Havoc Review
Director: Gareth Evans
Date Created: 2025-04-25 14:30
3.5
Havoc Review: Directed by Gareth Evans, who is well known for his intense Indonesian action movies such as The Raid, returns with his latest foray into the action thriller genre, this time with a Hollywood twist. The film stars Tom Hardy as the lead character, Walker, a worn-out detective in the midst of a roiling storm of crime and corruption. In addition to Hardy, there are actors like Jessie Mei Li, Justin Cornwell and Quelin Sepulveda, all embodying characters caught up in a tangle of dirty politics and criminal warfare.
The plot centres around Walker, who gets mixed up in some bad business after a drug deal goes wrong. His job to find a politician’s missing son metastasises into a journey through a corrupt city and his own conflicted past. But let’s be clear: This movie is not a rousing exploration of deep feelings. It’s all about blood and bullets and surviving.
Havoc Review
If you like fast-paced action and don’t mind plenty of violence, Netflix’s Havoc is a treat. Gareth Evans gives no quarter. The moment the movie opens, you’re thrown into disarray. There’s hardly a moment to breathe as each tries to one-up the one before it in intensity. These aren’t just frequent fights; they’re brutal, messy, and realistic. No superhero flying kicks here. These are gritty, down-and-dirty scraps in filthy alleyways and ruined buildings.
Tom Hardy is honestly the number one reason I loved the movie. He seems real as Walker. He’s not invincible, he gets hurt, he bleeds, he fights, but that’s what makes him believable. You can see the fatigue on his face as he battles wave after wave of enemies. It’s not flashy, but it’s rooted, and that’s what I read it for.
The Havoc movie production is top-notch. Whether it’s the lighting, camera angles or the sound design, everything collaborates to keep you on edge. One scene in particular that stuck with me was a muted chase through a rain-drenched market, where the tension mounted without words being exchanged. It was masterfully done.
Now, where Gareth Evans’s Havoc did not work for me was the story. It’s over-demonstrably simple, maybe too simple. Walker is attempting to rescue a person, expose corruption and stay alive. That’s about it. And that’s fine for an action movie, but honestly, I was hoping for more from Evans, who has previously demonstrated able storytelling with his action in his previous films.
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The movie introduces a few characters that seem like they’ll be important, only to drop them or give them very little to do. For example, Mia (played by Quelin Sepulveda), the character presumed to have the most purpose, will have her arc smudged and incomplete. Same with the politician’s son — he’s about as realistic as a plot device.
And though the violence is exciting to begin with, it becomes monotonous about halfway through. Without strong emotions or character development, the shootouts start to blend together. I found myself zoning out during a couple of the broader scenes, something that shouldn’t happen in a movie that is so obviously intended to be edge-of-your-seat entertainment.
I have to say that Havoc was missing that intensity/emotional balance. I didn’t care for the characters as much as I would have liked. There was nothing that made me feel deeply for anyone (else) on screen. Walker, despite great work from Hardy, mostly felt like an avatar for toughness rather than a flesh-and-blood person.
Summing Up
Overall, the Havoc film was entertaining for me. I loved the high-action ride, even though I knew the destination was one that wouldn’t surprise me. However, Tom Hardy was brilliant otherwise, I’ll never not enjoy a movie that doesn’t hold back with the chaos. It’s a heavy-duty crime caper in which fists and bullets do the talking more than dialogue, then Havoc fits the bill.
Havoc 2025 is now streaming on Netflix.
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