It has been 14 years since director Gareth Evans set the action cinema world ablaze with his blood, bullets, and martial arts extravaganza, The Raid: Redemption. With that film (and the 2016 sequel, The Raid 2), Evans exploded onto the filmmaking arena. Going on to become modern genre classics, the two uniquely exciting works saw the director using the influences of the filmmakers he admired and crafting his own unique style. With his latest release, Netflix’s Havoc, Evans continues to stay in the action-thriller world, leaning heavily on his cinematic influences, and spicing up a standard cop picture with brutal Hong Kong movie-style action and supremely bloody violence.

For filmmakers, the police thriller has always been a great source of inspiration and is one of the most consistently reliable templates for both formula action movies and explorations of corruption and murder. Everyone from Sidney Lumet to Walter Hill and Martin Scorsese have put their personal stamps on the genre, while filmmakers such as John Woo, Ringo Lam, and Johnnie To take their films to operatically violent levels of action film art. Gareth Evans is in the latter category, as he blends what he learned from those Hong Kong masters with his own modern sensibilities to create eye-popping thrill rides with dazzling cinematic power. 

Evans finds the perfect partner in Tom Hardy. The actor brings his Brando-like intensity and powder keg emotions to the role of Walker, a homicide detective whose Christmas Eve sees him caught in the middle of political and police corruption, a drug deal gone bad, and the ensuing gang war that is about to blow his city apart.

In Havoc, no one is clean and everyone must get their hands dirty in the pursuit of revenge, justice, and for some, maybe a bit of redemption.

Evans’ loaded screenplay immediately establishes Walker as a tough and knowledgeable detective who isn’t out to make friends and has none. He is divorced from his wife and misses his 6 year old daughter, who he never sees. Like most of the characters, Walker is far from clean. Years ago, he helped local politician Lawrence Beaumont (Forest Whitaker) make a “problem” go away. After Beaumont’s son, Charlie (Justin Cornwell), is involved in a botched robbery (that has the cops and the Chinese gangs on his trail) he calls Walker to help find him and keep him alive. The two men strike an uneasy bargain, as Walker agrees to look for Charlie as long as this will wipe the slate clean between the two corrupted men. 

Jessie Mei Li does great work as Ellie, Walker’s unexpected (and unwanted) partner; a uniformed officer who proves to be as tough as anyone. In many cop films, a new partner means they won’t be around long while characters like this are usually sidelined with nothing interesting to do. Li stands tall amongst the mayhem and matches Hardy toe to toe in every scene. Her performance is the most interesting in the film.

As things heat up, Walker and Ellie find themselves going up against their fellow cops (led by a seriously underused Timothy Olyphant) and fighting off Chinese mobsters and assassins sent by the matriarch of the cartel (Yeo Yann Yann), who is convinced her son Tsui was murdered by Charlie.

The presentation of the Chinese gangs and their leader doesn’t bring anything new to the table. The matriarch delivers threats and doles out orders to her soldiers with stone cold seriousness, while the cops are allowed only one scene to establish their duplicitous intentions. There isn’t enough time spent to make Yann’s character memorable or potent and the impending battle with Walker’s fellow policemen fails to get the proper kick start.

The screenplay robs the audience of the exciting possibilities of intense confrontations between Hardy and Olyphant; two actors who could have set the screen ablaze. With Walker’s absentee non-parenting, the matriarch’s devastation at the loss of her son, and Beaumont’s desperation to keep his only son alive, Evans is trying for something more emotional. While commendable, his script is too overstuffed and the drama just can’t find its way, with many character arcs drawing the short straw. 

A major issue is the film’s look. Havoc is set in an unnamed American city, but the production took place in Wales. Evans and cinematographer Matt Flannery do an okay job on the subdued lighting, considering all films shot on digital look the same, but the redesign of the Suffix streets and the background CGI can’t make a believable USA metropolis. 

What works (and works very well) is Evans and his stunt team’s full-on commitment to crafting vigorously entertaining action setpieces. As he did in the Raid films, the director crafts elaborate sequences where fists of fury and thundering gunfire are exchanged between anyone and everyone who finds themselves in Walker’s orbit. The fight choreography is a masterclass of carefully constructed motion that gives fluidity to the chaos. Just don’t ask how big city cops can go toe to toe against their attackers with death defying power moves. 

The only downfall to these moments (and to Evans’ filmmaking here) is the use of the dreaded shaky-cam, a style that has seen the death of the easy-to follow action scene. The film opens with one hell of a car chase that is hindered by the camerawork that feels like it was shot during a 5 point earthquake. The best action moment (a supremely brutal shootout and hand to hand fight in a nightclub) survives this unwelcome style, but the big finale where all characters meet for a showdown at Walker’s cabin is an unfortunate casualty of the lack of tripods. 

As a complete package, Havoc is a good little night at the movies, but a project that is far from what one would expect from the guy who gave us two of the best action films of the last few decades. Hardy and the supporting cast are solid and the audience should not be bored.

Gareth Evans is a big talent and the imperfections in his latest work can’t hide that undeniable fact. 

Havoc
Written & Directed by Gareth Evans

Starring Tom Hardy, Timothy Olyphant, Forest Whitaker, Jessie Mei Li, Justin Cornwell, Yeo Yann Yann

R, 105 Minutes, Netflix, XYZ Films, One More One Productions, Severn Screen