Netflix’s New “Over The Wire”: Is It Worth Your Time?

Netflixs New Over The Wire: Is It Worth Your Time?

By Luca Hatzopoulos, Managing and Social Media Editor

New year, new Netflix original movies! Not going to lie, the new movie options for Netflix originals were kind of slim picking this month and a little disappointing. I’m very much a “judge a book by it’s cover” type of person when it comes to TV shows, movies, or books, so watching the little Netflix trailer for the movie, “Over The Wire”, kind of made me dread watching it. It looked like something out of the ordinary for me to watch, but I guess there’s always a time to branch out? Well that’s what I did when I decided to watch this movie.

By first glance, the description provided by Netflix was beyond terrible, it barely made sense to be honest. But, I decided I would have to put my judgement on hold and actually watch the movie before I go and talk bad about it. This might sound like a surprise but, within the first 10 minutes I was already hooked. I mean the editing of it was super cool and I’m assuming realistic, although I cannot confirm due to the fact that I don’t work for the U.S. military. The way it was edited was so cool and since the movie was set in the 2030s (I know an odd future time period to choose) the technology they used made it seem futuristic and far more advanced than we are right now, which I guess is what they’re supposed to do since it’s set in the future but still, it fascinated me.

Moving on, I’m a sucker for action packed scenes and anything that’ll keep me on the edge of my seat longing for more. So, if you totally love lots of action like me, than this movie will do it for you. The opening scene focuses on the main character Lieutenant Thomas Harp, played by Damson Idris, who is a drone pilot for the military, and the challenge he faces of breaking the chain of command or obeying and risking lives. That might not sound so action packed to you, but believe me, it was. Watching an intense war scene with multiple shots firing and fighting happening while also confused and impatient on the decision Harp will make, was enough action for me to get me hooked just within the first 10 minutes.

And spoiler alert, he breaks the chain of command which is basically the domino effect for the rest of the movie. As Harp is discharged from the military for breaking the chain and killing two 19 year old marines, he is paired with an android officer, Leo, played by Anthony Mackie, to help take down a criminal warlord, Viktor Koval, played by Pilou Asbæk, who is trying to make Ukraine apart of Russia during the war that’s broken out in Eastern Europe.

To me, the movie was a standard, average action movie and similar to ones I’ve seen before. Not saying this movie wasn’t good, because at times it really was, it just didn’t greatly pass my already low expectations. I’m also not going to sugarcoat this, but the ending was sort of confusing and made me a little annoyed. All this trouble they went through just for that to be the ending? But hey, what can I say, Netflix original movies just haven’t been hitting lately. Not to mention, “Outside The Wire” is number one on Netflix’s trending section for movies and number two for TV shows. So with that being said, I did actually expect more than what I watched.

I guess the only thing really keeping me hooked throughout the movie was the back to back action scenes and the banter between Leo and Harp. Other than that, the plot was definitely not my favorite but the action scenes that came with it made it so that I was able to put up with it.

If you watched other Netflix original action movies like, “6 Underground” and “Extraction” (one of my favorite Netflix original action movies) then this might not be a terrible watch for you but, I did watch both of those movies and this was an almost terrible watch for me, so I guess take the risk if you want! I would give this movie a 6/10 and would solely recommend this movie to anyone just for the action scenes themselves, other than that, don’t bother with it.