Tom Hardy is at his growly best in this jaw-dropping action spectacle that’s like an injection of pure, liquid adrenaline.
Helmed by the martial arts mastermind behind the Raid films as well as Sky’s exhilarating crime thriller Gangs of London, Gareth Evans, his first film in seven years is definitely worth the wait when it comes to stunning fight sequences.
Unfortunately, with filming predominantly in Cardiff substantially pushed back by scheduling conflicts and the SAG-AFTRA strike, Havoc often has a plot as messy as its production.
Hardy spearheads the narrative like a blunt axe as Walker, a taciturn detective distracting himself from a recent disaster by throwing himself headfirst into his latest murder case – a bloodbath involving the death of a notorious drug dealer.
When he discovers the mayor of his grimy fictional city, Lawrence Beaumont (Forest Whitaker), has his estranged son mixed up in the grisly gang warfare, he enlists the help of rookie detective Ellie (Jessie Mei Li) to track him down.
It’s not long before Walker’s mission is noticed by a vast network of violent criminals who’ll stop at nothing to put him down.
Following his stints in Indonesia and London’s brutal underground, Evans knows his reputation for masterfully choreographed and wincingly visceral action scenes by now and wisely lets the action set pieces take centre stage.
This does, however, come with the setback of his world-building feeling a little inconsequential at best and confused at worst, as several disparate plot threads, allegiances and criminal factions are introduced in a barrage that makes the just over 90-minute experience more than a little overstuffed.
It’s clear the Netflix thriller is following the trailblazing, neon-soaked path of John Wick, but this world of assassins and corrupt cops isn’t nearly as intriguing, nor is Hardy’s blunt Walker as endearing as Keanu Reeves’ ex-hitman.
Havoc also gets off to a worrying start, as Evans attempts to bolster his action movie resume with an in media res car chase that doesn’t totally work thanks to a mixture of floaty CGI stunts, choppy editing and faceless characters.
Thankfully, director Evans has been cutting his teeth with some of the most dizzying martial arts thrillers for the past few years and more than makes up for the lack of substance.
After a shaky first act setting up the thriller’s ludicrous stakes, the narrative largely takes a backseat and the filmmaker unleashes a bloody deluge of bone-crunching and toe-curling tricks and kills that cement his status as a leading action auteur.
Perhaps it’s for the best that Evans usually doesn’t bother fleshing out Havoc’s more tertiary characters, which also includes Timothy Olyphant practically pantomiming as Walker’s shamelessly corrupt colleague Vincent Crowley and Yeo Yann Yann as a fierce yet underused gang leader, as many of them are all but guaranteed to meet a hilariously violent end by the film’s conclusion.
Former MMA champion and stunt performer Michelle Waterson also makes a name for herself in her first major film role, stepping in as Walker’s most formidable physical adversary who goes toe-to-toe with the real-life jiu-jitsu enthusiast with ruthless skill for the film’s most enthralling close-quarters skirmishes.
Staged with equal parts finesse and ferocity, two sprawling set pieces in particular blow anything Netflix has produced recently out of the water with outstanding hand-to-hand combat and vicious kills that will elicit audible yelps from even the most desensitised viewers.
One particularly creative death near the end of the onslaught had me cringing in both disgust and delight.
Havoc is by no means a masterpiece, and fans hoping for the elegant, balletic fight choreography of The Raid may be a little disappointed. Thankfully, Hardy and Li are charismatic enough leads to plow through the messy first act relatively unscathed and Evans hasn’t lost an ounce of his action credentials. Sign me up for Havoc 2.
Havoc is available to stream on Netflix.