Holiday movies have the power to perfectly capture the festive mood of the season. Even holiday movies with boring storylines, overused tropes, and bland acting can be enjoyable and heart-warming. Red One is just one example of a holiday movie that follows this trend, as the action-comedy manages to deliver a feel-good two hours despite being a subpar film overall.
Released on Nov. 15 and streaming on Prime Video on Dec. 12, the movie follows Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans), a cynical, self-centered hacker, and Callum Drift (Dwayne Johnson), a security guard of Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons), as they attempt to save Santa from kidnappers before Christmas Day.
The story begins with an introduction of the main characters and their day-to-day lives. Jack and Callum are portrayed as having lost their positive view of the world which immediately sets up an obvious arc for both characters.
Due to his negative view toward the modern holiday season, Callum turns in his letter of resignation before taking a walk around the North Pole. While on his walk, he witnesses Santa being taken by a group of mysterious captors who manage to escape, despite a badly produced CGI chase.
Meanwhile, Jack is kidnapped while walking to his apartment and his kidnappers are revealed to be Callum and his team of security from the North Pole. They explain that they had found out that Jack was tracking Santa previous to Santa’s capture. Jack denies knowing anything about the client who requested Santa’s location, but he agrees to help find him in return for a large sum of money.
Callum and Jack reluctantly agree to work together in order to return Santa to the North Pole before Christmas. They set off on a journey across the globe from Aruba to the lair of the mythological beast Krampus, right back to the North Pole in a final fight to save Christmas.
Right from the movie’s start common tropes of Christmas media, such as a lack of true Christmas spirit in the modern world, are emphasized, leading to an unimpressive hook. Moreover, none of the main characters were especially captivating or connected with me from their introduction, especially Jack, who is shown to be an outright bad person without any real redeeming qualities. Jack does have a few redemptive moments in the middle and a larger one at the end of the movie, but they never truly build up to a satisfying character arc.
Both Johnson and Simmons deliver unconvincing performances with Simmons failing to accurately depict the qualities that Santa is known for. Adding insult to injury is the dialogue, which falls flat the majority of the time, and jokes that only land a handful of times throughout the movie. Another issue with the dialogue relates to the overall tonnage of the movie. Despite the rating of the movie being PG-13, the childish tone of the movie makes the plot and conversations seem juvenile. However, the jokes and visual effects of the movie would not be appealing to a younger audience in many scenes.
Although some of the more intense and frightening visual effects clashed with the light-hearted tone of the movie, certain practical effects were the most impressive and enjoyable parts of the film. The costume of Krampus was one of the highlights as, by avoiding using CGI for the character, the filmmakers were able to make him seem much more realistic and in place within the scene. Krampus’s lair was one of the overall highlights of the movie due to all of the practical costumes of the mythical monsters within the scene which made them seem as if they were real and belonged in the world of the movie.
The CGI unfortunately did not maintain the same quality as the practical effects as the CGI used for the backgrounds and setting of the North Pole appeared completely artificial and fake. The characters depicted in CGI also had a plasticky appearance that occasionally broke the immersion within the scene.
The quality of the CGI also seemed to decrease near the end of the film, which by the 90-minute mark, already feels dragged out despite the half an hour still left of the movie. An anti-climatic scene against the captor almost ruins the entire movie, but it is redeemed by a sleigh ride that finishes up the movie on Christmas Day.
Even with all of the below-average aspects of the film, I’m a sucker for anything holiday-related, and Red One is filled with the staples of any Christmas movie. This movie manages to pack in two main characters who discover the true meaning of Christmas, a race against the clock to deliver presents all over the world, and even some of the spookier aspects of Christmas such as Krampus.
In the end, I enjoyed Red One more than I probably should have, but in my defense, the movie is the perfect accompaniment on a do-nothing winter day or the perfect background noise for decorating cookies or setting up decorations. If you need a mindless pick-me-up this holiday season, feel free to add Red One to your list of choices.
I would recommend Red One to fans of more adventurous and action-packed holiday movies such as The Christmas Chronicles and The Polar Express.
6/10
