Ok, do you know how I know I’ve been a gamer too long? When instead of playing an amazing video game and thinking “Gee, I would love to see this made into a film/series!”, I more likely will see a somewhat serviceable film/series and think “yeah this would have been way better as a game.” The thing we’ve learned throughout the years is, you can take a pretty damn good game and just ruin it in the film adaptation. But you can take a mid story and make a pretty fun game out of it, so long as the gameplay is smooth and graphics are shiny.  I bring this up because this is the exact thing that was going through my mind while watching Heart of Stone, Netflix’s latest original feature. Rachel Stone (Gal Gadot) is a seemingly timid tech agent working under MI-6.  Little does her close knit team suspect she is actually a highly trained super-spy, working under the top secret world peace keeping organization “The Charter.” When a mysterious hacker threatens to gain control over “The Heart”, The Charter’s ultra powerful AI, Stone must break every rule she knows in order to keep her organization, her team, and the world itself safe. Heart of Stone is directed by Tom Harper, whom I best remember for his film Aeronauts in 2019.

I can definitely say, as an action spy thriller, Heart Stone gets a lot of things right. Gal Gadot’s portrayal of Rachel Stone is undeniably charismatic, bringing an enigmatic presence to the screen while possessing the same dignified strength that makes her such a good Wonder Woman. I’m also happy to see her co-star Jamie Dornan as Parker, Stone’s charming fellow MI-6 agent.  As far as the action scenes themselves go (and believe me, there are plenty of them,) they are pretty fun to watch, and feel nicely polished, especially for a Netflix film. I can tell director Tom Harper truly love and wish to pay homage James Bond, Mission Impossible, and other heavy adrenaline spy films. Unfortunately, the film’s reliance on these action-oriented elements at times overshadows opportunities for more profound storytelling and character exploration.

This wouldn’t be that much of a sin if this movie was trying to be another brainless action flick. However, I can tell that there was so much of a desire the writers had to create a unique universe within the film. The idea of a super secret organization of agents who work towards protecting the world is intriguing (if maybe a bit cheesy.) And while it wasn’t the most original idea, I still appreciated that each subunit and agent under “The Charter” is themed after a deck of playing cards. What can I say, I’m a sucker for a good themed naming scheme.  As hard as they tried, however, there just wasn’t enough time in this film to give life to this universe beyond a shallow veneer. And that’s where I started to think that this story would have done brilliantly as a AAA game of about 30-40 hours. This amount of time would really have let this universe breathe. I also would love to have a game mode seeing “The Heart” in action, actually calculating my percentages of success while attacking an enemy or performing a dangerous feat.  Alas, I can daydream all I want, but in this reality,  Heart of Stone is a movie, not a game. And because of the limitations of its medium, Heart of Stone is stuck with being a fun, if forgettable watch with an underdeveloped story.