It’s the battle of the Marvel stars on streaming this weekend. While Disney Plus is grabbing a lot of the headlines for the two-part premiere of WandaVision, starring Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, Netflix is hitting back with its own project featuring a major player from the Avengers movies.
Yes, among the new titles debuting on the streaming giant today is Outside the Wire, a sci-fi action flick with Falcon himself, Anthony Mackie, in the lead. Directed by Escape Plan‘s Mikael Håfström, the movie takes place in the near future and follows a drone pilot sent into a deadly militarized zone who must work with an android officer in order to locate a doomsday device. Mackie stars as the cybernetic crimefighter with Damon Idris (who has got a lot of sci-fi pedigree already, thanks to his turns in Black Mirror and The Twilight Zone) as his unlikely partner.
Mackie’s fans will definitely want to check this one out, though unfortunately, the film isn’t exactly receiving a critical ovation. On Rotten Tomatoes, it’s currently sitting on a score of 48%, which officially means it’s been deemed Rotten. As the Critics Consensus sums up: “A serviceable sci-fi diversion, Outside the Wire packs enough action to keep viewers watching – even if they aren’t likely to remember much later.”
This might not be another slam dunk for Netflix, then, but the good thing for them is that they’ve got a major new movie releasing every single week of 2021, so there are plenty more chances to strike a hit. As for Mackie, he’ll be hopping over to Disney Plus himself in a couple of months’ time when The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, featuring his return as Sam Wilson alongside Sebastian Stan’s Bucky Barnes, premieres in March.
Tell us, though, have you already caught Outside the Wire on Netflix? If so, let us know what you thought of it down below.