Comparisons to The Raid have done Gareth Evans’ anticipated return to action, Havoc, absolutely no favors. But hey, that’s the impossibly high bar that Evans set with two movies that many, including yours truly, consider modern classics of the genre. Havoc is a different beast; albeit just as violent if not more so, an homage to the bloody Hong Kong pictures of John Woo, and driven by a raging Tom Hardy in a throwback to the morally sketchy action heroes of the past. Havoc kicks a lot of ass, and fans eager to see Evans unleash, well, havok, will get all that they’ve wanted and more.
Set on Christmas Eve, Havoc stars Hardy as Walker, the stereotypical dirty cop with a moral compass that’s always out of wack. But he’s also got a side to him that’s not so bad. He’s got reasons for the things he does, and there’s a real tragedy to his story that Hardy carries extremely well. Walker, along with a few of his fellow boys in blue (including the always-great Timothy Olyphant as his former friend Vincent), steal from the worst dealers in service of their boss, Lawrence, a crime lord with political aspirations played by a scene-chewing Forest Whitaker. When Vincent’s son Charlie (Justin Cornwell) gets mixed up in the murder of a rival’s kid, Walker, who just wants out of all this dirty business, is blackmailed into fighting through the criminal underworld to rescue him.
And when I say “fight through the criminal underworld”, that’s an understatement. Havoc might be the most violent movie ever put to screen that isn’t a horror movie. It truly is an homage to the bloodshed cop flicks of Woo and star Chow Yun Fat that never went more than a minute without a bullet wizzing by. The gunplay is at a crazy level in Havoc, with literally thousands of bullets spent and gallons of blood spilled. This is a different style of action than you’ll find in the John Wick movies, a style that’s super popular right now and for good reason. Evans can do slick violence but his approach is edgier, grittier, and favors disorienting angles one would never expect. He’s truly an auteur whose skills are put to their best use in this genre, and some of the sequences here are breathtakingly excessive in the best way imaginable.
This is one of those movies where nobody ever has to reload their weapon even though they’ve fired dozens of bullets. It’s the kind of movie where a gunshot wound is only a momentary problem, and where you might find three ordinary folks take out an entire squad of armed goons in a shootout. Havoc is borderline ridiculous, especially if you don’t understand the film’s roots, but I loved every insane moment of it.
I don’t want to pretend that Havoc is perfect, though. Far from it, actually. Evans isn’t doing anything new with the plot, and many characters fail to make an impression. The Triad’s chief female enforcer looks awesome and fights like a demon but doesn’t get a moment to shine. You keep waiting for her to get a stand out scene like Baseball Bat Guy got in The Raid 2, but it never happens.
Fortunately, you’ve got Hardy to carry Havoc on his considerable shoulders. We’ve seen him do plenty of action but I don’t know if he’s ever done the world-weary antihero like this before. In some ways, it’s wild to see him in an Evans pic at all, but then he’s just so perfect if you’re going to do an American take on the bloodshed actioner. Even better, Hardy doesn’t pretend to be a slick, graceful fighter. He’s a brawler through and through, which is exactly what we want to see from him. As far as supporting casts go, the only one who measures up to Hardy is the impressive Jessie Mei Lei (of Netflix’s Shadow & Bone) as rookie cop Ellie. Partnered up with a dismissive Walker, Ellie is forced to work through his lies, survive the most brutal night of her life, and still see the good side of people. It’s a tough role to play and she nails it.
Netflix should’ve given Havoc a theatrical run, even a brief one, because it would’ve killed on the big screen. Look, it was never going to meet the high expectations heaped on it, but Havoc will leave bloodthirsty action fans fully satisfied. And if nothing else, it proves that if Evans ever decides to do The Raid 3 he won’t be the least bit rusty.
Havoc is streaming now on Netflix.
