NetflixHavoc is a classic tale of cops and robbers, but what sets Gareth Evans’ film apart from the competition are several first-class fight scenes, and a typically menacing Tom Hardy performance.
Hardy is no stranger to action, having made his movie debut in Black Hawk Down, then starred in sporting masterpiece Warrior, before playing the title character in bona fide classic Mad Max: Fury Road.
So it was perhaps inevitable that he’d team up with Gareth Evans, one of the most exciting action director working today, thanks to The Raid movies, and his work on TV series Gangs of London.
The project that unites them is Havoc, a Netflix crime thriller that allows Hardy to grunt and punch as only he can, in fight scenes that are staged and shot in spectacular fashion.
What is Havoc about?
NetflixHavoc is also written by Evans, and the plot is dense, pitting rival gangs on both sides of the law against each other via multiple twists and turns.
The through-line is Charlie, an amateur criminal who survives a massacre early in proceedings. But that bloodbath results in the death of a major player, and both good cops and bad cops on his tail, as well as a gang of Triads, and a mayoral candidate.
The politician in question is Beaumont – a real estate mogul with questionable morals – and Charlie is his estranged son, whom he wants home safe and sound.
The man charged with that task is Detective Walker – played by Tom Hardy – who is in Beaumont’s debt. So Walker makes an offer; if he can find, protect, and deliver the kid, they are quits.
Beaumont agrees to the deal, and Walker heads off on a violent odyssey that quickly spirals out of control.
Tom Hardy’s Walker is an intriguing protagonist
Walker spends much of the movie trying to do the right thing, but via multiple flashbacks, we learn he hasn’t always been that way. Indeed the character starts the movie hinting at a choice he once made that can neither be justified nor forgiven.
The fallout from that decisions means Walker is now living apart from his wife and young child, treating the world with disdain, and finding himself in the midst of an existential crisis. So he’s already in a confused state.
The mission then stirs up ghosts from Walker’s past to haunt him in the present, which means that as well as saving Charlie, our apparent hero might also be able to save himself. That story of potential redemption is a compelling one, especially when it concerns a protagonist who believes he has nothing to live for.
It feels like a role that was tailor-made for the film’s star, as while Walker is a man of few words, Hardy tells a tale of pain and suffering through his eyes, lending the character a vulnerability that makes him frequently sympathetic. Despite the carnage he causes.
It also gives one of the best movie hard men an opportunity to go toe-to-toe with several other celluloid tough guys, including Forest Whitaker, Luis Guzmán, and Timothy Olyphant, and it’s a blast watching him square off with each of them.
Action that’s off the charts
NetflixBut this is a Gareth Evans joint, so of course Hardy gets to fight some of those hard nuts, as well as scores of henchmen and women, in bone-crunching and blood-spilling fashion.
Proceedings kick off with a superb car chase that deserves to be viewed on a screen that’s bigger than the one Netflix is watched on, with the camera panning around vehicles and through traffic in spellbinding fashion.
There’s also a brief set-piece to the strains of ‘O Holy Night,’ as this April release is set at Christmas. But it’s more than 50 minutes until the first proper tear-up, which is too long for a film of this nature.
Though that frustration is tempered by the fact that the ‘Medusa Club’ sequence is 10 minutes of savage punching, kicking, stabbing, and shooting.
Once again the camera cruises in and around the action as the brawl builds, while highlights include a memorable shot from beneath a glass floor, and the firing of guns in time to a thumping electro score.
But the best bit of business is when Walker fights Michelle Waterson’s assassin, with the former MMA fighter smashing Hardy all over the screen, and the sequence ending in suitably twisted fashion.
Is Havoc good?
In terms of character and plot, Havoc is a solid story that doesn’t bring much new to the crime genre. It also suffers from an overload of characters, with some of the film’s more villainous figures underdeveloped.
But Evans manages to keep those many plates spinning until the ultra-violent end, where the various people and plot strains meet at the same point, and the narrative resolves in a way that’s both satisfying and heartbreaking.
But it’s the action that sets Havoc apart from similarly themed fare, with director and cast delivering a series of unique set-pieces that truly elevate the material.
Dexerto Review Score: 4/5 – Great
Havoc is an old story, but with Tom Hardy starring – and an action master directing – it’s also a visually inventive blast of testosterone-fuelled fun.
The movie is streaming on Netflix, and you can now read our Havoc ending explainer. Alternatively, head here to see what the Havoc cast picked as their favorite action movies ever, or here for Dexerto’s selections for the best action movies of all time.
For more information on how we score TV shows and movies, check out our scoring guidelines here.
