3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Heart of Stone

2023, Tom Harper (The Aeronauts) -- Netflix

This might be my death knell with espionage type thrillers, for while I was compelled enough to pay attention, I was not stirred at all by the characters, the world it was building nor any of the elements. And it wasn't fun enough to be considered a popcorn romp. But, no I cannot say I disliked, in fact there were many elements about it I rather enjoyed, but... only mildly. I might go so far as to say this was a ... Ryan Reynolds style vehicle like Red Notice or 6 Underground ? But it wasn't; it stands alone.

We begin with a spy operation in a casino atop the Italian Alps. A team of MI6 agents are there to extract an arms dealer but the op goes sideways and Stone (Gal Gadot, Knight & Day) has to emerge, secretly, from her role as operational support ("stay in the van") to move things along. She is, in truth, a member of The Charter who through ear pieces, a fancy quantum computer, and a holographic system, are able to assist Stone in ways other agencies can only presumably dream of. Think of it this way - she is masquerading as the real MI6 while The Charter is more akin to the Bond-ian MI6 with toys & gadgets and such. No matter, as the op fails anyway and the arms dealer dies. 

Soon after, the team finds itself in Lisbon tracking down the hacker who interfered with their Italy operation when they are attacked and Stone has to fully reveal herself in order to save the team. And then one of the team, Parker (Jamie Dornan, Fifty Shades of Grey), reveals himself as a Bad Guy and murders the rest of them; well, not Stone. His end goal had always been to find The Charter -- more specifically, The Charter's AI/Quantum Computer called The Heart. Getting Stone to reveal herself was his real objective. 

Of note, the Charter likes to label things like they were part of a deck of cards. Stone was The Joker. Not sure of the whole point of it.

Parker leaves Stone alive, and she is not really suspicious about it, she doesn't know he has implanted her with ... something. Once she returns to base, it activates, hacking The Charter computer system before she can tear it out. But not before the Bad Guys learn of the location of The Heart, in an airship which constantly moves in the lower atmosphere. Meanwhile, The Charter's command structure (four "Kings"; why not eight, Kings and Queens?) reveals they know who Parker is, someone who they left for dead in their own botched op in Chechnya. Parker is out for REVENGE ! (yawn)

At this point, I am just along for the ride. The notes and beats of this movie are classic second-rate spy-thriller. I was intrigued by the non-governmental agency of The Charter, but that has been used before as well, usually in cartoony level TV and movies. But they seem just as prone to deception and misdirection as the agencies they claim to be better than. I mean, Parker doesn't hide his appearance, so when Stone was embedded into that MI6 team, shouldn't have someone recognized him from his dossier? 

There is some rather unnecessary mass destruction, taking its notes from the (other) MI movies, which all boils down to whiney Bad Guy revenge shit. I get that this is one of the tropes of the genre, but I guess that cements my fatigue with it. Of course, Stone saves (most of) the day and The Charter rises from the rubble to fight again.

Migawds, I hate single-faces dominating the poster without any hint as to the movie they are promoting style posters.