I'm embarrassed to say that I've not yet seen either The Raid: Redemption nor The Raid 2, Gareth Edwards seminal action cult classics despite having bought both on Blu-ray on Jan. 29, 2017, 8-1/4 years ago. (Hey, I've been busy!) So it was with great interest that I looked forward to this Netflix original written and directed by Evans so I could see what the hype was about. Sadly, I'm still waiting.
Havoc opens with a wild, obviously mostly CGI chase sequence where the police are chasing a semi truck, culminating in the two who were in the trailer heaving a washing machine out the back where it smashes through the windshield of a cop car, gravely injuring the driver. Later, the quartet deliver the cocaine to a Triad boss, but while the two wait in the car, the other two - Charlie (Justin Cornwel) and Mia (Quelin Sepulveda) - are inside when a trio of masked men armed with machine guns arrive and kill everyone, while the pair barely escape.
Homicide detective Patrick Walker (Tom Hardy) and his uniform partner, Ellie (Jessie Mei Li), investigate and security camera footage show Charlie and Mia's escape which could be inconvenient because Charlies father is Lawrence Beaumont (Forest Whitaker), a real estate developer who is running for mayor of this unnamed fictitious city. Walker is on Beaumont's payroll, so he's tasked with finding Charlie and protecting him from the law and the Triad gangs and Walker's fellow dirty cops led by Vincent (Timothy Olyphant).
I'm not even going to try and continue recapping the plot because even with the Wikipedia synopsis to refer back to it's so convoluted and confused, I'm still unclear of half of what happened other than everyone seems corrupt, everyone is screwing over everyone else, and pretty much everyone gets dead by the end. Evans' script feels like it was written by someone who overheard people talking about various action/crime/gangster movies and then tried to cobble those impressions into a new plot with "Pew pew pew pew!!!" as half of the words. It's confusing and the subplot about Walker's daughter is trite and tropey. Also, if a rich, powerful businessman running for office were to be kidnapped as depicted, someone would notice.
I hate to have to keep carping on this in so many action movie reviews, but John Wick changed the game in 2014 and shakycam/edit fu action filmmaking isn't acceptable anymore. When The Raid: Redemption came out in 2012, it was a high water mark for that style of filmmaking, but now it seems contrived. While there are some kicky moments and "Oooooooh!" kills, there are also people firing so many rounds without reloading or having so much lead hurled at them the fact that they're not turned into pencils much less not dead that it becomes distractingly cartoonish. I'm not asking for total realism; John Wick's entire skeleton should be crumbs most of the time, but when people are being either shot 20 times or not hit at all after hundreds of rounds incoming, it's silly.
Hardy's performance is ehn, probably because I'm concurrently watching the Paramount+ series Mobland in which he plays a very similar character - a compromised fixer who fixes things with violence. The rest of the characters are such cartoons that you can't grade for the performances, though Li as the seemingly only honest cop in the city is appealing in a movie filled with characters there's little point in caring about.
The production design is interesting in that this nameless city seems to be mashed up from areas ranging from New York City, Chicago, Detroit, Hong Kong, etc. which makes the fact it was shot in Wales (with heavy VFX enhancement) more surprising. (However, I was shocked to see one shot definitely filmed in Detroit proper though I could find nothing anywhere about it.)
For those paying Netflix's top price, the Dolby Vision presentation has some moments where neon lights pop brightly, but it's mostly grimy, gritty darkness. The Atmos audio is enveloping, but not particularly distinctive.
While a misfire, Havoc does make me want to fnailly watch the Raid movies. Maybe within the next eight years.
Score: 4/10. Skip it.
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