Havoc

REVIEW:

I had been waiting a long time for this movie to hit Netflix! I remember reading about it years ago — a new film directed by The Raid’s Gareth Evans and starring none other than Tom Hardy? Count me in. That pairing alone was enough to get my hype levels simmering ever since the first whispers of Havoc hit the internet. So when it finally dropped, I cleared my evening, turned off the lights, and braced myself for a proper bruiser of a movie. I’m happy to finally say that it did not disappoint.

Now, let’s get this out of the way: no, Havoc isn’t quite on the level of The Raid or The Raid 2 — but let’s be honest, few action films are. Those films redefined the genre. What Havoc does instead is carve out its own identity, leaning heavily into noir-ish grit and pulpy brutality. It’s still highly enjoyable, and for fans of unrelenting, bone-crunching action, this one will more than scratch the itch. Gareth Evans hasn’t lost his magic touch; he’s just channelled it through a slightly different lens.

The opening of the movie kicks off with a high-speed chase, and I’ll admit, I was a bit worried at first. The CGI used to render the chase felt oddly cartoonish — almost like a video game cutscene on fast-forward. For a moment, I thought we were in for some janky visuals that might undercut the experience. Now I could be overthinking this and it could just be shoddy CGI, but with a budget of between 80–100 million, I will go on believing that it was an artistic choice. As the movie unfolded, it became clear that this stylised look was intentional. The entire aesthetic feels slightly heightened, almost dystopian.

Evans never explicitly tells us where this story is taking place. There are no iconic city skylines, no street signs, no references to real-world locations. It’s a place defined by shadowy alleys, neon flickers, and crumbling buildings patrolled by ruthless gangs. In fact, the anonymity of the setting adds to its mystique — it’s like Gotham City drained of comic book flair or a stripped-back Cyberpunk 2077 with none of the tech. This nameless city, saturated in crime and moral decay, is an urban jungle, and Hardy is the lion barrelling through it.

That brings me to Tom Hardy. Let’s be honest — we’ve seen Hardy deliver masterclass performances in films like Bronson, The Revenant, and Locke, but this was a different kind of joy. I didn’t come here for nuance or layered emotional turmoil. I came to watch him beat the absolute hell out of thugs in brutal close-quarters combat and charge through explosions with the intensity of a man possessed. And in that sense, Havoc gives us exactly what we signed up for.

The structure of the film is a bit more patient in its early moments than The Raid. Evans uses the first act to establish Hardy’s detective as a world-weary, slightly broken man. But once things go south and the mission to retrieve a politician’s estranged son kicks off, the tempo shifts into overdrive. The action hits hard — a standout sequence in a nightclub where Hardy fights off waves of attackers under pulsing strobe lights, a blistering shootout at a remote cabin, and plenty of savage close-quarters chaos in between. It’s exactly the kind of relentless brutality Evans fans crave.

One of the most satisfying things about Evans’ action style is how tactile everything feels. You hear the snap of bones, the scrape of fists on concrete, the desperate breathing between punches. The camera doesn’t cut away or cheat — it lingers, it commits. Combined with the film’s grimy aesthetic, it creates an immersive, visceral experience. Hardy’s physicality, along with Timothy Olyphant’s slick presence and Forest Whitaker’s gravitas, rounds out a cast that keeps the momentum alive even in quieter scenes.

In the end, Havoc is a good old-fashioned action flick with modern grit and flair. It doesn’t try to be deep or philosophical — and it doesn’t need to be. It’s about a man punching and shooting his way through a corrupted city, and sometimes that’s exactly what the doctor ordered. Just switch off your brain, lean back, and let Gareth Evans do what he does best. After all these years of waiting, Havoc delivers the chaos, the violence, and the cinematic satisfaction I was hoping for.