Havoc ★★★★

FANS of Gareth Evans don’t need to be told he has a new film out.

The Welsh director redefined Hollywood action cinema with 2011’s The Raid, filmed in Indonesia, and its 2014 sequel.

The seemingly chaotic, ultra-violent stunt choreography created for these two films has been replicated many times over the past decade, most successfully through the John Wick franchise.

Evans was also the creator of the television series Gangs of London which has just completed its bleak, gritty and exciting third season.

It has taken Evans several years to bring his new effort, 2025’s Havoc, to our home screens and I for one think it’s been worth the wait.

Starring Tom Hardy, it’s set in an unnamed city where ruthless gangs and corrupt cops and politicians fight for supremacy and wreak vengeance upon each other.

In Havoc there are no heroes, just survivors trying to take down as many of their enemies as possible before they too are dispatched.

And when I say dispatched, I don’t mean simply shot, stabbed or beaten to death.

Nope. In this conflict you are obliterated by a non-stop hail of bullets, fileted to the bone or blown apart.

Strangely, some people with huge expectations have been disappointed. There is no doubt that action fans have been spoilt in the years since Evans burst onto the scene.

But I think they are missing the point in criticising the look of the film. Havoc is an amalgam of cinematic, animation and gaming styles that is cartoonish and unrealistic

For most action lovers that shouldn’t take away from this exhilarating watch.

Watched on Netflix.