bbevis-47954

Episode 1 Impressions

I'm going to start this off by saying if you've liked any violent Korean revenge thrillers in the past two decades than Mercy for None will probably be your cup of tea.

The fight choreography is crisp and bloody with punchy SFX for each punch. Every hit connects with intensity and the camera moves around enough to keep fight scenes entertaining instead of disorienting.

The plot is not too bad either. It seems to be your typical run of the mill Korean revenge setup. Something happens that motivates an over powered character to want to exact revenge. It doesn't really bother me that much because I came for the action. The story is good enough to hold your attention, albeit a little confusing for the first 30 minutes.

The production design, cinematography are all top notch and I was surprised by the production values. Varied locations and slick cinematography help to make sure you eyes are never really board.

Mercy for None is great so far after one episode. The premiere did a good job hooking me and now I want to see what is going to happen next. If you're here for the action I don't think you will leave disappointed. As long as you can suspend your disbelief from time to time, but that is part of the fun!

The animation, voice acting, STYLE, soundtrack and setting create such a unique tone right out the gate for 400 boys. I had a hard time taking my eyes off the screen even If everything on screen was crazy.

Watching this short made me really want to go look up the animation team behind it, or whoever was responsible for the visual style because it was that unique.

This is one of those Love Death and Robot shorts that definitely leaves an impression after viewing it. 400 boys is a unique short that is tense, weird, cool and somewhat horrifying in a way. What a trip!

Now off to watch the rest of the season.

Oh Gareth Evans, you can direct an action sequence. Whether it's chaotic martial arts mayhem in The Raid 1 and 2, gore fests in VHS 2, or a full episode in Gangs of London where a house is being besieged by a bunch of mercenaries. Needless to say Gareth knows action. He also wears his influences on his sleeve, and he has stated in interviews, Havoc is a homage to the type of John Woo movies like Hard Boiled. Unlimited ammo, extremely over the top and tons of bloody squibs. That being said the action in Havoc is a brilliant homage to Woo and other filmmakers alike. The way sets explode and giving the audience no room to breathe is exceptional.

Now where Havoc goes wrong is everywhere else, and the trite story and awful writing are worse in Havoc than they were when Gareth attempted to expand the universe for the Raid series in the Raid 2. The Raid 2 delivered the action but everything else was tiresome. Havoc, has nothing to care about. Nobody to root for, no arcs...nothing. It's an empty-shallow-poorly assembled plot that was made to get the characters all in one place. It worked in the first Raid movie because there was barely any dialogue, it was all action.

Pacing is another weakness of Havoc. Where Havoc fails the most is getting the audience onboard during the first action sequence. The opening chase sequence is so poorly filmed, lit and edited together that its amazing it's the same director who did the car chase in The Raid 2.

Three big action sequences in Havoc and the opening sequence is a total stinker. That means the audience has to wait until roughly an hour into the movie before their pulse can start to quicken again. By then we've already had to sit through almost an hour of trite-poorly written storytelling that it's not surprised most people are checked out by then. If you make it to the hour mark you will be rewarded with a chaotic-bloody melee in a night club, followed by another chaotic shootout-melee in a remote cabin. Both are gory, intense and a ton of fun if you're aware of Havoc's homages.

Overall Havoc has about 25-30 minutes of fun in a Gareth Evans/Tom Hardy action vehicle. One that many fans, including myself have been waiting years for. Hopefully Gareth can take a humble pill and let someone else write for him for his next movie.