Gareth Evans’ latest film “Havoc”, which was released on Netflix yesterday, is merely bloody and violent without bringing anything new to its familiar genre territory. If you simply want a lot of extremely brutal action and mayhem, the movie will probably not disappoint you, but, folks, I want more than that, and that is why I became more distant to whatever is happening on the screen.

Tom Hardy, who also participated in the production of the film, plays Patrick Walker, a police detective working in some big anonymous city. During the early part of the film, the movie emphasizes how messy his professional and private life has been, but that is quite typical to say the least. Yes, he has some shady past about which he feels quite guilty. Yes, he has been estranged from his family as well as his colleagues. Yes, he hates himself as often reminded that he cannot do anything about his messy status. And, yes, he is not so nice to a young female cop who recently becomes his new partner.

Meanwhile, a mass shooting incident occurs at a spot belonging to a big Chinese criminal organization. As already shown to us at the beginning, it is involved with a bunch of young criminals who stole a large amount of drug for this criminal organization, and one of them happens to be the son of a prominent but corrupt businessman who has incidentally been running for the mayor of the city. Because he previously did some dirty work for this businessman, Walker immediately goes to him, and he makes a deal with this businessman in exchange of finding and then saving his son.

As Walker tries to retrieve the businessman’s son, the situation gets more and more complicated than before. One of the victims of that shooting incident was the only son of the female boss of that criminal organization, and she is quite furious to say the least. Right from her arrival in the city, she vows for revenge for his son, and she certainly has a bunch of ruthless thugs willing to do anything under her command. In addition, there are some other dangerous figures looking for the businessman’s son, and they are also quite ready to find and then kill him by any means necessary.

Needlessly to say, Walker soon finds himself pursued by both these two dangerous groups, and what follows next is a series of remorselessly brutal action scenes which often get quite gory and bloody. This is not so surprising at all if you remember how extremely violent Evans’ previous films including “The Raid: Redemption” (2011) are. I admired “The Raid: Redemption” to some degree mainly for its technical competence, but I was often distracted by its superficial handling of story and characters, and this problem was only amplified further with more blood and violence in its 2014 sequel.

At least, both of these two very violent actions films have some ambition and style, but “Havoc” is seriously deficient compared to that while looking surprisingly cheap and bland. For instance, the opening vehicle action sequence is drenched in so much CGI that it actually looks more unrealistic than whatever we saw from recent Fast and Furious flicks at times. In addition, the city in the film also looks quite mediocre without generating any real urban atmosphere, and I must say that the wallpaper of the desktop computer at my workplace has much more style and substance in comparison.

In case of the physical action scenes in the film, I certainly appreciate how Hardy and many other performers throw themselves into a lot of intense physical action, but, alas, the overall result is not particularly memorable. The performers surely shoot or fight a lot, but there is not much thrill and excitement as the movie hurriedly moves onto one action after another, and we are only left with some bad aftertaste as observing how many figures are casually eliminated like your average video game extra figures.

Above all, the movie lacks the characters we can care about. Hardy is an engaging actor who usually brings something interesting to observe to his movies, but his efforts are unfortunately undermined by thin characterization and sloppy writing. The dramatic arc of his character along the story is so predictable from the very beginning that there is not much narrative momentum to hold our attention, and we are only bored more even when the movie goes for more blood and violence during its expected finale.

Furthermore, the movie seriously wastes several other notable performers besides Hardy. While Forest Whitaker and Timothy Olyphant are thoroughly wasted due to their flat supporting roles, Luis Guzmán, who has been one of the most dependable character actors in our time, manages to bring some spirit to his thankless part. As the fearsome female boss of the Chinese criminal organization, Yeo Yann Yann quietly chews every moment of hers in the film as demanded, and she actually leaves a bit more impression than many of the other main cast members.

In conclusion, “Havoc” is disappointing because it virtually has nothing to offer besides its extremely violent action scenes, and it actually made me wonder whether I was too unkind to “The Raid: Redemption” and its sequel. While both of them aimed high at least, “Havoc” is just another Netflix product to be consumed and discarded, and I was already quite ready to move onto the next film to watch when it was finally over. No, I do not mind the extreme violence in the movie, but I was quite dissatisfied with how it is presented on the screen, and it is simply not worthwhile to watch at all in my inconsequential opinion.