Havoc Review: Great Action Makes the Mess Worthwhile

Action movie fans have been waiting for Gareth Evans’s new movie for a very, very long time. Evans was immediately propelled into the conversation regarding action’s most visionary filmmakers when he released The Raid: Redemption back in 2011. Considered by many to be one of the best action movies of our time (possibly ever), The Raid set an impossibly high standard for both the genre and Evans, who would follow it up with a worthy sequel three years later. After some genre-hopping and work in television, Evans moved back into the action space with Havoc, a cop thriller starring Tom Hardy that wrapped its initial production way back in 2021.

Due to various delays (that largely had nothing to do with the production itself), Havoc took quite a while to finish up and is now, four years later, finally being released on Netflix. When it debuts, Havoc will be Evans’s first true action movie in over a decade, so the bar is impossibly high. Unfortunately, but perhaps predictably, Havoc doesn’t come close to the high mark set by The Raid and its 2014 sequel.

Havoc stars Tom Hardy as beaten-down detective Walker, who has been largely shunned by both his department and his family. There’s a checkered element to his past that he’s somewhat responsible for, but it’s clear early on that he may not be quite the guy that people make him out to be. When a drug deal goes bad, Walker ends up in the middle of a complicated web of hunters and prey. Trying to do the right thing backfires for Walker and puts him in the crosshairs of not only a dangerous gang, but also a crooked politician and the band of dirty cops that he used to run with. With only a younger officer (Jessie Mei Li) that he can trust, Walker has to evade the city’s most dangerous forces and attempts to bring the truth to light.

There’s a lot going on in this story, a far cry from the ultra-simple plot of The Raid, and it bogs the entire experience down. Walker has a past shrouded in mystery that Evans (who also wrote the screenplay) tries to slowly reveal throughout the story, but it just loses a lot of steam each time it’s revisited. That plot thread, along with several others, ends up feeling half-baked by the time the credits roll. So much attention is being spent on putting so many pieces on the board that most of them either don’t make sense or aren’t able to convince you they’re worth caring about.

You’ll be hard-pressed to recall many details of Havoc‘s plot or characters the day after watching it. You certainly won’t care much what happens to any of them. But in a hard-hitting, sub-100-minute beat-em-up from the director of The Raid, those elements aren’t nearly as important as the action itself. Thankfully, that action is where Evans really soars.

Havoc is not 90 minutes of non-stop action, which is definitely a bummer. There are three or four major action set pieces in the film and all of them are great in their own ways. Evans is an inventive force behind the camera, constantly aware of what’s already been done and looking for unique, exciting ways for his characters to slaughter each other. His desire to always be creating something new propels the action of Havoc and keeps you from ever losing interest.

The highway chase that opens Havoc is easily one of the film’s biggest highlights, sending you on a thrill ride that utilizes multiple levels of interstate ramps, 18-wheelers, and a rogue washing machine. It’s an incredible start to the movie that sets an incredible tone for what’s to come. The later action sequences live up to that tone (a fight through a cabin is especially jaw-dropping), but they are far too infrequent. If you want great action, Havoc absolutely delivers it, you’re just not going to get nearly as much as you’d hope from somebody like Evans.

Havoc isn’t The Raid, and that’s mostly okay. Similarly, Tom Hardy isn’t Iko Uwais; you’re not watching one of the most talented and versatile screen fighters of the last 20 years punch and kick his way to redemption. While that would always be welcomed, Hardy is a good fit for what Evans is attempting to do with Havoc. He’s the usual, beleaguered Tom Hardy that works well in these kinds of pictures, and his willingness to get beaten into oblivion for the sake of the final product is what allows Havoc‘s action pieces to be so successful. You believe that he is simultaneously an absolute badass and also a helpless buffoon. It’s a perfect balance that makes Walker into a worthy lead, and ultimately propels all of Havoc forward.

Not only is Havoc not The Raid, it’s also not Gareth Evans’ best work, but maybe we were all wrong to expect that from a four-year-old movie releasing exclusively on Netflix. It’s okay — but Evans knows how to make bones crunch and blood spew, and there are very few directors out in the world who can do those things like he does. Messy script and boring characters be damned, Evans still delivers better action than Netflix deserves.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Havoc debuts on Netflix Friday, April 25th