There are some critics who are broadly resistant to the streaming originals produced, with no real intent of a meaningful theatrical release. That’s basically how Netflix handles any film not seeking awards consideration,and therefore havoc, the new tom hardy action film, has to play well on your phone, tablet, TV, or if you are super fancy, home digital projector. It’s a reductive way of looking at film, as if anything not produced explicitly for theatrical release is somehow initially deficient at the start. Of course, anyone who sat through several of HBO’s original movies, or the Hallmark Hall of Fame series before they started churning out romances non stop, there were gems long before Netflix.
What Netflix does in its model is often throw large amounts of cash at auteurs. Sometimes it backfires, and you spend 330 million on The Electric State, a movie that most audiences are trying to unplug from their brains. But, sometimes the funding leads to The Irishman, where Martin Scorsese’s excessive budget can be met with no specific need for it to make a certain amount at the box office. Could you imagine if The Irishman was judged by a theatrical release? that film would never make what it would need to after all is said and done in order to be considered a hit, but with Netflix’s model we simply just enjoy the film for what it is. A Scorsese vanity project that is pretty damn good.
that brings us to Havoc, and allowing Gareth Evan’s the ability to make a film with a budget of unknown consequence, with no specific need to adhere to the whims of an MPAA. What we get is a relentlessly over the top and brutal action film, that plays its pervasive violence almost as ironic humor. People don’t just get shot and fall down, they get shot multiple times and blood sprays everywhere. It is as if Gareth Evan’s is pitching himself to Rockstar should they ever want a Grand theft Auto movie.
the plot of Havoc is needlessly overcooked, with Hardy playing a morally ambiguous detective who has to rescue the son of a politician (Forest Whitaker), and navigates the underworld of an fictitious city at Christmas. There’s a lot to unpack here, from the hint of human trafficking, to Hardy’s character recognizing his partner still is “one of the good ones” and strives to keep them away from the bad choices he has to make, to a subplot involving other corrupt cops. Timothy Olyphant, Luis Guzman, and Jessie Mailee co-star.
I think I enjoyed this more than most. Then again, i did not like the Extraction films, which seem to impress, so to each their own. You can have Extraction, and I’l take havoc. maybe I prefer the somewhat absurdist take on having a particular set of skills. And while the film is flashy, and has an eye for action, it also has audio description for blind and low vision users, which depending on what you are looking for either landed perfectly, or missed the mark.
On a basic level of description, the track absolutely gets you through the film from point A to point B. you will follow the plot, the characters, and the story. You will also have a pretty decent awareness of the action scenes. However, if you listen to anyone sighted talk about havoc, one of the first things they bring up is the over the top bloody violence. the description is rather cagey about embracing the style of violence, or pointing out the extremism in the intentionality of leaving behind a bloody mess. Could it have found more ways of leaning into Gareth Evans’s very specific choices when it comes to the high degree of chaos? probably. it definitely is worth thinking about.
I think we always want our audio description to not just be proficient, but to embrace the project it has been designed to compliment. Depending on genre and style, this can dictate a need for a slight deviation from the usual tone for similar films. havoc is just so intentionally bloody, it feels like a part of the film that should have been fully integrated into the track.
Havoc is a pretty enjoyable mindless action film, with a bit of an over extended plot, that is just there to hide the fact that Gareth Evan’s just really wants to punch things, shoot at others, and blow things up.
Fresh: Final Grade: B, Audio description: B