Outside the Wire movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Outside the Wire

Available NOW on Netflix

RATING: R

LENGTH: 1 hour 54 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE: C

IN A NUTSHELL:

Directed by Mikael Hafstrom, this Netflix original action flick has been receiving a lot of hate from reviewers. I actually liked it and think all of the critics are being overly harsh. We’re all so spoiled by amazing special effects and sophisticated action sequences, so I agree that this movie isn’t anything we haven’t already seen a million times over, but I was still entertained. It blends war with science fiction, action, and drama. Netflix describes the movie as taking place in the near future, when a drone pilot sent into a war zone and finds himself paired with a top-secret android officer on a mission to stop a nuclear attack.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Profanity and TONS of F-bombs
Lots of violence and destruction
High body count with tons of brutal deaths and bloody, dead bodies

THEMES:

Trust
Humanity
American meddling abroad
The greater good

THINGS I LIKED:

Anthony Mackie is absolutely fantastic, especially his stuntwork. There are some fun winks to his character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For example, he’s sometimes called “Cap”. He also says, “I can do this all day”, which is a nod to Captain America in the MCU.
I actually know a guy who worked on an airbase in my area and controlled drones on the other side of the world. So, the aspect of the movie that takes a soldier in that kind of office environment into the frontlines was intriguing. I expected to feel the feels as he learned to value human life in a new way.
A few moments of humor in Act 1 to balance the almost non-stop action.
Speaking of action, some of the sequences and choreography are really great.
I love twists.
Some of the scenes were shot at the Kelenfold power station, a famous location that was also used for the Chernobyl Diaries.
Some of the special effects are really good. Others, not so much.
I liked the design of the droids and how they interacted with the world around them and with the humans.
I always like it when a movie title can be interpreted in several ways.
The trailer makes the movie look good.
The very first scene looked like something straight out of a video game and I wondered if the entire movie was going to be a game rip-off. The good news is that it’s not.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

The story is pretty ridiculous with a weak script.
It’s extremely predictable.
The problem with making a movie that features two main characters who don’t show emotion is that the audience also detaches on an emotional level and doesn’t care whether or not those characters live or die.
What’s the purpose of having a robot dog other than it looking cool? Haha
There is a lot of exposition.
It has been interesting to read all of the negative anti-American viewers who live outside the United States as it relates to the United States constantly meddling in affairs around the world.
There are some scenes where a soldier has a bunch of stuff in his teeth. Super distracting.
There is so much shooting and destruction that it becomes numbing.
We don’t get a lot of character development in the story.
Some of the action scenes are choppy because of so many camera jumps and edits.
The inconsistent pacing makes the movie feel longer than it is.
The villains don’t feel threatening enough.