Time: 123 Minutes
Cast:
Gal Gadot as Rachel Stone
Jamie Dornan as Parker
Alia Bhatt as Keya Dhawan
Sophie Okonedo as Nomad
Matthias Schweighöfer as Jack of Hearts
Director: Tom Harper

Rachel Stone is an intelligence operative, the only woman who stands between her powerful global peacekeeping organization and the loss of its most valuable — and dangerous — asset.

Heart of Stone is the latest upcoming Netflix action movie; it looked in the same vein as Netflix’s other big action movies like Red Notice and The Gray Man, and unsurprisingly it ended up being that. However, I was still expecting something a bit more from this.  

The movie is kind of dull and forgettable and doesn’t get off to a great start with its prolonged opening set piece, but it does pick up a little more after the first act. It’s has a bit of an absurd plot with people chasing after this AI McGuffin. It’s very cliché and familiar, but it had the potential to be a throwback to over the top 90s spy action flicks. Unfortunately its pretty forgettable and generic, and the moments of action were really the only mildly bright spots in this tiresome 2 hours.

There may be some good actors in this, but the characters and writing are so shallow that it gives them nothing to work with. Gal Gadot is fine as the main character, her action work is good, the rest is passable at best. In all fairness her character really doesn’t have much to her. Jamie Dornan is good, he probably gave the best performance of the whole cast. Alia Bhatt is okay in a prominent role, but she especially suffers from her character being severely underwritten.  

Tom Harper is a good director, between War and Peace, Wild Rose and even The Aeronauts. However that doesn’t seemed to have mattered, as the much of the film is uninspired on a technical level. Some of the action scenes are competent and enjoyable enough, if nothing memorable, but the visual effects are pretty bad, including the green screen. There are some absurdly cartoonish action moments, and yet the movie finds a way to even make them feel boring. Steven Price’s score is decent at least.

Heart of Stone is a very generic and passable action thriller, with a forgettable story, fine performances and entertaining enough set pieces. It really is a strong contender for the most Netflix original movie ever, a disposable action flick with big names with a script that could almost be AI generated, and will no doubt be declared as one of their most watched movies. You’re not missing out much if you don’t watch it.