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(film review) [STREAMING] - Outside the Wire

I do like myself some Anthony Mackie.  A superstar to have his own roles as a powerful leading actor, I'm not sure we are there just yet, but he has come long way since The Adjustment Bureau.  Pretty much a household name since he landed the role of Sam Wilson in Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe, so to then see him in the second season of Altered Carbon and now this, another sci-fi, I was definitely intrigued.  I didn't mind him in Altered Carbon season 2 although it was a bit of a jar to see him instead of Joel Kinnaman took some getting used to.  But how is he in this film? Well, Anthony Mackie is Anthony Mackie, but the film, not soo much.

A young Drone Pilot named Lt. Thomas Harp disobeys a direct order and is sent to Captain Leo, an Advanced Top Secret Android Prototype Military Officer.  However, when Leo takes Harp Outside the Wire on a mission to make a change to the war and he needs Harp's help to do it, Harp grows increasingly suspicious of what Leo's true motives are.

For the most part, this movie was decent.  It wasn't great and if we are talking about the level of storytelling and action like The Old Guard or Extraction, unfortunately those two films are better and more entertaining than this one, in my opinion.  Why? Well, although the story is ok at best, the dialogue wasn't great at all.  The way Harp would speak to Leo was annoying at times as it didn't seem they had a well enough built up bond for Harp to talk to Leo in the way he did.  Harp had an attitude he should't really have towards a higher ranking officer, it just felt off.  Towards the end of the film, maybe, but after a few hours, if that, after meeting him, not at all.  Also, I felt the end goal/mission was a bit mucky in it's delivery and wasn't at all clear as to what was happening and why.

The action was great and the special effects were decent.  Even the acting from Anthony was as expected, but I just couldn't really get to grips with Damson's character as I felt it was poorly written.  I understood the reasonings as to why Leo was doing what he was doing eventually, but it just felt like it was delivered poorly.  Ultimately the movie came across boring although the action kept it afloat as I loved the scenes in the building with the Russian Robots (Gumps).  I liked the other fights at the "hideout" and in the market, but if we didn't have those action scenes, the movie would be completely substandard.  I thought of The Universal Soldier whilst watching this as it goes, which is a good thing I guess, classic 80's movie.  There were some lesson's learned for Harp but ultimately, an OK movie that looks at the future of modern warfare but manages to clumsily deliver.  Although not a terrible movie, but I fell asleep twice before I watched it for the third time and Mackie wasn't the issue...



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