Brush off your expectations of generic action movie names because "Havoc" by Gareth Evans delves deeper into chaos and calamity. This isn't about any garden-variety disaster, but a cocktail of confusion, frenzy, and dysfunction, promising to stir up more than just a couple of raised eyebrows.

Meet our hero, who makes Bruce Willis' torn up outfit in "Die Hard" look like fresh laundry. No mistaking Tom Hardy for anyone else as he slips into Walker's shoes, the best of the worst officers, spending his Christmas Eve in an imaginary city eerily similar to Gotham's dingier corners, with a triad controlling its underbelly.

As the story paces forward, glimpses of shattered flashbacks reveal Walker's life, serving as a less nefarious narc in an otherwise corrupt department. He's a rule-breaker by all accounts, including his own captain and Lawrence Beaumont's (Forest Whitaker), a real estate tycoon moonlighting as a mayoral candidate, whose career owes a debt of gratitude to Walker.

Sounds, uncannily familiar, right? Well, that's because it borrows heavily from the Shane Black universe, complete with Walker's cynical banter with rookie partner, Ellie (Jessie Mei Li), and a frantic Christmas gift hunt at a dingy 24-hour story, while unbeknownst to him, his corrupt colleagues are caught in a city-wide high-speed chase.

Cue in the semi-trailer filled with cocaine-carrying washing machines, racing to the freeway in an attempted escape. But, a sharp-eyed viewer might just pick up that it's camera tricks at play here, no real action happening. It's as if the movie apes "Speed Racer" special effects, without the intentional animated charm.

Cut to the crime scene, which is less of an organized criminal mastermind at work and more of an unstructured mess. Despite Evans’ proven expertise in directing intense action sequences, the plot seems stuck in a quagmire of convoluted conspiracies as they attempt to protect Beaumont's son, Charlie (Justin Cornwell).

What follows are a series of action scenes that abruptly fade into violent flashbacks, meticulously concealing the plot's crux. But fret not, because the all-out shootout offers a nostalgic nod to old school movies like "Hard Boiled" and "The Killer" with well-dressed Asian goons spiralling in slow motion amid blood-packed explosions.

Charlie and his girlfriend, Mia (Quelin Sepulveda), find themselves in the crosshairs of triad superboss "Little Sister" (Yeo Yann Yann), leading to a grisly nightclub showdown. If you make it that far, the wild clash, coupled with Aria Prayogi’s edgy score, is a dazzling spectacle.

While the action-packed club battle may serve as the main course for action lovers, it inevitably leads to a fatiguing cabin-bound climax that leaves few characters standing. All the bombastic gunfire, shallow characters, and slipping accents suggest Evans may thrive in a second-unit role in bigger franchises rather than helming a full-fledged feature.

What gives "Havoc" a bumpy ride, is Evans' struggle with the emotional underpinnings of the characters, proving handling interpersonal dynamics can be more challenging than choreographing an adrenaline-fueled action sequence. This ensures that his ambitious Netflix feature hits a note of discord, maybe even arriving stillborn to some audiences.