Netflix’s ‘Havoc’ Lives Up To Its Name (But Is That Enough?)

Writer/Director Gareth Evans’ Havoc had a tortured trip from the start of filming way back in July of 2021. Evans, best known for directing the internationally successful Indonesian action thrillers, The Raid and its sequel, was preparing to reshoot several scenes when COVID came along and shut everything down. The reshoots eventually took place, but the pandemic and scheduling challenges of getting his “in-demand” cast in front of the camera together resulted in a nearly four-year delay from the completion of principal photography in October 2021 to today’s straight-to-streaming premiere.

Often, when a movie sits on the shelf for four years, requires extensive reshoots, and eschews a theatrical release in favor of a direct-to-streaming release, there are reasons for qualitative trepidation, even if you take a global health crisis into account. I am relatively pleased to report that Havoc is an effective action film, that regrettably could have been much more. If you’ve seen Evans’ previous work (including directing five episodes of Gangs of London), you are already aware that executing wildly gritty action scenes is his forte. While his shoot-outs and beat-downs lack conventional realism, they are masked by the director’s expertise and the sense that people really do get hurt when they get a bashing or get shot. Speaking of shooting, I’m not sure why every bullet from any type of gun has to sound like a Revolutionary War cannon firing off at rapid speed, but it’s clearly a loud button that Evans likes to push with regularity. There is no sense of discretion when Evans shoots bodies and firearms in motion, which can be exhilarating at times, but also numbing because of Havoc’s lack of character development. After a while, all the gun-blazing can be a bit exhausting if you are asking yourself, “To what end?”

Havoc creates just enough plot to give you something to follow, but it’s primarily up to the actors to bring any depth to the film. The good news for Evans is that three of his main characters are played by Hardy, Forest Whitaker, and Timothy Olyphant, whose combined familiarity does a great deal of heavy lifting in the film. Yeo Yann Yann may not be well-known in the States, but makes a formidable impression here as the mother of a murdered Triad boss operating in the USA. Havoc never specifies its location (the film was shot in Wales), but the large urban setting evokes a feeling of an East Coast city, similar to New York City or Philadelphia. 

Just about everyone you see on screen is corrupt. Whitaker’s Mayor Beaumont is a greaser of palms who reeled in Hardy’s Detective Walker. When the politician’s son Charlie (Justin Cornwell) goes on the lam as a suspect in the murder of the Triad boss, Beaumont offers to release Walker from any future obligations if he can bring Charlie home. The only trouble is that Detective Vincent (Olyphant) and his crew are even deeper in the muck than Walker, and have their own reasons for wanting to get the on-the-run son. And let’s not leave out the Triad’s desire for revenge. Let’s just say Walker better get there first for Charlie and the mayor’s sake. 

If that sounds like a not terribly complex description, that’s because Havoc isn’t complex. The storyline mainly serves as a setup for Evans’ action set pieces, and it must be said, if action is all you’re looking for in Havoc, you will receive it in spades. While violence is commonplace throughout the film, there are two prolonged action sequences where Evans really lets the bullets, bone-breaking, and bloodshed fly. There’s a manic, disorienting quality to both scenes that is undeniably visually compelling. The first is a nightclub shootout in which Walker rescues a young woman who could help lead him to Charlie. The club is, of course, incredibly loud, but the gunfire is even louder, and at times, viewing the combat gives you the sensation of being placed in a blender on high while bombs are exploding all around you to an EDM soundtrack. 

The second sequence is unsurprisingly saved for the finale — a battle that culminates in a train station, one which ends up littered with dead bodies. Still, I wouldn’t call Evans a one-trick pony entirely. Both Havoc and Gangs of London have a good ear for cinematic street dialogue, and even if the actors don’t have much in the way of multi-dimensional characters to play, Evans smartly turns to their natural strengths. Hardy is instantly believable as a grizzled, guilt-ridden, crooked cop trying to make some kind of peace with himself by saving Charlie and his girlfriend Mia (Quelin Sepulveda). In fact, in the film’s opening voiceover, Hardy sounds a lot like his character “Bob” in the superior neo-noir The Drop.

Forest Whitaker is similarly in his hot zone playing a dirty politician who becomes fearful when he learns that Charlie’s life is at risk. Whitaker has one of the great mournful faces in cinema, and he knows just how to make the most of that gift here. Olyphant’s Detective Vincent is given less of a chance to build a character than any of the three. However, as a master of the morally flexible shit-eating grin, the actor still manages to make an impression. Havoc is heavily dependent on the personas of these three actors, as opposed to a comprehensive screenplay that brings depth to the page. To the degree that the thinly drawn characters work at all is entirely due to who they are played by.

Maybe that’s why it feels like Yeo Yann Yann’s Triad mom steals so many of her scenes. While Hardy, Whitaker, and Olyphant have the advantage of being famous enough to have acting trademarks that fill in many a blank, Yeo is compulsively commanding in her every scene despite not being a well-known performer outside of Asia, where she’s a highly praised, award-winning actor. I must admit to being completely ignorant of Yeo’s previous work, but she’s so good here, I’m feeling inspired to remedy that issue.

It’s more than a little bit of a shame that Evans’ film is a mile wide and an inch deep, considering all the talent in front of the camera, and Evans’ own skill behind it. Havoc is a movie of excess: its score, editing, direction, action, and tough-guy talk are all as driven as an F1 race car speeding down the track. Still, it can’t be denied that the engine is fuel-injected and adept at full-throttling its way to its destination. Havoc’s intentions may be shallow, but there’s no denying that the briskly paced 107-minute movie hits the bullseye from an action perspective, and is fully committed to a grim ending where no one gets off easy. Enough is going right in Havoc to lead you to believe that  Evans could make a genuinely great film one day, but only if he’s interested in expanding his vision. During the film’s finale, Evans asks Hardy to carry all the weight of the gravitas the film hasn’t earned. It’s a sizably unfair position to put Hardy in, and yet, as the camera closes in on Hardy’s bloodied and weary face, I’ll be damned if he doesn’t nearly pull it off.

How fortunate for Evans and those who cue up the film on Netflix. Hardy (and his fellow cast members) might just convince you that there’s more here than there is.