The director of the bone-crushing movies The Raid and its sequel, Gareth Evans, is back with Havoc, a Netflix original action thriller that promises nonstop chaos and delivers it in spades. Tom Hardy plays a grizzled detective with a bad moral compass in the movie, which takes you straight into a gritty world of crime, revenge, and explosive violence. Havoc has great action scenes that will please fans of the genre, but its complicated plot and lack of emotional depth keep it from being as good as Evans’ earlier work. Take a closer look at this bloody, messy, and flawed show.
A Story of Corruption and Disorder
Patrick Walker (Tom Hardy) is a tired homicide detective who is trying to get through a dirty, unnamed city that feels like a dystopian mix of Gotham and a John Woo-inspired Hong Kong. The story starts with a drug deal that goes horribly wrong. Walker has to save Charlie (Justin Cornwell), the estranged son of a corrupt politician named Lawrence Beaumont (Forest Whitaker). As Walker digs deeper, he finds a huge conspiracy involving corrupt cops, rival gangs, and a vengeful Triad boss named “Little Sister” (Yeo Yann Yann). Walker fights through a never-ending series of shootouts and fistfights with his rookie partner Ellie (Jessie Mei Li) by his side. At the same time, he has to deal with his own problems and a broken family life.
Evans wrote the plot, which is both too full and not cooked enough. It takes a lot from noir archetypes and action movies from Hong Kong in the 1980s and 1990s, but the story doesn’t always make sense. The script has too many characters and subplots, like crooked politicians, rival gangs, and personal grudges, and it doesn’t give them enough room to breathe. The end result is a story that seems predictable but is hard to follow, with clunky dialogue that even Hardy’s seriousness can’t fully fix. Some critics have said that the movie’s attempt to weave a complicated conspiracy into the story often feels like an afterthought, only serving as a framework for the action scenes.
Action That Hits Hard
Havoc’s best parts are its visceral, over-the-top action scenes, which are clearly Gareth Evans’s style. Evans is known for his fast-paced choreography in The Raid. He brings that same intensity to two of the best scenes: a crazy nightclub fight and a climactic cabin shootout. The nightclub scene is a whirlwind of dizzying whip pans, neon lights, and nonstop violence, with bodies flying, blood spurting, and Hardy using a metal pipe with deadly accuracy. The end of the cabin scene, which takes place on a snowy Christmas Eve, gets even crazier with goons breaking through windows, harpoons, and a never-ending stream of gunfire. These scenes show that Evans can make “operatic violence” that seems both chaotic and carefully planned.
But the action isn’t perfect. Some people have said that the fast editing and shaky camera work can make it hard to follow the choreography, which is different from how clear The Raid was. The heavy use of CGI, especially in car chases and city scenes, also takes away from Evans’s gritty realism, making some scenes look cheap and like a video game. A lot of people on X have said the same thing, with some saying the graphics look like “FMV video game cutscenes” and others saying the cartoonish CGI blood effects are bad.
Tom Hardy and a group of people who are too drunk
Tom Hardy plays Walker, a cop who is both tough and broken, and he does it with his usual gruff charm. His physicality is a highlight, whether he’s throwing punches or making subtle, haunted faces in quieter moments. But the script doesn’t give him much to work with besides the typical “tortured cop” role, and his mumbling accent, which some say sounds like a mix of The Bikeriders and New York street tough, can be hard to understand.
The supporting cast, which includes talented actors like Forest Whitaker, Timothy Olyphant, Luis Guzmán, and Yeo Yann Yann, is mostly wasted. Whitaker’s corrupt politician and Olyphant’s shady cop seem like typical characters, but Guzmán has a short but memorable moment when he kills people in the nightclub scene. Yeo Yann Yann is a scary and calm Triad boss, but she doesn’t get enough screen time to really shine. Jessie Mei Li is charming as Walker’s idealistic partner, but the movie is more focused on action than on character development, so her role is pushed to the side.
Substance Over Style
Havoc looks like a lot of different things. Cinematographer Matt Flannery makes a dark, neon-lit city that feels alive, but the movie relies too much on digital effects, which takes away from the raw violence of Evans’ earlier films. The look of the movie is similar to that of Detroit in Max Payne and RoboCop, but the fake-looking CGI-heavy scenes take away from the experience. The pounding music by Aria Prayogi adds to the chaos, but it doesn’t hide the story’s flaws.
Havoc tries to look at morality, loyalty, and redemption, but the constant violence makes these ideas hard to hear. Havoc seems like a step back for Evans, unlike The Raid, which worked because of its simple premise, or The Raid 2, which added depth to its chaos. Critics say that the movie gives up character depth and emotional stakes in favor of spectacle, leaving viewers with nothing to care about but the next explosion of blood.
The Verdict Havoc is a movie that lives up to its name. It has a tornado of violence that will please action fans who want blood-soaked thrills. Gareth Evans’ talent for choreography and Tom Hardy’s strong presence make it a good addition to Netflix’s action lineup, even if you forget about it. But its weak plot, shallow characters, and too much reliance on CGI keep it from being as powerful as The Raid. If you like Evans’ style of “heroic bloodshed,” this is a fun but flawed movie that you should stream for the action alone. Just don’t expect it to stick with you. One critic said, “Come for the action.” That’s all. “Just the action.”
Score: 3 out of 5
