Watch Havoc on Netflix
Written by: Gareth Evans
Directed by: Gareth Evans
Starring: Tom Hardy, Jessie Mei Li, Luis Guzmán, Timothy Olyphant, Forest Whitaker
Rated: TV-MA
Watch the trailer
Plot
After a drug deal gone wrong, a crooked detective must fight his way through the criminal underworld to rescue a politician's estranged son, unraveling a deep web of corruption and conspiracy that ensnares his entire city.
Verdict
It's underwhelming. What made Evans's earlier films engrossing was the hand to hand combat. This movie is a lot of automatic gunfire with limitless magazines, and it's difficult to make that interesting. The only time a named character is hit is when it's an execution shot. I like the premise. This isn't a hero cop out to save the world, this is a dirty cop trying to save himself. The movie doesn't do enough to capitalize on that.
Skip it.
Review
Evans previous films include on the rail action movies The Raid: Redemption and The Raid 2. They were hand to hand combat, and that's the difference. Gun fight are less interesting due to the point and spray technique.
This hits you with a heavy voice over where Walker (Tom Hardy) admits he's a corrupt cop that's gone too far with the visuals to prove it. This world looks like some kind of dystopia. It's an incredibly dark and corrupt world. It doesn't seem like reality. I'd completely believe it's a Judge Dredd world. Walker is tied up in all kinds of illicit activities.
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| Tom Hardy plays Walker |
Walker is tasked with protecting the mayoral candidate. In this movie, that means finding the candidate's son to prevent his activities from upending the political race. While Walker is a dirty cop, he's now opposing the corrupt cops he's worked with as they have orders to eliminate any loose ends.
The is action heavy. It's not bad, but it substitutes blood for skill. Hand to hand combat like The Raid will always be more interesting than gunfire. There's no skill to the gunfire, and some of these near misses are ridiculous. Walker hears a gun fire, ducks, and misses getting hit. How is that even possible? I'd wager a bullet is faster than Walker. With so many people and all these automatic weapons that seem to have endless magazines, how does no one manage to hit any of the protagonists?
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| Tom Hardy plays Walker |
It's an interesting premise. This isn't a hero cop trying to save the day. He's in deep, and he has to fix this situation to protect himself from the potential mayor. It's mutually beneficial as both have something to lose. Being so action focused, the gun play just isn't that engaging. The one stand out scene is the club. The rest of the movie is both propping up that scene and riding on its coat tails.
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