Red One (2024) Review!!

Synopsis – After a shocking abduction from the North Pole, the Commander of the E.L.F. Task Force must partner with the world’s most infamous bounty hunter to save Christmas.

My Take – Known once upon a time as a franchise savior, Dwayne Johnson‘s impeccable track record came to screeching halt with the failure of Black Adam (2022), one of the final installments of now dead DCEU, and dump fire that was Red Notice (2021).

His latest too, which sees The Rock re-team with director Jake Kasdan, of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019) fame, aims to be the first of a Christmas franchise, clearly hoping to cash in on the ongoing trend of action-packed holiday flicks.

Written by Chris Morgan, known mainly for his work on the Fast & Furious franchise, from a story by Hiram Garcia, Johnson‘s production partner, the resulting film is an oddball mix of a globetrotting spy thriller and a magical fantasy that serves up a CGI-heavy action comedy with a disarming sweetness only to see it get all undone by its generic approach and some tired blockbuster conventions.

What’s more alarming is how its narrative falls into an ill-considered audience no man’s land. In the sense, it’s too intense and serious for little kids (the visit to Krampus’s castle) and too bland to attract teens and genre fans. Nevertheless, keeping in mind that this is a Christmas feature ultimately intended for family viewing, the laughs, sentiment and action should satisfy undemanding audience. And the story’s world-building offers enough novelty to what is otherwise a predictable package.

And although the idea of a Christmas cinematic universe might initially seem like not a bad idea, considering how Tim Allen got to lead three films and a two-season Disney+ series as Santa, the BTS drama specifically around how the filming ran into issues with Johnson. Who was apparently an average of seven to eight hours late to film his scenes and missed several days of shooting. Delays that reportedly increased the budget by $50 million to a total of $250 million. This one is ultimately a non-franchise starter.

Set in a world where Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons) actually exists, the story follows Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans), an unscrupulous opportunist who is introduced as a mouthy preteen boy (Wyatt Hunt) collecting cash from his cousins in exchange for what he claims is definitive proof that Santa Claus does not exist. Thirty years later, he is surfing the dark web, operating as the world’s greatest hacker/tracker for hire, under the alias “The Wolf.”

Elsewhere, Callum Drift (Dwayne Johnson), who heads the North Pole security team, Enforcement, Logistics and Fortification (E.L.F.), and is responsible for Santa’s protection, after a few centuries of working together, has decided to resign, making this their final Christmas together. As unlike Santa aka Nick, Cal can no longer see the good in people.

Meanwhile, Jack after being paid handsomely by an anonymous employer to hack the Intercontinental Seismic Surveillance System, identifies a North Pole entry point that has remained concealed for centuries. Soon after, a highly coordinated tactical unit has penetrated the dome and made off with Red One while Cal is left chasing decoys.

The emergency situation prompts M.O.R.A., the Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority, to spring into action. The organization’s director, Zoe Harlow (Lucy Liu), tracks down the purportedly untraceable and level 4 naughty lister Jack and then strong-arms him into teaming up with Cal to rescue Santa from the Christmas Witch Grýla (Kiernan Shipka), a 900-year-old shapeshifter.

Though the “save Christmas” bit is familiar, as are the mismatched heroes, there are some fun moments here. Here, writer Chris Morgan‘s screenplay imagines the North Pole headquarters as a high-tech mission control equipped with a formidable commando force that even includes a talking polar bear. The film even boasts some clever twists on Father Christmas’ iconography like Santa Claus is not chubby but, rather, jacked beef cake with some serious moves.

This is a film that aims for mythological intrigue and rollicking adventure but sadly often becomes more bloated than necessary. Though the mirrored arcs of the two leads – one a guy who never believed in Christmas; the other someone who’s lost his faith in people – are well delivered, but so much of the rest just feels generic: an action scene here, a random bit of mythology there.

The film certainly leans into the camp factor, taking itself so seriously that it whips back around to being totally absurd, and 100% committed to the bit, with dialogue about the Naughty List that sounds like they could be talking about nuclear codes. From killer snowmen with the ability to freeze whatever they touch to gargoyle hellhounds chasing a wild chicken and Cal using a special device to turn toys into real items, the set up believes bigger is always better.

No idea seems too outrageous as director Jake Kasdan commits to every preposterous premise and possibility. In truth, watching a film like this one, it’s all too easy to become cynical about its occasional dodgy CGI, ludicrous action scenes, and formulaic plot. It’s loud, flashy, and embodies every negative quality of a Hollywood blockbuster that received a big budget purely because of the people involved. On that basis alone, I guess, it delivers it what it sets out to do from the beginning.

It helps that Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans are a good comedic match, with Johnson carrying the overall seriousness of the scene and injecting the morality one hopes to find in any self-respecting Christmas film, while Evans is delivering all the satirical comedy by basically acting against the type people have previously seen him in. The awesome J.K. Simmons makes for an endearing Santa whose passion for his job has never wavered.

The always excellent Lucy Liu, Bonnie Hunt and Kristofer Hivju are sadly not in the film enough. Kiernan Shipka does her best with the role of wicked Christmas witch Gryla. On the whole, ‘Red One’ is a watchable yet bloated Christmas themed action adventure that struggles in balancing its lightness with the overwhelming dictates of a big-budget spectacle.