Heart Of Stone: Gal Gadot Spy Thriller Lands With A Thud Among Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Looper

Heart Of Stone: Gal Gadot Spy Thriller Lands With A Thud Among Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Looper,As it prepares for its Netflix debut, the Gal Gadot-led "Heart of Stone" is struggling to get Rotten Tomatoes critics on its side.

Heart Of Stone: Gal Gadot Spy Thriller Lands With A Thud Among Rotten Tomatoes Critics – Looper

Gal Gadot has enjoyed a strong Hollywood run so far, taking part in some of the biggest franchises out there over the past decade-plus. Her undeniable biggest role to date is that of Wonder Woman in the DC Extended Universe — a character she likely won’t return to with “Wonder Woman 3” reportedly not in development and James Gunn and Peter Safran revving up to reboot the entire DC film and television universe. Gadot has also taken part in the “Fast and Furious” series and collaborated with Netflix on various projects such as “Red Notice.”

Gadot has once again teamed up with the streaming juggernaut to produce and star in “Heart of Stone.” Directed by Tom Harper, the spy thriller follows intelligence agent Rachel Stone (Gadot) as she protects a mysterious object known as “The Heart” per the request of an organization known as the Charter. While this story doesn’t sound like anything too groundbreaking, if nothing else, “Heart of Stone” seems like a perfectly suitable action-packed streamer original. However, critics on the review site Rotten Tomatoes beg to differ.

With the release of “Heart of Stone” on the horizon, Rotten Tomatoes critics are showering the film with abysmal reviews.

Critics think Heart of Stone is lacking on just about every way

Netflix

At the time of publication, Netflix and Gal Gadot’s “Heart of Stone” is sitting at a disappointing 25 percent rotten critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Looking into the critic reviews themselves, it seems that the film is riddled with issues.

First and foremost, Russ Simmons of KKFI-FM felt the movie lacks originality, writing, “The Netflix spy thriller ‘Heart of Stone’ seems like it was cobbled together from ideas that were rejected for a James Bond script.” Midwest Film Journal’s Nick Rogers also found the film immensely derivative and its story to be overcomplicated. As for Peter A. Martin of Dallas Film Now, he highlighted that the action wasn’t particularly engaging. “Director Tom Harper is unable to meet the challenge of making the action sequences come alive by dramatic means,” he wrote.

In addition to mentioning how unoriginal and uninteresting the story is, Clayton Dillard of Slant Magazine noted that, for a film titled “Heart of Stone,” it doesn’t inspire any real emotional reactions from viewers. Speaking of lacking in emotion, Nick Schager of The Daily Beast thought Gadot’s performance was rather flat as she tried to navigate weak dialogue. Despite the fact that they feel “Heart of Stone” is mediocre, A.V. Club’s Courtney Howard wonders if the feature could have a resurgence down the road. After all, if the Chris Hemsworth-led Netflix effort “Extraction” can find an audience and earn a sequel, perhaps “Heart of Stone” can do the same.

“Heart of Stone” premieres on Netflix on August 11.