I was looking forward to Havoc, I just said in the Something for the Weekend thread, that having Tom Hardy and Gareth Evens together is a good thing. Overall, it’s a pretty good movie, but it’s also disappointing.
Havoc stars Hardy, Timothy Olyphant, Forest Whittaker, Luis Guzman, Xelia Mendes-Jones, Richard Harrington, Narges Rashidi, Jessie Mei Li and Tom Wu.
The Story
The official plot for Havoc is:
After a drug deal gone wrong, a bruised 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.
It starts off with a few cliches. Walker (Hardy) is a cop; he’s not seen his daughter in a long time, he’s not dirty, but he’s not squeaky clean. It’s the same old, same old version of a cop we’ve seen a thousand times.
We cut to a chase sequence with cops chasing an articulated lorry, with guns blazing. The bad guys end up throwing a washing machine into one of the police cars, putting one of the cops in the hospital.
It turns out the bad guys owed some Chinese mafia guys some drugs and money. They go to deliver, but there’s another heist planned. The opening bad guys escape, but the leader of the Chinese gang is killed.
Walker turns up to investigate, but the problems start when one of the bad guys is the mayor’s estranged son. Walker sees the mayor and has to find his son before he’s killed.
This is the tip of the iceberg of Havoc, but also a problem.
I’m Not A Smart Man
I don’t mind a good, complex story, but sometimes, they are just beyond me. This was one of the main issues with Havoc in the third act, and especially the ending. It all ends in a Mexican standoff, but there are about 5, maybe 6 parties involved.
Walker is there, trying to get the mayor’s son. The mayor is there, trying to get his son, but also because he’s been kidnapped by the mother of the Chinese gang leader, who also wants revenge. There are also some dirty cops, a Chinese turncoat and the mayor’s son and his girlfriend.
It honestly lost me after a while, I think this was because of two things. Firstly, the script felt like it got away from itself and tried to include too much. As I said the other day, in my Locked review, it was all simple and to the point. Easy to follow, but still gripping.
Havoc managed to tie itself up in a few knots, getting overly complex, for what is essentially an action movie. I probably am stupid, but I just kind of lost who was against whom and why.
This brings me on to the second point about Havoc, the action.
Kick His Ass, Seabass
I’ve said it many times, but The Raid, parts one and two, are excellent action movies. I mean, in the top ten action movies of all time. The stories have intrigue and subplots, but not overly done.
Some of the direction of The Raid is cinematic perfection. There is always a buildup, there are long, very complex shots, and you see it all in its glory. Here is a fight from The Raid 2, it’s a little NSFW.
OK, there are only three people in this fight, but at no point do you get lost in the action. Havoc, sadly, is not the same. Some of the action sequences, in Havoc, were a little overly done, a little too complex and also, too bloody dark!
I don’t know what it is about modern Hollywood and shooting at night, but there are times it was difficult to see what was going on. I said the same about Daredevil, especially the last episode, it was so dark it was like I was Daredevil himself, blind.
In the third act of Havoc, the photography was a little all over the place, and I just lost on who was fighting whom. It was a shame, as some of the movie was spot on and gripping, just not all of it. Which brings me to something else.
Bloody Hell
As we know, I have seen some extreme cinema in my time. I’m not fainthearted, and I usually can stomach anything. Havoc isn’t stomach churning, but there is just too much blood.
It reminded me of Cannon Films movies, where they had the policy ‘Why use one bullet, when fifty will do?’. In this movie, they had bloody, then turned it up to 11. As I said, I’m not shy about this kind of thing, but when it’s over the top, it’s just too much.
After a while, it just started to annoy me; someone gets shot, and it seems 50 gallons of blood comes out of him, this isn’t Tokyo Gore Police. In the end, Havoc started to feel like a parody as there was so much blood.
Apparently, Havoc was Evans’ homage to some of the ’80s action movies, especially Asian ones. Most of them were over the top with the violence and blood, and Evans wanted the same style. For me, it didn’t work, it should have been in that same style as The Raid, violent, but not overly so.
Overall
Havoc is not a bad movie, it’s also not a movie for the modern audience, this is a movie for men, with willys and balls. There is swearing, guns and knives, it’s like an 80s action movie and just what we need these days.
However, there is still some of the modernness creeping in. The mother of the Chinese gang leader is a bad ass and in charge, fair enough, I let that slide. There is a female body guard/assassin who can kick ass, again, annoying, but I let it slide.
It was the girlfriend of the mayor’s son who was the worst case. She’s frightened, nervous, and just trying to get away. When the action kicks in, she suddenly turns into a bad ass, comically so at a couple of moments.
I’m giving Havoc a solid, but middle-of-the-road, 2.5 out of 5. If you have some mates, you get a few beers and you chill out, you might have more fun with it. I watched it with the cat, who wasn’t that impressed, as she fell asleep.
You’re mileage might be different, but I found it to be a solid action movie, but just a little disappointing to what I was expecting. A bit too over the top, needed to cut down on the blood and just scale the story back a little.
It’s now on Netflix. Are you going to watch it? Am I wrong?
