Havoc (2025)

★★★ Having helmed two of the most exhilarating martial art films since the turn of the century, "The Raid" creator, Gareth Evans, sadly substitutes fists for guns in his latest hard-boiled actioner.

Watch May 3, 2025 0 3 Add to Reading List

Dir: Gareth Evans

Cast: Tom Hardy, Jessie Mei Li, Justin Cornwell, Quelin Sepulveda, Luis Guzman, Yeo Yann Yann, Timothy Olyphant, Forest Whitaker

Having helmed two of the most exhilarating martial art films since the turn of the century, “The Raid” creator, Gareth Evans, sadly substitutes fists for guns in his latest hard-boiled actioner

Having become increasingly stale over the years, the action genre was in dire need of a shake up in the 2010’s. With Doug Liman and Paul Greengrass‘ efforts with the Matt Damon-led “Jason Bourne” films pathing the way for most of the genre’s biggest to titles to follow suit over the years, it was time for the industry to look elsewhere to inject new life into action-heavy titles. Fortunately for action aficionados like myself, in 2011 we were treated to one of the most relentless and bloody titles the genre had seen for many years, the Indonesian martial arts thriller “The Raid”. Having recently moved to Indonesia himself to film a documentary covering the country’s martial art, pencak silat, Welsh filmmaker Gareth Evans came up with the initial concept for “The Raid”, and having found local Silat practitioner Iko Uwais, Evans began work on his first feature film, the lesser known “Merentau” (2009).

Following the release of “The Raid” a couple years later, which was met with universal acclaim as a result of its lengthy action set-pieces and expert fight choreography, Evans quickly began work on a sequel, and in 2014, we got the much more ambitious and narratively driven “The Raid 2”. To this day, both films remain near the top of my all time favourite action films, and I highly recommend that any fan of action, or martial arts films to seek them out immediately.

Having become a household name following his works in Indonesia, Evans briefly moved away from action with the shamefully underrated, and underseen, folk-horror “Apostle”, released in 2018. Having returned to the UK, Evans has primarily been working in television in recent years having created the action-crime series “Gangs of London”, which itself has just premiered its third season. Working in tandem with the acclaimed TV show’s production, Evans announced his next project, another gritty action title “Havoc”. Having reached an exclusive deal with Netflix, principal photography began way back in 2021, but after numerous setbacks including re-shoots and the SAG-AFTRA strikes, the film’s release was delayed several years, only finally debuting on the streaming platform this past Friday.

“Havoc” Trailer | Netflix

The film follows homicide detective, Walker (Tom Hardy), estranged from his family and on the payroll of corrupt real estate mogul and mayoral candidate Lawrence Beaumont (Forest Whitaker), whose son Charlie (Justin Cornwell) is accused of murdering a local Triad leader, Tsui (Jeremy Ang Jones) and his associates. Working with his newly assigned partner, Ellie (Jessie Mei Li), Walker hunts down Charlie and his partner, fellow small-time criminal Mia (Quelin Sepulveda), both of whom having been framed for the murders having been stealing cocaine for the Triads that night.

Walker must track down the real culprits, a gang of masked and heavily armed assailants, in order to clear Carlie and Mia, who are on the run from corrupt police officers Vincent (Timothy Olyphant) and Jake (Richard Harrington), and the triad, now under the leadership of Tsui’s grieving mother (Yeo Yann Yann) who is seeking revenge for her son’s death.

Having loved the choreography and real-life stunt work previously utilised by Evans in “The Raid” and its sequel, it saddens me to say that the Welsh filmmaker has moved away from martial arts with his latest project, which instead emphasises the use of guns for its few but lengthy set-pieces. For the majority of the 100-minute runtime, the action is kept pretty minimal, barring the odd assassination or the overly CGI-reliant odd car chase, however, the final act sees the Evans dial it up to eleven with two extensive shoot-out set pieces that leaves many of the ensemble, supporting cast and extras riddled with bullets. This is one of the most expensive productions ever to be filmed in Evans’ native Wales, and I can’t even imagine how much was spent on squibs, not to mention the shoddy visual effects to coat the Cardiff backdrop with a gritty, Gotham-like filter. It’s a far cry from the sensational and gripping car chase sequence from “The Raid 2”, and completely removed me from much of the action that was taking place. Primarily set over a series of snowy nights, the gun-totting action and dark, gothic backdrop reminded me of the beloved Rockstar game “Max Payne” which itself was infamously adapted for the big screen in 2008.

The last half hour does make for some engaging action viewing, and Hardy and Li do the best they can with very little character development to work with, which is needed given the unnecessarily convoluted and contrived plot. I loved Evans’ past action efforts, but a troubled production and lack of martial artists in the cast did have me concerned going into this, but despite my reservations “Havoc” does exactly what it says on the tin, it’s a hard-boiled action thriller with a couple of solidly crafted set-pieces, one of which being incredibly reminiscent of the concluding shootout in Curtis Hanson‘s “L.A. Confidential”. I am curious to see what Evans does next, and hopefully, he returns to martial arts work soon, preferably re-teaming with Uwais, who incidentally appears in another recent streaming release, cosmic horror “Ash” over on Prime Video.

Havoc is now available to stream on Netflix