HEART OF STONE

Gal Gadot starts as Rachel Stone, a member of The Charter (a shadow peacekeeping agency) who's infiltrated MI-6 and who's current status is that of the "always stays in the van" tech support member of the group. While on a mission in Portugal, Stone's cover is blown in order to save her MI-6 members from assassination by a group of mercenaries. Although, the real story begins to take place as it was a ruse in order to flush Stone out in order to steal her organization's most valuable asset, The Heart, which can control any electronic device. We're talking stock markets, financial institutions, government defense systems, etc. Stone must track down and stop those who are after her, her organization, and The Heart. The film played somewhat like a female Bond film, with a brilliant opening parachute scene filmed at the Glacier Hotel Grawand in Senales, Italy that felt very much like the Piz Gloria Revolving Restaurant in Switzerland from ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE. Throughout there were additional shots, including a motorcycle chase scene, that had a somewhat Bondesque quality to them. Gadot has proven time and again she is more than capable of handling a franchise as well as the hard action and this is just another example of that. She's joined by my first time being introduced to Alia Bhatt, who plays 22-year-old computer hacker Keya Dhawan. She's an orphan who was rescued from obscurity and trained to benefit her beneficiary. Although, Keya has a conscience and there's more to her than meets the eye. She typically works in Hindi films but I hope this can be her springboard towards more English language work. This was a very enjoyable ride that I can see having a franchise built around because as soon as the credits rolled, I was already ready for the sequel. Finally, instead of some of the recent talk about recasting the new James Bond as a female, I've always been of the opinion to create your own franchise. Stop standing on the shoulders of others and create something new, something original, something that's your own and I believe this film did just that. 7/10