Red One: A Christmas Miracle or Magical Flop?

Ho Ho, Ugh! Red One wants to be a Christmas movie that has a little bit of something for everyone. In doing so, however, it never settles into a groove and becomes more of a mashup of ideas than an engaging story. There is some fun to be had, but it is inconsistent, and the emotional moments never truly land. It isn’t a lump of coal in your stocking, but it certainly isn’t the cool present you were hoping for.

It’s just before Christmas and Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons) has been kidnapped from his secret location at the North Pole. A snow Witch (Kiernan Shipka) is planning on punishing all the people on the naughty list and needs some of Santa’s magic to make it happen. Now, Cal (Dwayne Johnson), head of security must find him, but will need the help of Jack (Chris Evans), a permanent resident on the naughty list but a good tracker.

For the most part, Red One is like a lot of buddy comedies, but with a lot of Christmas themes and puns thrown in. Cal and Jack don’t like each other, don’t want to work together, but you know they’ll come to like and respect each other by the end. For most of the time, this works on a passable level. Both Johnson and Evans have decent chemistry, and both are generally likeable, even if Jack is kind of a jerk. If the movie had stuck to it just being the characters trying to find Santa, it may have worked better.

But Red One also wants to be an intense action movie with plenty of fight and chase scenes. Sometimes this works, and at others, not so much. They action sequences are generally well choreographed, but they lack any visceral impact. That’s generally because, most times, the action is undercut by some out of place humour. A fight scene with snow/ice men highlights the issue as the fight and humour seem to play against each other, rather than creating an enjoyable sequence.

Additionally, Red One suffers from trying to include too much Christmas lore, themes, puns and cliches. It’s as though the writers sat down one day and blurted out every Christmas idea they had and agreed to put it into the script.

“Snow witch” – “Sure”

“Krampus?” - “Yep”

“Toys turning into real objects?” – “Of course”

“Dwayne is going to want a weightlifting scene” – “Already working on it”

“Talking Polar bears?” – “Sounds great”

“Santa spouting gibberish?” – “Done”

“And of course we’ll need a montage of Santa delivering presents”

It just tries to throw too much in, and the movie never establishes an identity for itself. After watching it I’m still not sure what it wants to be. Worse yet, it spends so much time on all of this, that it doesn’t pay nearly enough attention to the emotional beat of the story, which is Jack’s relationship with his son. Jack is inattentive towards his son, and clearly needs to become a better parent. But the two have so little interactions, that any kind of reconnection between them lacks an emotional depth. It’s yet just another thing that happens in the movie.

I did like the way the movie looks, and some of the more magical settings add a nice flavour to the movie. The sets are well designed and is all very festive.  Any CGI is a bit of a mixed bag though. It’s generally very competent, but nothing you haven’t seen before. And there are a few moments that are shaky.

The cast is generally good, although the script lets them all down. Johnson and Evans are fine as the leads. They have good chemistry, although Johnson leans too much on the stoic but nice guy persona, and Evan spends too much time being gobsmacked at everything magical he sees. J.K. Simmons makes an interesting Santa but isn’t in the movie enough. And Lucy Liu is completely wasted. They all get the job done, but I wasn’t invested in any character.

Red One is never awful, but I can’t say that it is good either. There are some interesting ideas, but the script never pulls it all together. In the end, it feels like a bunch of ideas searching for a movie. I’m just not sure all those ideas should have been in this one. The action is never thrilling, the humour often falls flat, and it all feels very uneven. Those who are in the mood for something of a goofy Christmas action movie may find more enjoyment than I did. It just didn’t work for me. I just hope this doesn’t put me on the naughty list. I’ve already received enough coal.

Have you seen Red One? Are you planning to? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.