Tom Hardy and Jessica Mei Li team up in the high-powered action film Havoc. Photo: Supplied.
If you are looking for a rapid, raging and relentless action ride, opt for the fast-paced thriller Havoc. That’s if your preference is for vigourous action and dashing combat.
It’s an entertaining ride where the emphasis is on the flow and artistry of the conflicts, rather than just the brute force. Prominence is given to the spectacle of it, and the flamboyant treatment is obvious. The duel, clash and skirmish sequences are showy.
Not a stranger to playing gritty roles, Oscar-nominated Tom Hardy (The Revenant, The Dark Knight Rises) plays the role of Patrick Walker, a homicide detective fighting his way through a criminal underworld that threatens to engulf his city. He is estranged from his family and on the payroll of Lawrence Beaumont (Forest Whitaker), a real estate tycoon and mayoral candidate.
Once a drug deal goes wrong, Walker finds himself with several factions following him closely, including a vengeful crime syndicate, a crooked politician and his fellow cops. The politician’s estranged son’s involvement in the drug deal starts to unravel a web of corruption and conspiracy. After Walker sets out to rescue the offspring, he is forced to confront the demons of his past.
Walker is a disillusioned cop harbouring a dark past that he hasn’t begun to deal with. He’s carrying an intense amount of trauma and grief that has upended his life, and is trying to take steps to re-engage in a relationship with his daughter.
As Beaumont, Whitaker (Black Panther, The Last King of Scotland) is a wealthy businessman with political ambitions, who tasks Walker with finding his errant son.
Jessica Mei Li (Shadow and Bone, The Agency: Central Intelligence) takes on the role of Ellie Sofer, Walker’s new partner, who confronts chaos in her first day on the job. She’s faced with a tall order: having to deal with a new mentor figure who is, at the start of the film, undermining her in a big way and underestimating her. As well, she’s then having to work out the nuances of the law.
Timothy Olyphant (Fargo, Justified) is Vincent, a corrupt cop who causes major problems for Walker over the course of the film.
Justin Cornwell (Bel-Air, The InBetween) is Charlie Beaumont, who has a lot on his mind, including his fraught relationship with his father and the debt his girlfriend Mia Randle owes to a triad gang member. He’s struggling with his identity. He doesn’t want to be seen as the son of Lawrence and is struggling with the streets and his own personal addictions and everything that goes with that. He tries to find redemption by helping Mia, but in the end, he’s the one who needs the most assistance.
Quelin Sepulveda (The Veil, Good Omens) is Mia, a street-smart young girl who works in her uncle’s scrapyard and finds herself on the wrong side of the law with her boyfriend, Charlie. She’s highly pragmatic and had a difficult upbringing. Now she has found someone with whom she strongly connects.
Havoc is written and directed by Gareth Evans (Gangs of London, The Raid, The Raid 2), who has a knack for creating stunning onscreen pandemonium with an intensely captivating quality. It’s an orchestration of vicious ruthlessness. To be clear, it is a brutal film, but it’s also commendable how the producers are resolute with their intentions, despite the mayhem, for intense fight sequences.
Even though it doesn’t coalesce as a coherent story, when it does come to unadulterated, inexorable action, it meets expectations. The film, which drives a twisted labyrinth of exploitation, doesn’t care much for delicacy or gravity, but keeps forging ahead with unyielding energy.
The backdrop to the high-octane film has a comic-book aesthetic, with principal photography undertaken in Cardiff, Wales. From a polished opening car chase to the climax, the film’s pace doesn’t abate. Chuckling at the skilful takes of some of the violent kills went hand-in-hand with the grimaces over the necessity for such steadfast, adrenaline-filled action.
Havoc, written and directed by Gareth Evans, is streaming on Netflix
