Heart of Stone (2023)
Defy the Odds.
I’m not a big spy person, which could be kind of a weird thing since they have never really lead me the wrong way. Like, I’ve never walked away from a Bond or something like that just horribly disappointed or anything - and it’s not like the plots and gadgets are any less wacky than some of the action and science fiction stuff I watch and enjoy, so really it’s one of those mysteries that just stays a mystery. Either way, I’ve had a great track record with Netflix originals, so why anticipate it to change at all? Tonight we, let the computer think for us with Heart of Stone.
Our plot here is an unraveling of twine over the run time, but you can boil it down to spy folks trying to stop bad guys from doing the whole world domination sort of thing. There are twists, there are turns, and there are multiple layers of spy-ness even amongst the spies. A shadowy agency named the Charter has a super-powerful mcguffin that allows their computers to essentially be Minority Report and predict probabilities of people doing bad things or things going south in undercover ops. Some folks out there learn of it through illicit means, and decide they want it. The partners don’t seem to see eye to eye however, as one is much more non-violent “punish the wicked” and one is way more mustache-twirling power makes right Bond villain. Caught in the middle of it all is an agent trying do the right thing.
Actors do a decent job here. There’s some good chemistry between a few of the folks - such as the MI6 unit. There are moments where the acting could be perhaps more potent - as much as I do like Gal, sometimes I can’t help but feel she could probably do a bit of a better job with the emotional parts than she does - but I don’t know how much of that is direction given and how much of it is her trying. For the kind of movie this is though, it’s still pretty well done, and it never really feels like anyone is phoning it in - just some parts that don’t shine as well as others. i would attribute more faults from the acting department to be more in line with the characters or story than I would to attach them to a given actor if I’m being honest.
Characters are kind of sparse feeling to be honest. We have the MI6 team while they are around, but from there most the stuff is based around disposable bad guys, the two main villains, our hero, and a bunch of Charter folks who feel more akin to side characters and background people than anything else. Our main gets to feel like a decent person fighting for good things, but from where we meet her in the story it doesn’t really feel like a large change of character as the movie goes on. Perhaps her world views have been increased some - but really one of the villains has the closest thing resembling to character growth and even then it’s not something earth-shattering as much as realizing how nuts her cohort is. The characters serve the story on screen - but they won’t be breaking any real molds or sticking around in your memory as something outrageous and memorable.
Can I get a pair of these eyeballs?
Gadgets are always great in spy movies right? Here, I’ll admit there’s a large lack of gadgets. We get some sweet head-up eye wear, including some literal night vision glasses, but the only real fancy stuff is a much larger scale. The Mcguffin (the Heart) serves as a power source for super computers to do their mega work - and originally it’s stored in a pretty cool high altitude blimp set - but that and people interacting with the spy organization 3D hologram computer setup is really the most fancy things. From there, it’s all guns, wing suits and sweet car chases. So honestly, in a way I guess it’s almost more of an action movie than a spy movie, just an action movie with spies!
Sound design is pretty good. I can’t say it’s largely populated with my particular genre choices, but whats there fits with the scenes and the moods they are going for. With all the audio elements going on at any given time - like gun fights and car motors and chaotic yelling, it’s also good that the mix makes it pretty easy to hear actor deliveries just fine. Costumes are largely modern fair - which is great for blending in and feeling real, but also perhaps a bit sad when combined with the lack of gadgets. We do still get a wing suit as a bit of a stand out from street-normal, but most everything is generally pretty reasonably realistic. I guess the strangest thing you’ll actually see here is the Peacock, which does serve a nice segue into humor. This movie has jokes - and of course if they land or not is entirely dependent on the person. I had a little self chuckle at a few moments, but it’s no True LIes when it comes to swinging the action, spy, and humor into a nice package.
Lastly, despite me turning my brain off as I do making it probably far to easy for me to enjoy things I’m watching, I did find a few things that could be fore the more brain-oriented folks. There this thread in the movie about people being too reliant on the Heart and how powerful it’s skeleton key-power future predicting self is. This could tie in to some commentary about how reliant people are on technology - or perhaps how over-reliant people have become. The whole dangers of tech and reliance on it could be isn’t necessarily an irrelevant topic - although i would say it isn’t something that also hasn’t been overdone in movies. There is some stuff in there as well about the, as I’ll put it because i like how it sounds, power of friendship. Yeah, some folks could use a reminder on what it means to be human, and nothing like talking probabilities and getting attached to people can serve quite that reminder on a platter. So yeah, it might not all be intentional - I don’t know, I didn’t make the movie - but there is actually some stuff that you could dig into in it like justice, revenge, technology, and the greater good. You know, the classic stuff.
New base with complimentary peacock.
It’s a fine movie. It’s not bad, but it also doesn’t really feel like it ends up being anything that’s really stand out. It doesn’t have the same stuff that’s going to make an impact like the music from Wonder Woman, or the blend of jokes like Red Notice - but it’s an alright middle ground of an action flick with some spy backbone and a few jokes. It could probably be served with running a little cooler on the runtime, but I think the average viewer will have a decent enough time watching it.