Review: Anthony Mackie plays super-soldier in so-so 'Outside the Wire'

Anthony Mackie is a government super-soldier in "Outside the Wire," a future-set war movie about robot soldiers and human soldiers that drones on about the state of the world in between scenes of fast-paced action.

Skip the clunky moralizing and it's nearly worth sticking around for the "John Wick"-style action. But Wick knows when to be silent. "Outside the Wire" sounds like a college kid smoking weed and talking geopolitics. "Think about it, man... who's the real enemy?"  

It's 2036 and robot soldiers (they're called "gumps") fight alongside human soldiers as civil war ravages Europe. Thomas Harp (Damson Idris), a young U.S. recruit, monitors the action via drone from Nevada. He disobeys a direct order and gets two Americans killed (he saves 38, but the damage is done), and he's disciplined by being sent overseas to work with Leo (Mackie). 

Leo has a secret: he's an android, and he takes off his shirt to prove it. (It's what all androids do.) He's got another secret, too: He's at least a little bit in business for himself, and the dynamic between Thomas and Leo is reminiscent of "Training Day," if Denzel Washington's character was a robot.

Swedish director Mikael Håfström (he made the Sly and Arnie prison flick "Escape Plan") stages several highly kinetic action sequences as Thomas and Leo track down a really bad dude named Victor Koval (Pilou Asbæk). Along the way there's a double cross and possibly a triple cross, or maybe it's a single cross that fizzles out before it turns into more. The action tends to drown out the noise of the script, which poses like it's taking on bigger issues than it really is.  

What it lacks in insight it makes up for in thrills. "Outside the Wire" passes the time, and there are worse crimes than being watchable and disposable.   

agraham@detroitnews.com

@grahamorama 

'Outside the Wire'

GRADE: C+

Rated R: for strong violence and language throughout

Running time: 115 minutes

On Netflix