One of the newer Netflix movies that is available is almost prescient in its setting — Outside the Wire is set in Ukraine, where the country is torn apart in civil war, albeit one in 2036.  Most of the country is in turmoil, outside of a large American compound.  The war is somewhat nebulous, and many of its combatants are robotic, on both sides.  But the Americans have a secret weapon that may change the tide of history.

Mikael Håfström’s film has an undisciplined drone pilot, Lt. Harp (Damson Idris) sent into the war zone to work under secretive Captain Leo (Anthony Mackie).  Leo is the secret weapon, an Artificial Intelligence in the guise of an Army captain, and he is taking Harp outside the wire to prevent the bad guys from getting their hands on nuclear weapons hidden somewhere in Ukraine.  But there is much more to the situation that Harp is being told, and he is the only person that can make a difference when the going gets tough.

Logic isn’t high on the filmmakers’ priority list; it makes no sense for Harp to disobey orders at the beginning, and the second half is just one leap into incredulity after another.  Some of the plotting is savvy; other parts are just head-scratching.  The story veers like a zig zag trying to surprise and stay relevant, but it tries way too hard to maintain any effectiveness.  Sadly, the science fictional elements are wasted; the robot soldiers are kinda cool but they soon destroy each other without much effort or pizazz.  Captain Leo is the ultimate weapon, but then he does what we all expect sentient AI to do, and that isn’t surprising at all.  In fact, the most surprising thing about this movie is how utterly anti-American it is.  Everybody blames us for everything, and doesn’t care what happens to us.

This is one of those movies that tries to be so edgy that it maims itself into ineffectiveness.  A protracted concluding situation that slows the action to a crawl means that the film finishes more poorly than it began, and it didn’t start very well to begin with.  There are certainly themes worth exploring, and war is a damned serious business these days, but this isn’t the right movie for this time or place, despite its setting.  ☆ ☆.  15 March 2022.