Havoc unleashes a battery of ultraviolent action thrills sure to overload the senses of action junkies.
Director Gareth Evans established himself as one of the best action filmmakers thanks to his Indonesian-set one-two-punch of The Raid and The Raid 2, and fans of those movies will no doubt get a kick out of what Havoc delivers, if not wince at some of the shaky cam theatrics that Evans had previously strayed away from.
Set in an unnamed grimy metropolis, Havoc stars Tom Hardy as Patrick Walker, a once respected homicide detective who has become a toxic presence in his home and precinct due to being on the payroll of corrupt mayoral politician Lawrence Beaumont (Forest Whitaker). When the son of a feared triad boss (Yeo Yann Yann) is slain, Walker finds a path to redemption by protecting prime suspect Charlie (Justin Cornwell) - who is also Beaumont’s son – from an onslaught of triad gangsters and corrupt cops all vying for Charlie’s head.
Havoc lives up to its promise as a hard hitting, gun-thundering, blood splattering action spectacle that is Evan’s specialty. It is especially a treat to watch Hardy – fresh from wasting his talents in the dreck that was the Venom movies – devouring a gritty action role with the gruff intensity and physical stature of a brawling bulldog gnawing on a bone, displaying impressive on-screen martial arts chops not seen from the Brit actor since Warrior.
Where Havoc falters is in Evans’ inability to establish the emotional stakes needed for the audience to care about who will survive the carnage. While Hardy’s cop has some personality, the character lacks pathos regarding his downfall from good cop and family man to corrupted soul. Nor is there enough done to create sympathy for the “innocent” party of the politician’s son caught in this circus of violence, not in this world where everyone’s hands are stained with the blood of their victims.
Havoc proves that Evan’s talent as a storyteller needs more work, yet his deft-hand as a ringleader of incredibly intense and impressively choreographed splatter-fest action sequences carries the weight of a weak screenplay with such grizzly gusto that it is hard not to be impressed.
