‘Havoc’ (2025) Review – Excessively Bloody And Gratuitously Violent

The following review contains minor spoilers. 

Netflix’s Havoc is a bloody and shocking mess from beginning to end. Written and directed by Gareth Evans—best known for The Raid franchise and his penchant for Indonesian action fare—Evans doesn’t just cross the line; he finds the floor so covered in blood, broken glass, and bullet casings that he can’t see it. Havoc is among the bloodiest, most gratuitously violent, and overwrought action pictures in years.

However, there doesn’t seem to be much point to Evans’ latest film beyond shocking the audience and trying to inspire some awe, with breathless action sequences where knives and bullets spray across the screen, causing bodies to pop like water balloons or smash like pudding containers. Yet Havoc is so audacious in its tone, pacing, and presentation that it’s almost impossible not to lose yourself in it, at least for a short while.

You wish the team knew how to pull back a bit—including star Tom Hardy’s over-the-top shtick—to make the film more enjoyable and less grating.

Tom Hardy stars as Patrick Walker, a homicide detective on the take from real estate mogul Lawrence Beaumont (Academy-Award winner Forest Whitaker), a gentrification profiteer looking to make New York City great again. Walker helps keep Beaumont’s son, Charlie (The Umbrella Academy’s Justin Cornwell), out of jail—but not necessarily out of trouble.

For instance, Charlie and his friends, including Mia (Quelin Sepulveda of Good Omens), recently stole a truckload of cocaine, outrunning a few members of Walker’s old dirty crew—including a menacing Timothy Olyphant—and putting one in a coma after tossing a dryer full of the good stuff through an unmarked cop car’s windshield during a high-speed chase.

Instead of lying low, they try to unload the cocaine to a young gang of Triads, but soon find themselves caught in a crossfire that kills everyone inside the building—including Tsui, the son of a notorious Triad boss (Yeo Yann Yann), who becomes hellbent on revenge. She begins tracking down Charlie, Mia, and Lawrence, determined to make an example of them all. Standing in her way is Walker, seeking redemption for his criminal past.

Yes, the action doesn’t stop, but I’m pretty sure that if video didn’t kill the radio star, one of the thousands of stray bullets from Havoc would have. The action is so relentless, it becomes practically meaningless. The film doesn’t have a single redeemable character; innocent ones are killed so quickly that they hardly establish enough presence for you to care. You’ll witness a handful of pointless, uncalled-for deaths meant to manipulate the viewer into caring, but they fail miserably.

I mean, a grieving wife and beloved character actor, Luis Guzmán? Have you no shame, Gareth Evans? It’s as if the script were pulled straight from a 1990s Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer production (The Rock, Crimson Tide, Bad Boys), without charisma, comic relief, or palpable stakes. Honestly, the paintball episodes of Community show more thought and attention to detail, and that’s putting it lightly.

Yes, Havoc has explosive action, and there is no doubt. However, the plot is foolish. (Why wouldn’t the Triad notice that two suspects had pistols when machine-gun-wielding assailants wiped out the entire room?) The execution is cartoonish, overly reliant on CGI, digital backdrops, and enhancements, and is gruelingly tiresome from beginning to end.

Havoc is currently available to stream exclusively on Netflix.