“The Vault” (also called “Way Down” for some reason) (Spanish; 2021; action/thriller; run time 1 hour, 58 minutes; directed by Jaume Balaguéro, written by Rowan Athale, Michel Gaztambide, Borja Glez. Santaolalla, Andres Koppel and Rafa Martinez; rated R for language; streaming on Netflix) puts so much effort into its ordinariness that you’ll be asking, “Why?” Sure, it’s stylish, but that’s such a prerequisite for a heist action movie that the exotic locales and dramatic lighting, like most everything else in the movie, seem cliché. Nothing is extraordinary about the story (a band of misfits decides to rob a bank vault, but complications arise), which plays out in chronological order; the ending is predictable to the point of almost being laughable; and the characters are shallow and strictly by-the-numbers (you could have plucked any six-member crew from any of the dozens of similar action movies and they wouldn’t have made “The Vault” any better or any worse). Is it entertaining? Sure, at times. But not enough to carry an almost two-hour movie, and certainly not enough to lift it above a mediocrity the filmmakers seem to covet.

Walter Moreland (played by Liam Cunningham; you might know him as Davos Seaworth in the series “Game of Thrones”) is a gruff but driven marine salvager. In 2009, he and his unusually loyal and short-tempered assistant (Sam Riley as James) extract treasure from a Spanish ship that sunk in the 17th century. They have no legal claim to the bounty, and in court it is awarded to the Spanish government and stored in an allegedly impenetrable vault in the Bank of Spain in Madrid. Walter is not a quitter, so he hatches a plan to break into the vault and take back the treasure. He and James need a team. Their usual suspects – Lorraine (Astrid Berges-Frisbey), a con artist who has become disenchanted with the work; Klaus (Axel Stein), the smart-alecky computer whiz who wears his hair long and ballcap backwards; and Simon (Luis Tosar), the logistics expert – are joined by Thom (Freddie Highmore; you might recognize him, if you can imagine him 16 years ago, as Charlie in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”), a 22-year-old engineering genius. Walter thinks Thom can solve the vault’s safeguards. Not only that, but Thom knows nothing about robbing banks, so the rest of the team often delivers exposition that helps not only the young brainiac but the audience. Thom and Lorraine also seem to be about the same age, so … you know where that’s going. Once the team is formed, it gets right to the business of getting into that vault. It’s 2010 now, and Walter and company use the World Cup soccer tournament and Spain’s success in it to distract those guarding the bank. Soccer fans are in the streets, and the entire nation is watching the tournament on TV, making the heist team’s job efforts that much easier. The job doesn’t go as planned, of course; the team escapes many close calls, of course; much time is spent watching the clock, of course; team members start double-crossing each other, of course; there’s a twist, of course; and there’s a built-in popcorn-spilling moment when the audience is supposed to erupt in cheers – which isn’t a thing when you are watching on Netflix at home alone.

Getting emotionally invested in the story proved challenging, and that’s important in a movie that’s trying to build tension as the heist moves along. It also is necessary if you want the audience to root for a successful robbery. Except for Thom, who we at least learn is the stereotypical young man not wanting to follow in his father’s suit-and-tie footsteps and is driven by the engineering challenge of getting into the vault, we know little about Walter and the rest. They seem like nice enough people as far as thieves go. But there’s nothing much special about them, which also can be said for the movie itself.

My score: 36 out 100