It's hard to argue that Gal Gadot has an international career that surpasses that of any other Israeli actress before her. Following her success in portraying Wonder Woman, she has achieved a rare status where projects are tailor-made for her.
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But now, as her prominent appearances as the iconic heroine are coming to an end, the question of her ability to remain ahead even when she's not portraying the iconic character arises.
Last week, just before the release of Heart of Stone on Netflix, Gadot experienced an embarrassing moment in her career. In an interview with the online magazine Variety, she claimed that she was promised to be featured in a future film in the DC franchise by James Gunn and Peter Safran, the new heads of DC’s cinematic universe.
Gadot could hope that her two brief cameo appearances in the failed films Shazam! 2: Fury of the Gods and The Flash would keep her relevant in the film franchise. Last week, Variety reported DC was not working on a third Wonder Woman film, splashing cold water over Gadot’s hopes.
Considering the time required from the beginning of production to the finished product, the many projects planned in the DC cinematic universe for the coming years, and the recasting of other superhero roles that have already begun, a third installment seems unlikely. The need to anchor Gadot's gracious persona in a new film series has now become crucial.
Netflix, happy to provide its subscribers with mediocre movies featuring bombastic names, already recruited Gadot two years ago for the action-comedy Red Notice alongside Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds, aiming to turn it into a film series, though failing to deliver in its execution.
In Heart of Stone, Gadot stands exclusively at the forefront as spy Rachel Stone. Placed on the spectrum between female James Bond and Mission: Impossible movies, Heart of Stone might be slightly better than Red Notice, yet still completely mediocre.
Though some big names stand behind the project, such as director Tom Harper (The Aeronauts, Wild Rose), screenwriters Alison Schroeder (Hidden Figures) and comic book screenwriter Greg Rucka (The Old Guard), it allay the uncanny feeling it wasn’t made by humans.
Assuming that viewers are willing to exercise limited patience while watching at home, Heart of Stone begins with a sequence of action scenes lasting 20 minutes until the opening titles appear.
The setting is an Italian villa in the Alps into which a team of MI6 agents breaks in order to lay hands on an arms dealer named Mulvaney (Enzo Cilenti), who is "Europe's most wanted arms dealer."
Throughout the film, the dialogue features mainly expository information, much like tasks and instructions given to a player in a video game. One component in the film, though not negligible, is the hollow characterization of both characters and events.
The spy team is led by Parker (Jamie Dornan) and also features computer analyst Rachel Stone (Gadot), who is inexperienced in life-threatening situations. She's supposed to stay in the getaway van but when the situation gets tangled, Stone will be forced to step in, revealing she has far more abilities far greater than expected from someone who only handles computers and gadgets.
Stone, we discover, is playing a double game. She operates as an MI6 agent on behalf of Charter – a secretive international organization of super-agents who deal with threats that governments are too afraid to take on.
Charter has an internal hierarchy based on card suits, and its core is an AI system so sophisticated that it can predict human behavior using a weighted sum of fictional data points.
If this reminds you of Mission: Impossible 7 – Part 1, then it definitely matches the chronic déjà vu that characterizes watching Netflix's algorithm-driven films.
The advanced artificial intelligence system that facilitates Charter’s operations is also a technology that bestows ultimate power, and therefore the thing that Stone has to protect. On the other hand, as advanced as this system might be, the shadowy world agents operate in has more sophistication (or at least, fake sophistication).
People are not what they seem, and this is a challenge that can be addressed through intuitions challenging the rigid determinations of technology.
The more films are made about fighting an all-powerful and all-knowing artificial intelligence, the more it dilutes this specific plotline.
The tech overdose always getting characters out of any situation connects a thin thread of plot that is in no way satisfying to watch. Heart of Stone might not make you fear artificial intelligence, but it could certainly reinforce your apprehension about films utilizing this technology for their writing.
Facing Agent Stone, seemingly as the antagonist, is Keya Dhawan, an Indian programmer portrayed by Alia Bhatt (RRR), serving the mysterious forces intent on seizing The Heart. Those who take into account Netflix's commitment to producing diverse global entertainment can guess how the conflict between these two characters might unfold.
Not too much can be revealed about the plot without spoilers, and perhaps because there isn't much of a plot here, despite the fact that various events are taking place, including several plot twists that are supposed to be shocking.
The dialogue is flat, the characters are uninteresting and there are no opportunities to demonstrate acting skills even if there was a talented cast in the film.
What the movie does have, as customary in this genre, is traveling all over the world, as if distances and borders have no significance. There are important scenes filmed without enough exposure and rough technical connections between the choreography work and the actors' studio shots.
Ultimately, Heart of Stone is another lavishly budgeted but creatively hollow production from Netflix.