'Heart of Stone' review: Gal Gadot goes into 'Mission: Impossible' mode
MANILA, Philippines — Netflix has given Gal Gadot another shot at the espionage genre in "Heart of Stone," this time taking crucial matters into her own hands.
Gadot plays Rachel Stone, an MI6 tech agent who actually reports to an even more secret spy network known as The Charter. The international group is guided by an artificial intelligence known as the Heart, which is capable of pretty much anything within the digital space.
When The Charter is threatened and the Heart is in danger of falling into the wrong hands, Gadot's Stone plays the aces in her sleeves and goes rogue.
A major fallback for "Heart of Stone" is how reminiscent the story is of the latest "Mission: Impossible" entry that just came out a month ago. While "Dead Reckoning Part One" strikes the balance of espionage and action like earlier films, "Heart of Stone" works best doing the latter.
"Heart of Stone" also deserves some credit for managing to be more unique with its card-like themes and action sequences that are better seen in the cinema rather than streaming, even having a Bond-like villain opposing The Charter and Stone.
Related: Gal Gadot embodies a ‘more real, grounded’ female action hero in Heart of Stone
On the flipside, the titular Heart does not seem to live up to its full potential the way "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One" presented the quite menacing Entity, and the film takes a gamble by placing its biggest set piece in the middle of the film rather than the climax.
"Wonder Woman" star Gadot is much better here than in Netflix's other attempt at a spy film, "Red Notice."
"Fifty Shades of Grey" star Jaime Dornan is again making the case why he should be considered as the next James Bond.
Alia Bhatt, Sophia Okonedo, Matthias Schweighöfer, Jing Lusi, Paul Ready and Jon Kortajarena are all capable supporting actors, even though the screenplay becomes too obvious for their characters' fates. A surprise cameo by an Oscar nominee tops even the inclusion of BD Wong in the cast.
Netflix is trying to find a foothold with their action movies like "The Old Guard," "The Gray Man" and the previously mentioned "Red Notice." "Heart of Stone" does tease the possibility of another franchise in the making, but like blackjack, the streaming platform will need some more luck on their side.
"Heart of Stone" is now streaming on Netflix.
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