Havoc is the latest feature from Gareth Evans, the director behind the brilliantly brutal The Raid: Redemption. I’ll never forget the first time I saw The Raid: Redemption during its theatrical release in 2011. It was a truly communal event, with the entire audience reacting in unison to the absolutely visceral brutality Evans unleashed on screen; it was truly unlike any action film I had ever seen. Since then, despite numerous attempts, Evans has never been able to replicate the success of The Raid: a simple premise, combined with incredible fight choreography, and a level of on screen brutality never before seen. Havoc sees Evans once again trying to re-capture that magic, this time for streaming service Netflix.
The film tells the story of Patrick Walker, played by Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises, Venom), a homicide detective of dubious morale and his partner Ellie (Jessie Mei Li) who, after a heist gone awry results in the death of a prominent gang member, attempt to piece together exactly what went down. All the while protecting the son of mayoral candidate Lawrence Beaumont (Forest Whitaker), who may or may not be responsible for the death of Tsui (Jeremy Ang Jones), the head of the local Triad chapter. It’s your classic ’70s dirty cop thriller, with the added twist of an Asian martial arts action film.
Havoc’s plot isn’t exactly complicated, though there are some twists and turns along the way. Despite that, I have to admit I frequently had trouble trying to understand what was going on. Part of this has to do with Hardy’s continued insistence on using a near indecipherable accent; here he’s got some sort of blend between his accent from The Bikeriders, combined with a New York street tough, and the results can be so hard to understand at times that I kept finding myself turning on the subtitles.
But what about the action sequences? Thankfully, those maintain Evans’ trademark brutality, but the film can at times become so frenetic it’s once again hard to even tell what’s going on. It lacks the careful choreography of The Raid: Redemption and results in action sequences that, while vicious, ultimately feel somewhat cold. It also doesn’t help that an over-abundance of speed ramps and hidden cuts leave a lot of the action feeling like it was CGI-generated, and does a disservice to what I can only assume was immensely complicated stunt choreography. It’s hard not to wonder how differently these scenes would have played out in a packed theatre, instead of on a small screen at home. A movie like this is certainly always much more fun with an engaged audience than it is watching it at 10 pm on a streaming service after your toddler has finally gone to sleep.
That’s not to say the film isn’t without its highlights. The film looks great, with cinematographer Matt Flannery creating a gritty Big City underbelly that is beautiful in all its ugliness. The cast is excellent, with a veritable who’s who of great character actors showing up to play: be it Forest Whitaker, Luis Guzmán, or Timothy Olyphant. And Malaysian actor Yeo Yann Yann gives an absolutely ice-cold performance as the vengeance seeking mother of the murdered Tsui, as does Michelle Waterson who plays the savage “assassin”. She is utterly terrifying without ever speaking a word. But the truth is, the film is more focused on the action than it is the story telling, and none of these actors are really given enough meat to chew on. Case in point, Jessie Mei Li’s Ellie, who is perhaps the most interesting of all the characters, is quite literally relegated to a desk job for the bulk of the film (she does thankfully get her moment to shine in the climactic final battle).
In the end, Havoc never manages to rise to the towering heights of The Raid: Redemption, and despite the brutality of its action sequences, feels at times like a cacophonous mess. While I appreciate the intention to return to a simple ’70s era gritty crime thriller narrative, it didn’t manage to wow me like Evans earlier work did.
Havoc is now streaming on Netflix.
