Havoc

Action-director extraordinaire Gareth Evans’ first action film since 2014’s The Raid 2 doesn’t quite match the impact of his earlier films, but he still stages action sequences with more frenetic energy that anyone else around.

Premise:  After a drug deal goes bad, jaded homicide detective Patrick Walker (Tom Hardy) is tasked by mayoral candidate Lawrence Beaumont (Forest Whitaker) to find the prime suspect – Beaumont’s estranged son – before the triad or rest of the cops get to him.

Review:

It’s fair to say that The Raid and The Raid 2 were two of the defining action films of the 2010s – so it’s important to know going into Havoc that writer/director Gareth Evans was trying to do something different with this film.  For one, it’s his first Western action film, and for two, it’s in no way a martial-arts-based action film.  In fact, for anyone familiar with Gareth Evans’ work on the small screen, Havoc shares a lot more DNA with his infamous ‘farmhouse assault’ episode of the TV series Gangs of London.

Both Havoc and the Gangs of London farmhouse episode have incredibly high body counts, and go through more bullets than any audience member could ever hope to count.  Gareth Evans’ motto appears to be, why shoot someone once when you can unload an assault rifle into them?

“…has two major, incredible well-staged, action sequences…”

None of which is meant as a criticism – but it’s good to know what you’re getting yourself into.  Havoc is very violent and very bloody – but it’s all done in a heightened, over-the-top way that (unsurprisingly, given Gareth Evans’ background) calls to mind the ‘heroic bloodshed’ sub-genre of Hong Kong cinema more than it does any other recent Hollywood film.  The action throughout feels exaggerated and stylised – even the opening car chase feels oddly unreal (perhaps intentionally, perhaps not, as I learned after watching the film that the opening car chase was completely CGI).

The main selling point of a Gareth Evans action movie is, well, the action – and on that level, Havoc does deliver.  As a thriller, it does make you wait (with the exception of the opening CGI car chase), but when things kick off, they really kick off.  The film only has two major action sequences, but both are incredible well-staged – the first is primarily a bruising brawl where every available object is used as a weapon, and the second is an epic shootout that rivals John Woo in his prime.  Gareth Evans’ shooting style not only puts the camera right in amongst the action, but it feels like you’re being thrown around in the chaos as well, an active witness to the carnage.

“…frenetic, stylised, brutal action sequences…”

Aside from the action, the rest of the film is primarily window dressing - Tom Hardy is very good as the morally compromised, hard-boiled detective, but his character is essentially a trope that we’ve seen many times before.  Forest Whitaker and Yann Yann Yeo bring some shades of grey to their characters, who are parents both unwillingly drawn into conflict by the actions of their children, but it’s actually some of the younger up-and-coming actors that make the biggest impression, especially Jessie Mei Li and Quelin Sepulveda who both really throw themselves into their action sequences.  Meanwhile, Timothy Olyphant doesn’t get a great deal to do as Walker’s former partner, but he brings his sardonic sparkle to the scenes he's in.

Overall, the thriller elements of the movie did provide a few twists and developments that I didn’t see coming (as well as several that I did see coming) – but where Havoc really shines is in Gareth Evans’ frenetic, stylised, brutal action sequences: that’s what audiences have come for, and that’s what this film delivers.