‘Havoc’ Review: Gareth Evans’ Return To Action Filmmaking
The world of Havoc is an interesting one that had potential but unfortunately its writing leads the characters to feel one dimensional. Read our Havoc review.
Some of the best action films that have ever been released come from Hong Kong, China. These are the films that influence filmmaker Gareth Evans in his work, and it’s very present if you watch any of his projects. The Raid and The Raid 2 are easily some of the best action films to release in a long while and are some of Gareth Evans’ best work yet. He also created the show Gangs of London which is based on the video game of the same name. Read our full Havoc review.
Havoc, on the other hand, is set in a detective-noir America during Christmas, where a drug heist goes completely wrong and becomes a race against time as Walker (Tom Hardy) has to fight his way through a corrupt criminal city underworld to protect Laurence Beaumont’s (Forest Whitaker) son.
If you’re a fan of Gareth Evans’ high-octane gruesome action, then you’re in for a ride, as Havoc promises you’ll be delivered an order of some bone-crunching moments. Havoc falls more in line with his work on Gangs of London than it does on The Raid, as we deal more with gun fights and straight hand-to-hand street brawling action than martial arts. The film can take a while to find its footing as it spends an hour with heavy exposition on every character and their involvement before dropping you into the first major action sequence of the film, which happens to be a nightclub fight scene.
Gareth Evans clearly wants his audience to care for the characters he’s writing. The wrong people are being hunted for the death of Tsui (Jeremy Ang Jones); Laurence wants his son safe, and Tsui’s mother (Yeo Yann Yann) wants revenge for the murder of her son. There’s a family theme with Havoc as Walker tries to make time for his daughter but fails to do so. With the film being set around Christmas, it makes sense for the family theme to be as present as it is, but unfortunately it’s not as strong as it should be due to Evans’ writing, which fails to provide any real connection between these characters.
Havoc spends so much time dealing with all of these various characters that it ends up giving the least of its screen time to Ellie (Jessie Mei Li) and Vincent (Timothy Olyphant), characters that end up being two of the best in the entire film. The film has a stacked cast, with Tom Hardy, Forest Whitaker and Timothy Olyphant being some of the few stars that we can name. The best chemistry that comes out of Havoc is between Tom Hardy and Jessie Mei Li, Tom Hardy and Forest Whittaker and Tom Hardy and Timothy Olyphant, but for a film that wastes its first hour on needless exposition and rushes into numerous scenes of action, we lose the opportunity to spend time with these actors and their respective characters.
Thankfully, the action of Havoc allows it to still be an entertaining and fun watch as they get creative with the weapons and how they’re used. There are car chase sequences that feel dynamic and feel like you’re a part of the chase; the film even opens up on one, but the visuals tend to be questionable in these moments of the film.
The world of Havoc is an interesting one that had potential but unfortunately its writing leads the characters to feel one dimensional with a runtime that wastes too much time on a failed attempt to bring this film any sort of substance. It’s a fun watch but just doesn’t compare to some of the great action films that Gareth Evans has worked on in the past.
Havoc was directed by Gareth Evans and stars Tom Hardy, Forest Whitaker, Timothy Olyphant, Justin Cornwell, and Jessie Mei Li. The film is now streaming on Netflix worldwide.
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