There is a difference that many may not pay attention to between what “Netflix” makes and what Hollywood used to throw in the video markets before the invention of Streaming or streaming technology on the Internet. What “Netflix” makes are high-quality films studded with first-rate stars, but the scripts for these films are exactly what Hollywood studios used to throw in their backyard to be picked up by an obscure filmmaker and produced cheaply for the benefit of the video market, and it is usually without any quality.
Heart of Stone, the latest “Netflix” production, was made to serve as the platform’s “Mission: Impossible”. A film that the platform declared before starting filming that it would be its impossible mission. To say that you are inspired by an idea from another production is fine, but to blindly imitate it is that creative bankruptcy itself.
“Heart of Stone” is a movie without a soul or an independent personality that shamelessly says that it is “Mission Impossible”, but of lower quality and is not comparable to the great Tom Cruise series. A film that does not try to excel in anything other than highlighting the face of its Israeli beauty, Gal Gadot. A movie written by Greg Rucka and Alison Schroeder, while they watch other films and copy the dialogues from them, and it is shameful that they transmit the bad ones from the dialogues.
A movie directed by Tom Harper watching the previous parts of Mission Impossible, and subconsciously taking a part from here and another from there. And when we say unconsciously, we mean that all scenes are dead and boring, because whoever designed them is not interested in spreading the spirit of originality in them.
Rachel Stone (Gadot) is a member of Charter, a secret peacekeeping organization, and an agent of MI6, the British intelligence service. The job takes her around the world, from the Alps to London, Lisbon, Senegal, and finally, Iceland. Despite this, Harper lacks directing experience, so the filming locations appear in the most boring way. And whoever does not believe our words, let him return to the Impossible Mission films, from the fourth to the seventh, and see for himself how the breathtaking filming of these films is.
Nomad (Sophie Okonedo) is Stone’s boss and has recruited her since she was 20 years old. Why? We have no idea and the authors probably didn’t care about this point. And let’s not forget to mention that Nomad is a very boring character, who does not have an iota of charisma, and when she appears on the screen, the viewer may not notice her existence because she is lifeless.
German Matthias Schweigover, the “Netflix” actor (reserve), whom the platform appears to be using because the man has no work other than its films and series. He plays the role of (Jack of Hearts), Rachel’s technical assistant who is attached to a giant computer called “The Heart”, which uses information from monitoring operations to help her in perform its work.
This information is all visual in front of him as he moves it with his hands as if it were a 3D iPad screen. But this technique was qualitative and innovative when Tom Cruise used it 20 years ago in Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report,” don’t you remember? Here, it seems like a shallow, artless copied idea.
The film explains the Charter Organization’s mission several times, during its dialogues. In fact, most of the characters speak in an in-depth explanatory style that does not suit the nature of an action movie, and the writers of the film give each character sarcastic remarks to make in moments of tension, and every remark is more ridiculous and trivial than her sister, and we do not exaggerate if we say that they are all copied from action films of the nineties.
Actors Paul Reedy and Chinese Jing Lusi do wonders with their bad dialogue, and perhaps it’s fortunate that the film doesn’t give their characters enough space. The Irishman Jamie Dornan plays Parker, and he is like Colin Ferrell in the movie “Daredevil”, but with a watered-down performance.
Same goes for Indian Bollywood star Alia Bhatt as computer hacker Kia. The limitations of her role do not allow her to rise in performance and remain confined to personal clichés. But it’s the former Spanish model and now actor John Cortajarena who radiates evil in the film, and the only one who seems capable of delivering a memorable villain role given the chance.
Harper is not good at directing or directing action at least, his exhibition scenes (outdoor action) are all loose and his combat scenes (one-on-one) are not properly framed, dark, poorly produced and illogical. We see Gadot fighting men and never falling, getting tired or out of breath, while “John Wick”, the best fighter in that series, is defeated in rounds and is victorious only with outside help.
And this is an interesting point, when Hollywood decided to make women action stars, they made them stronger than action men. With her tiny body, she wrestles with giants and defeats them, and it is very rare for her to receive help to defeat an opponent. It is rare for blood to flow from her face! The worst thing is that she defeats two or three heavily armed men if they attack her at once! We didn’t believe Arnold Schwarzenegger when he did it in the 80’s so how can we believe a petite woman would do it.
Gadot, the heroine of the film, has the lion’s share of bad dialogues, her delivery is worse, and her voice is inflated to be like Vin Diesel in the “Fast” series, and she talks to herself a lot, and she does not need that, but this frivolous movie insists on copying dialogues and action from other films to implement it poorly here.
The introduction of the Alps is copied from James Bond films, and the scenes of jumping in the air are all from “Mission Impossible.” The individual fighting scenes are taken from “Extraction” without the sharpness and violence that the latter is famous for. But the strange coincidence remains that the villain in this movie wants to control an artificial intelligence system, which is exactly the goal of the villain of “Mission: Impossible 7”.
The film won 33 million views during the first three days of its release, and it is in first place on the list of the most watched films on “Netflix”.
• A film that shamelessly says that it is “Mission Impossible”, but of lower quality and not comparable to the great Tom Cruise series.
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Happy Bhatia lovers
The newspaper “The Times of India”, which celebrates the accession of Indian star Alia Bhatt to the ranks of world stars, revealed that Bhatia’s fans were “happy” that she kept her Indian accent in the dialogues of the film, and did not fake an American accent, as did her colleague Priyanka Chopra.
