Picture: Netflix
Releasing 4 years after initial filming wrapped in 2021, Havoc is finally arriving on Netflix after additional photography, scheduling issues, guild strikes, & post-production set the release date back to this Spring.
This is the first film for Welsh writer/director Gareth Evans (The Raid: Redemption) since his last Netflix film, Apostle, hit the platform in 2018. Evans has been busy on the TV side, however, as the creator of the Sky/AMC Original crime series Gangs of London, which just entered its 3rd season in March of this year (and streaming on Netflix US through a deal with AMC).
Taking place in America, although shot in Wales, the film follows the brash, grizzled, and largely compromised detective Walker (Venom’s Tom Hardy) as he is summoned to an ultra-violent crime scene from an apparent drug deal gone wrong. Upon discovering that the estranged son of local politician Lawrence Beaumont fled the scene after the death of a Triad leader, Walker makes a deal with the mayoral candidate (“Godfather of Harlem” star Forest Whitaker) to retrieve his son safely and get him out of the city before the Triads execute him in exchange for his freedom from Beaumont as he’s blackmailed Walker for years from information he obtained about the death of an undercover cop when Walker worked narcotics.
With help from his newly assigned partner Ellie (“Shadow and Bone” lead Jessie Mei Li), this haunted and bruised detective must fight his way through the criminal underworld, unraveling a deep web of corruption and conspiracy that has ensnared the entire city.
The Havoc cast also features such prominent actors as Timothy Olyphant (Justified, Santa Clarita Diet), Luis Guzmán (Wednesday, Boogie Nights), Quelin Sepulveda (Good Omens), Sunny Pang (The Night Comes For Us), Yann Yann Yeo (American Born Chinese), and Justin Cornwell as Charlie Beaumont. Cornwell played the younger version of Forest Whitaker’s character Jeronicus in the Netflix Christmas musical Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey.
While the cast can be impressive at times, the real star of the film is writer/director Gareth Evans. One of the most influential action filmmakers of the modern era, Evans’ close-quarters, zoomed-in style of gun-fu he popularized on The Raid films has gone on to serve as a template for stunt coordinators & directors to come for the following decade. John Wick, Extraction, The Night Comes For Us, and even the original Netflix Daredevil TV series all nod to the style that Evans and his team put forth in the modern action landscape.
With Havoc, Evans switches stances slightly to give a nod of his own to the Hong Kong gun-fu style of John Woo & Ringo Lam in the late 80s & early 90s – sans the insane amount of slow-motion and doves I guess. Hard-boiled detectives, taking down the drug trade, saving valued targets with a one-man army, & shootouts galore feature prominently in many of the best Chow Yun-Fat films of the era and Havoc is no different.
Evans blends the old with the new with more gun than fu, leaning heavily on inventive ultraviolence cut to precision by Evans himself (he’s listed as “Action Editor” in the credits of the film). The set pieces at the nightclub and the final showdown at the fishing cabin will be, once again, rewatchable YouTube clip masterclasses, highlighting Evans’ quick-cut, tight frame construction that ditches the wide shot for the intimacy of a spear gun to the face.
While the violence will take center stage, Evans’s writing and tight-as-a-drum editing have to be noted as well. Many films have tried and failed to keep a one man army story on the tracks with a plot that matters even in some regard (I’m looking at you, David Ayer’s last 2 Statham films), but Havoc does just enough to be a cut above. A detective haunted & punished for his past misdeeds does one last job to get his life back in some way, but in order to do so, he has to trust a partner again and face down his past with the best action sequences being the collision of those ideas – all in 100 minutes.
While the film is worthy of praise on multiple fronts, Havoc can wane at times from 2 key elements: Tom Hardy and mediocre CGI world-building.
Before the main action set pieces take over in the 2nd half, the story focuses primarily on Hardy’s Walker character filtering this high-profile gang drug deal gone wrong through the prism of his beaten, tortured world view that he’s created for himself. While it makes sense in many instances for Hardy to play Walker as a neutered pit bull, his interrogation style (especially with Luis Guzmán), his awkward interplay with his new partner early on, and his early reactions to his ex-partners can be cringy momentum killers between far better performances and, of course, superior action. As the story concludes, the film seems ok with letting Hardy take a back seat to things that matter more and that should speak volumes.
As for the CGI world building, Evans made a conscious choice to make a film set in a generic American cityscape while shooting in Wales. While it is admirable that he wanted to keep working with his team from “Gangs of London” and beyond from across the pond, the film’s setting suffers as the high-speed chases & city-wide shots look closer to video game interstitials and don’t match the grit & flash that the interior shots create. The backdrop of a known city or a city well-established through story or production design can have a positive effect on your film, but Havoc seems content with letting the narrative and the action do the talking; Even with Evans and his team’s talent, that approach can only get you so far without being distracted by the ineffectiveness.
HAVOC. Michelle Waterson as Assassin in HAVOC. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025
But let’s be real, while the film may have some detractions with a high bar to clear with The Raid franchise sitting on a pedestal in the rear view, Havoc will be a crowd pleaser for the audience that Evans has built and the modern action fan in general. His skills as a director & action editor are still as sharp as ever and cannot be denied, especially when he channels the influence of Hong Kong crime film legends. Bolstered by stars in key supporting roles (Olyphant, Whitaker) and the blunt instrument of Hardy in the 2nd half, Havoc will add to the mythology of Evans’ work and give us the jolt we were looking for.
Watch Havoc If You Liked
- Hard Boiled
- The Raid: Redemption
- City on Fire
- The Night Comes For Us
- John Wick
MVP of Havoc
Director/Action Editor Gareth Evans & Action Stunt Coordinator Jude Poyer
In my best Nicole Kidman voice: “Gunshots feel good in a place like this.”
There is no better place to be for a modern action fan than sitting back and letting a Gareth Evans crime thriller pummel you into submission for 100 minutes. His collaborations with Stunt Coordinator Jude Poyer (“Gangs of London”, Apostle) & their team bring their best ideas to life with methodically crafted increments that can be stitched together flawlessly to ensure the most physically demanding and emotionally satisfying sequences for the diehards of the genre. As noted previously, the nightclub scene, the hospital shootout, & the finale at the fishing cabin will add nicely to the Hall of Fame set pieces these legends have created over the last decade.
Evans’ “love letter to the heroic bloodshed genre” will have us replaying its finest – and bloodiest – moments for years to come. While it may not be the heights of The Raid films, this style blender will make his Hong Kong crime thriller influences proud.
Rating: R
