Heart of Stone: Movie Review

Heart of Stone Movie Review: Mission Impossible Lite

They said that the timing of "Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1" was bad as one week after that Barbenheimer happened. And we could easily say the same for "Heart of Stone". Coming off a month of the latest Tom Cruise action showcase, we couldn't help but compare the two films. As anticipated, this Netflix original might have big names behind it but it doesn't hold a candle to the other action-thriller-spy film that just released all things considered such as stunts, effects, and even its narrative. "Heart of Stone" is not bad but it's definitely a lite version of "Mission Impossible".

Rachel Stone (Gal Gadot) appears to be a highly-capable technical hacker on an elite MI6 unit without any experience on the field. What her MI6 team doesn't know is that Stone actually works for a secret organization called the Charter — a peacekeeping organization which uses a cutting-edge A.I. called "The Heart" to predict the future and neutralize global threats. When a routine mission is derailed by a mysterious hacker, Rachel’s two lives collide. 

If there's one thing that "Heart of Stone" excels at, it would be its action scenes and fight scenes. Gal Gadot in particular still impressed us heartily with her fight choreography. For some people, this is all they need - a solid action film with a consistent dose of bang and oomph. But we know this film could have been a lot better given its cast, its budget, and even what it aspired to be. It's ironic then that the film planned to be in the same vein of the "Mission Impossible" franchise and its "MI7" that really showed what went wrong with "Heart of Stone". Our biggest issue was its story which had some surprises but was complicated, slow, and long. It didn't help that it also failed to build up its characters. Outside of Stone, there's little backdrop and development for the other people around her midst that we simple didn't care who lived, who died, and who Stone was fighting against with. Also, at two hours long, this film needed some trimming down to ninety minutes instead. Unfortunately, its great action and set pieces can only do so much thrilling to save this film from utter failure. But if this is the Netflix equivalent to starting a decade-spanning action franchise, then this is starting that journey on the wrong foot with some heavy baggage in tow.

Rating: 3 reels