Originally I was planning to have Pieces of a Woman as my next watch but instead I opted for something a little less emotional and with Outside The Wire currently sitting at number three in Netflix’s top ten, I figured I couldn’t go wrong with a good old action flick….

It’s the not too distant future and Eastern Europe is in the midst of a civil war. In amongst the chaos, ruthless warlord Viktor Koval rise to power and extends his grip on the continent. The American military, and their hybrid army of human and robotic soldiers are brought in as peacekeepers.

The film opens with a pretty intense shootout between the US and Koval forces, watched over by drone operator Lt. Harp way back home in the United States. As the fighting intensifies and the situation escalates, Harp defies a direct order and makes a rash decision that costs the lives of two marines. Although his actions saved another 38 lives, Harp is punished and sent to the middle of the conflict area to gain a first hand understanding of real life combat situations.

He is assigned to the charge of Captain Leo, a state of the art prototype android who is tasked with heading ‘outside the wire’ and locating long lost nuclear codes before Koval and his insurgents.

It’s not often that I write a bad review, I’m usually able to find something positive to say but, for me, Outside The Wire is just bad. Like really bad.

Despite the somewhat intriguing concept, the story managed to achieve the not-so-perfect combination of being both all over the place and as dull as dishwater. There may have been some interesting underlying themes but there were underdeveloped and therefore didn’t add any real substance to the viewing experience overall.

Anthony Mackie seems to enjoy taking the lead and he handles the close contact fight scenes with a grit and determination that he wasn’t quite able to showcase during his time in the MCU. Ultimately though, I found his performance to be wooden, unlikeable and a little too try hard. I don’t know why, but there also seemed to be several subtle references to Captain America which wasn’t even Mackie’s character. Unfortunately, Mackie’s co-star and relative newcomer, Damson Idris, also failed to shine on screen, instead delivering a rather flat and lacklustre performance that was in no way enjoyable to watch.

The action and fight sequences were well executed and probably would have been enjoyable in another movie but without the acting or storyline to back them up, even they failed to leave a lasting impression.

I am not really one to turn off, or walk out of, a film halfway through but I really had to exert all of my will power with this one not to reach for the remote. However, I am but one person so don’t write off this film completely, check it out yourself and let me know what you think.

Outside The Wire is now available to stream on Netflix.