OUTSIDE THE WIRE

★★

OUT NOW (NETFLIX) / CERT 15 / 115 MINS

DIRECTOR Mikael Håfström CAST Anthony Mackie, Damson Idris, Emily Beecham

Mikael Håfström’s futuristic thriller Outside The Wire is a middling effort in the Netflix action canon. As Harp — a drone pilot who disobeys a direct order and is reassigned to a deadly warzone — Damson Idris lends a credibility to his predictable arc, and Anthony Mackie brings charisma to Leo, a US government prototype android who partners with him. The actors play off each other well throughout, but the intriguing ideas of collateral damage and artificial intelligence only go surface-level deep. Its bright spots (a one-man army set-piece) fail to mask its messy and derivative narrative — for a movie with elements of Training Day, the Terminator franchise, and even Gemini Man, it feels too generic too often. AW