Time: 107 Minutes
Age Rating: R16 – graphic violence, offensive language
Cast:
Tom Hardy as Patrick Walker
Jessie Mei Li as Ellie
Justin Cornwell as Charlie
Quelin Sepulveda as Mia
Luis Guzmán as Raul
Michelle Waterson as the assassin
Sunny Pang as Ching
Jim Caesar as Wes
Xelia Mendes-Jones as Johnny
Yeo Yann Yann as Tsui’s mother
Timothy Olyphant as Vincent
Forest Whitaker as Lawrence Beaumont
Director: Gareth Evans

I have been anticipating Havoc for a while. It’s the latest movie from The Raid director Gareth Evans which would star Tom Hardy in the lead role. It was initially filmed in 2021 but for whatever reason, it took till 2025 to release. Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to all the potential, but I still enjoyed it.

The movie’s biggest problem is its rather generic plot, full with plenty of cliches with corrupt cops, gang wars etc, and the twists and turns are hardly surprising. Havoc takes itself fairly seriously despite the over the top action but it’s hard to connect with on an emotional level. I wouldn’t dog on the plot just for being too familiar, but for the first hour it does much of the movie for the first hour. Thankfully around the halfway point, it gets to the blood and brutal action sequences and it picks up notably, and it rides on a pretty high note all the way to the end.

The cast don’t have a ton to work with, but they deliver fine enough performances. Tom Hardy’s role as a corrupt detective may be pretty familiar, but he sells his character and especially does well with the action. The supporting cast are solid with the likes of Forest Whitaker and Timothy Olyphant, and Jessie Mei Li is particularly good.

As said earlier, this movie comes from Gareth Evans who directed The Raid and overall I liked his work here. I wouldn’t say that the action here is on the level of the action seen in The Raid, Havoc definitely relies a lot more on gunfights. However, the action here is likely to be far better than most other action movies that premiere on Netflix. The action is wonderfully chaotic and exciting, the camera movements are great and sharp, it’s well staged with good stunts, and full of ruthless and over the top brutal violence and kills (which you would expect from the director of The Raid). The highlights were a sequence set in a club, and the bombastic climax at the end. That said, the movie does have some very wonky CGI at times.

Havoc is bogged down by a generic and cliched plot, but still a fairly entertaining action thriller, mainly due to the solid cast led by Tom Hardy and especially the bloody and chaotic action sequences.