'm not entirely sure makes sense, but I enjoyed considering it while watching the movie. Outside the Wire toys with some cynical rhetoric about the United States interfering in international conflicts, the hypocrisy of interfering in the affairs of other countries and consequences of this on the general population. Sometimes it feels like you're watching a really smart movie and then something really stupid will happen and you feel a little guilty for taking it seriously at all.

But, even if it does fall short of dealing with its smart ideas with any kind of depth or consistency, the two leads are fun to watch and the action is as good as it gets, with several bombastic set-pieces that are worth the price of admission alone. What is the price of admission? Well, if you've subscribed to Netlfix the price of admission is zero and that may be why I'm so forgiving of this. I'm strangely grateful for what Netflix has done for movies. I love my Marvel movies and my Star Wars but sometimes I want a generic sci-fi movie about robots that aren't from a franchise.

I guess words like "competent" and "familiar" don't sound like compliments when you're talking about a movie, but here I really feel like it is. I just, enjoyed it, okay? Gimme a break! In less than two hours, you're in and out, you get to play with a few interesting sci-fi ideas, watch some explosions and violence and go on about your life. Sometimes, you just gotta let a movie do what it's going to do and enjoy the ride. 

6 Gumps out of 10.