I want another try. The pitch for this one is awesome: “Tom Hardy navigates a crime underworld directed by The Raid director.” But our end result, Havoc, is probably our worst case scenario for that premise. Translation: Netflix picked up a mostly fun disappointment…which I think is the streamer’s wheelhouse.
Hardy plays Patrick Walker, a cop who clearly isn’t clean, physically or metaphorically. He shows up to a deal gone wrong with his young idealistic partner Ellie (Jessie Mei Li). Inside the bloodbath from some turf war, two unidentified people (Justin Cornwell and Quelin Sepulveda) are found on camera but not among the bodies. Their investigation, “shockingly”, uncovers a web involving an assassin (Michelle Waterson), a crime boss (Yeo Yann Yann), a politician (Forest Whitaker), and some of Patrick’s colleagues (Richard Harrington and Timothy Olyphant).
Even The Raid 2 isn’t a beacon of heavyweight screenwriting. Director Gareth Evans usually strips down his stories, so he can let the chaos and vibes carry film. But even by his standards, this one is especially bleh. The plot has too many moving pieces inside of it, meaning Evans has to strip character development for streamlining, over and over again to keep his movie under 2 hours. That means Havoc lives up to its title for the “characters” or should I say, broad plot devices? Even Tom Hardy with the meatiest role is basically playing the tortured hero at war with himself, which Iko Uwais did much more interestingly in the Raids.
But I wasn’t locked into Havoc for plot mechanics. I wanted bloody mayhem: and more than not, that’s what I got. Thankfully too, the movie gets bloodier and mayhemier the longer it goes, so by the third act, characters are emptying gun chambers into the chest of characters accompanied by red sprays in all directions. Even though Hardy doesn’t know martial arts, other actors do, which Evans ends those fights with payoffs the movie needs to keep the viewers engaged. Hardy’s complete unreaction to the insanity around him is good for more than a few chuckles to keep the big sequences from just being faceless extras getting violently assassinated. Havoc’s overedited and way too dark, but when the lights get bright, the movie can really be a lot of fun in that demonic way Evans goes for with his films.
Unfortunately I’ve seen Gareth Evans and Tom Hardy’s other works. No wonder Netflix shelved Havoc for so long, probably as disappointed as I was in hoping this could be another Night Comes for Us. Oh well, let’s get that weird taste out of our mouths, and try again. Literally: we’ve got a Raid remake incoming, and here’s hoping it’s as stellar as the 2012 OG film that started it all.