It gives me no amount of pleasure to say that Havoc is quite awful. It's a bad movie, a disappointing action movie (one or two set-pieces aside), and easily the worst film yet from writer-director Gareth Evans.
The plot is quite simple. Tom Hardy is a cop, Walker, who ends up working to untangle a very bad situation when some young robbers are framed for the murder of a very powerful Triad gang leader. Hardy has a relatively new partner, Ellie (Jessie Mei Li), along for the ride. They want to get to the robbers while they're still breathing, but it's a situation complicated by the fact that Walker hasn't always been a clean and well-behaved cop, and he has some colleagues who would also benefit from the robbers being taken out of the picture.
Having unnecessarily transformed Cardiff into some non-specific American state, as far as I can tell, and then dealt with COVID delays and reshoots, I wonder if there was ever a point when Edwards wondered if this was really worth all of the potential hassle. I would say that it wasn't. I've already seen comments from others who have loved it, but I would politely, yet strongly, disagree with all of them. There's nothing here that feels truly worth your time, especially when you can simply check out the past works from Edwards, or even find better action films tucked away in the Netflix archives.
Hardy is fine in the lead role, delivering the awful dialogue with an accent and manner that is in line with the neo-noir shading. Li doesn't do as well, probably because the rookie partner is a much less interesting figure (and often there for one main purpose). Quelin Sepulveda and Justin Cornwell remain easy to root for, despite the fact that we first see them fleeing from cops in a sequence that ends with someone getting a large kitchen appliance wedged into them. Sunny Pang does well in a role that allows him to be manipulating those around him, Yeo Yann Yann is a vengeful mother, and Timothy Olyphant overcomes the weak material with his sheer Olyphant presence. Forest Whitaker is wasted in a small role, as are Luis Guzmán, Richard Harrington, and Michelle Waterson, the latter playing a skilled assassin who consistently proves to be the biggest threat to our lead.
I don't mind nonsense dialogue and plotting that is unoriginal and unexciting, as long as the rest of a film delivers. If you're not going to give me fleshed-out characters or a decent screenplay then at least ensure that the action is top-notch. The action here is not top-notch. There's a fantastic sequence at about the halfway point, an extended fight in a club, and that opening chase at least starts the whole thing off with an energy and sense of momentum that isn't maintained throughout, but that is it. As for the rest of it, the close combat is spoiled by a juddering camera effect, meant to add to the feeling of impactful hits, and poor editing choices (although, to be fair, Edwards still shoots action far better than many others). And as for the shooting, let's just say that there were times when I wondered how many characters in this movie would have been more at home in a legion of Stormtroopers, that's how bad most of them aim.
I am happy for those who enjoyed this. I just wish that I could count myself among them. Havoc could have worked well if it only had one or two mis-steps to move around, but it ends up being an entire collage of poor decisions and miscalculations. It's not enough to turn me completely away from Evans, but I'll be hoping to see a major improvement in whatever his next feature is.
3/10
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