Aside from the 3-4 titles that compete for Oscars each year, there’s been a “same old, same old” feeling blanketing the recent crop of Netflix original movies.

Largely consisting of forgettable stories with bland visual approaches, the Netflix original movies often look and feel the same, with many of them utilizing super crisp, high definition cinematography that emphasize “clarity” over artistry. Digital HD might look great for live sporting events, but for movies, it can sometimes make the action appear more artificial.

This aesthetic is apparent in the new Netflix Western, “The Harder They Fall.” Despite the use of intricately constructed sets and sprawling vistas, the movie’s HD visual palette, hyperactive editing and distracting camera work don’t mesh with the Western aesthetic. It surely wasn’t cheap to make this movie, but it ends up sorta looking like that anyway.

It’s especially disappointing given how all the other elements of “The Harder They Fall” work so well. The film features a nearly all-Black cast, and though the story is fictionalized, the main players are based on real life figures in the 19th-century American west.

Even with a large, stellar ensemble, every actor gets at least a couple compelling moments. Jonathan Majors (“The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” (redacted) in the “Loki” television series) headlines the cast as the Robin Hood-esque outlaw Nat Love, who looks to hunt down the ruthless killers who killed his parents years before. The main baddie: Idris Elba, intimidating as he’s ever been, plays gang leader and parent murderer Rufus Buck. Both Majors and Elba give commanding performances, especially when the two finally confront each other in the third act.

Those two would probably be enough for “The Harder They Fall,” but the movie offers more dynamic characters played by some of the best actors working today.

On the “good guy” side: Zazie Beetz (‘Atlanta,” “Deadpool 2”) as Stagecoach Mary, a businesswoman with romantic ties to Nat Love, and Delroy Lindo (robbed of an Oscar nomination last year in “Da 5 Bloods”) as lawman Bass Reeves, who makes an uncomfortable alliance with Love in order to take down Buck once and for all.

On the “bad guy” side: Oscar winner/Emmy winner/national treasure Regina King as the relentless Trudy Smith and Lakeith Stanfield as sharpshooter Cherokee Bill. All these characters would be compelling leads in their own movies, but “The Harder They Fall” makes time for these actors and more.

Having such a deep bench of characters makes the film’s two-hour-and-15-minute run time breeze by, and the screenplay (co-written by Boaz Yakin and director Jeymes Samuel) effectively escalates the rivalry between Love and Buck until it reaches a classic high noon standoff.

Director Samuel, known more as a musician/producer under the stage name of The Bullitts, injects a multitude of modern music into “The Harder They Fall.” It mostly works, though the modern visual approach (the aforementioned editing and camera choices) takes the film’s deconstruction of the genre too far. Samuel at least understands the success of the film lives in the performances, and the cast’s stellar work comes through despite the occasionally distracting mise-en-scene.

For audiences well-accustomed to modern age digital filmmaking, complaints about the look of “The Harder They Fall” probably won’t register much. Those same audiences, however, probably know very well just how difficult it can be to find memorable stories within the glut of Netflix original offerings. With that in mind, “The Harder They Fall” is top-tier entertainment on the platform.

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Tyler Wilson is a member of the International Press Academy and has been writing about movies for Inland Northwest publications since 2000, including a regular column in The Press since 2006. He can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.