Gal Gadot may have received recognition, and even some award nominations and wins, for her roles in films including Wonder Woman, Wonder Woman 1984, and Death on the Nile, but one of her most recent credits is being dubbed a flop by critics and audience members alike. Heart of Stone, the Gadot and Jamie Dornan-starring Netflix original spy action thriller, has been certified rotten on Rotten Tomatoes, where it has been critiqued for its “thinly written characters, generic plot, and rote set pieces” and “convoluted story and bland execution.”
Debuting on Netflix on Aug. 11, Heart of Stone stars Gadot as Rachel Stone, an intelligence operative who appears to be an inexperienced tech on an elite MI6 unit headed up by Dornan’s lead agent Parker. However, she really works for the Charter, “a covert peacekeeping organization, secret even from other spies, which uses cutting-edge technology to neutralize global threats… When a routine mission is derailed by mysterious hacker Keya Dhawan, Rachel’s two lives collide. As she races to protect the Charter and strives to beat the odds, her humanity might just be her biggest asset.”
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The film currently has a certified rotten critics score of just 28% on Rotten Tomatoes, with TIME Magazine‘s Stephanie Zacharekdubbing the film “a Mission: Impossible wannabe that mostly misses.” Meanwhile, Salon.com‘s Gary M. Kramer said the movie “is another bland serving of Europudding… a sloppy, forgettable, and tasteless misfire.” Jonathan Sim wrote for CominSoon.net that the movie will leave viewers “stone-faced,” with Whang Yee Ling writing for The Straits Times (Singapore) that while the film sets Netflix up for a franchise, viewers should “feel free to say stop, no more, after this uninspiring introductory experience.”
While Heart of Stone‘s audience score is slightly better at 55%, it is still certified rotten and has garnered some scathing reviews. One viewer said the film was “just so terribly bad… after the first 20 min i just couldn’t watch any longer.” Another person dubbed it “a preposterous movie,” with a third reviewer adding, “Absolute garbage… There was no script, the acting was dreadful:- It was just a series of bangs and flashes. I had no idea what it was about!”
Despite those bad reviews, Heart of Stone is seeing some success, at least on the Netflix streaming charts. The movie currently ranks No. 3 movie in the U.S., where it only falls behind The Monkey King and The Pope’s Exorcist. It has ranked in the Top 10, slowly dropping from the No. 1 spot, since its debut. It has also gained plenty of popularity across Netflxi’s global markets, currently taking the No. 1 spot in countries including Egypt, France, Germany, Pakistan, Portugal, Spain, and several more, per FlixPatrol data, helping place Heart of Stone as the second-most-popular movie currently streaming on Netflix globally.
