POPCORNX Review: OUTSIDE THE WIRE

"Don't follow blindly what you have been told, constantly question your commands rudely, save the free world, and get to be sent home to be with your fiancé." ~ Ok. Got it.

This was the message I'd gleaned from after watching "OUTSIDE THE WIRE" currently streaming on Netflix), beyond what would be a expanded "Black Mirror" episode where a robot is in charge of a soldier who shows overt disdain and exhibit openly being exceedingly rude to his superior officer, and disregards his chain of command, and is lauded for it? But its okay because he was thinking "outside of the box" and eventually saves lives, because that's all that matters.



As a standalone feature streaming on television, it is palpable and digestible, even though the nagging feeling I'd felt throughout the show could well be my distaste for the subject matter, as intrigued as I was about the "robots"-vs-man premise/promise ....

If bullets, bombs and drones are what you are looking for, then this is a project to sate your desire for bloodshed. The fights and action is decent, with a decent presentation of spectacle on the small screen. But truth be told, I'd felt that this particular project felt like a "proving project" for the director in this particular genre, cheers.



The visual palette was mono-chromatic and dull, save for the scenes of the innocent children at the orphanage, who is not necessarily "our future" (as most projects won't to thump into your headspace with the notion thereof), the mood filled with dread and quite frankly you'd feel a echo of a "DANGER" bell ringing in the background of you mind, or rather, my mindscape - which quite frankly by the time the credits rolled, I deciphered it to have meant: "Look Away".

"Told you to look away..."

As a standalone feature in cinema halls, would easily be a well received B-Movie, with slightly better production value than expected (but what really pissed me off is seeing relatively clean tharps used as sheltered-covers for habitats inside of a roofed enclosure).

But the robots are nice, and I like "robots". The concept of robots and androids are suspect but decent, but it's nothing "groundbreaking" nor original in the story being told, just a ever slight change in point of view, and protagonists that are judged for their actions.

"All Military Suck", films seem to say, drowning out the obvious "War Is Bad" message, "regardless of who is fighting it".

Is It Worth Paying Netflix For Watching? No.

Was It A Waste Of My Watch-time? I am taking it as a primer for THE FALCON AND WINTER SOLDIER from Marvel on Disney+, because "Anthony Mackie". Best way to justify my watch-time, IMHO. Not going to be on my "Top Ten of 2020 Watches" tho, thanks.

I also realised, I had been typing "Outside the Fence" before final check before publishing, so that sort of describes how forgettable this offering is, at least to me.

"In the near future, a drone pilot sent into a war zone finds himself paired with a top-secret android officer on a mission to stop a nuclear attack."

Billed accurately as a "sci-fi action thriller", this Mikael Håfström-directed Rated M-18 one-off feature stars Anthony Mackie ("Altered Carbon," "Captain America"),Damson Idris ("Snowfall"), Emily Beecham (Whom I liked out of everyone else, thanks), clocking in at 1hour and 55minutes. "OUTSIDE THE WIRE" is available to watch here on Netflix.