‘Heart Of Stone’ Movie Review: A Hollow Shell Of Better Action Films That Wastes Its Talent
Photo from Netflix
From Joe Peltzer
A frantic amalgamation of much better action flicks, Heart of Stone, Netflix’s latest attempt at a forced franchise, is a generic and uninspired hollow shell of a film that wastes its talent at every turn.
In Heart of Stone, Gal Gadot stars as Rachel Stone, an intelligence operative part of a mysterious peacekeeping organization that utilizes a valuable technology to complete missions for the betterment of the world… until said technology falls into the wrong hands. I am starting to really feel for Gadot, a talented actress who once again delivers on the action front, but continues to be cursed with poorly written characters and lackluster films. Always an entertaining presence and committed to the roles, Heart of Stone once again doesn’t give her much to work with. Each turn of the action-packed film, a bloated 007 or Mission: Impossible knock off, comes recycled from better products. This is especially true for the dull dialogue meant to build a suspenseful, high stakes plot that instead is dead on arrival. While there is a rather solid twist that acts as a shot of adrenaline (“here we go!” I said while watching), the moment is wasted as the film falls back into safe play.
The acting all around is not bad; Jamie Dornan, Alia Bhatt, and Matthias Schweighöfer are all enjoyable and doing what they can with little assistance. Schweighöfer in particular is a great addition, once again relegated to the supporting role (he must have a Netflix contract for these roles specifically), but he needed more to work with in order for his natural charm to break through. By the end, it’s him, Gadot, and Bhatt that I wanted to see more from and hope that, should this franchise continue, the focus falls onto them. More attention to character development would have catapulted Heart of Stone to a much more palatable level, complementing the action and (budget) VFX by having more to say, more of a reason to exist. Even the soundtrack, though lively, ended up sounding like one consistent track from start to finish that didn’t always compliment what was being seen on screen. It simply did not work.
Sadly, Heart of Stone is yet another forgettable cash grab for streamer that is sure to get a sequel, but is a waste of the talent director Tom Harper had at his disposal.
Rating: 2/5
Heart of Stone is now streaming on Netflix.
