Red One – A Christmas-Themed Dud Action Blockbuster

Everyone has become, more or less, used to the assembly line action blockbuster whose only interest is to check the same boxes and recycle the same plot beats. A formula that continues to yield results, studios have little reason to change things up therefore more and more keep coming off that line. However, this also makes this subgenre of sorts tiresome for a growing subset of audiences. When it comes to Red One, the product is essentially the same, but somehow worse as it executes that aforementioned formula in an even lazier way. Bringing Christmas into the mix, thinking that it would help the film stand out, it merely smashes together all the clichés in the book and all the derivative themes one can think of, though with the kind of blockbuster budget that does nothing more than bring its many glaring flaws more into focus. That being said, in spite of those many flaws, a lot of audiences will inevitably still find something to latch on to. While stars Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, and an unusually buff J.K. Simmons are enough to warrant some interest, at least on paper, a terrible script and a sheer black hole of chemistry make it an epic dud that has no business being over 2-hours long.

The plot of Red One has basically been revealed across its many trailers and promotional material but just to recap, Santa Claus a.k.a. Nick (Simmons) a.k.a. Red One is real and has been kidnapped from the North Pole. Leading the efforts to bring him back before Christmas is Callum Drift (Johnson), the North Pole’s head of security. Reigning over the entire operation within the North Pole on top of protecting Nick for so many of years, it was a job he took very seriously. Though as far as rescuing Red One was concerned, it was a mission that he could not handle himself. Therefore, Drift was reluctantly paired with Jack O’Malley (Evans), an infamous bounty hunter who could find anyone everywhere. Playing these two polar opposite characters against each other, the film keeps tapping that well and taps it some more where unfunny humor and predictable hijinks ensued, something that better chemistry could have smoothed over. Bringing O’Malley in to the well-oiled machine that was the North Pole and the operation overseeing it and a whole world beyond (one that is too silly to even bother expanding on), his wisecracking outsider perspective as an audience analog was more unnecessary and irritating more than it was funny.

Predictably establishing a contrast between Drift and O’Malley, the film taps into that same well of derivative humor. Going out of its way to not address the actual plot, the two embark on an adventure across the world, looking for clues and constantly finding themselves in trouble along the way. With the kind of writing that amounts to throwing everything at the wall and hoping something would stick, the story presents more unnecessary subplots and lore that it then double downs on, the films snowballs into something that is much bigger than it ever needed to be. Producing a villain from that lore who doesn’t matter, and giving Drift and O’Malley their own predictable character arcs which matter even less, the film ultimately goes in the direction that it was always going to, but without the fun or excitement it had hoped to create. Meanwhile, its reportedly $250 million budget could be felt throughout, mostly as window dressing in bringing the world of the North Pole and various mythical creatures to life.

If there was actually some chemistry to be had between Johnson and Evans, maybe Red One could have seen a different fate. Barely individual characters, there is little distinction between Drift and O’Malley and Johnson and Evans as they go through the paces on their way to claiming their respective paychecks. Failing to sell their arcs whatsoever, not that they were well-written in the first place, they were on screen but never together in a compelling way. The supporting cast is an impressive one. Led by Simmons as Santa Claus, they all went through the paces with Simmons being the only one portraying any sense of effort.

At the end of the day, Red One is merely another generic, run-of-the-mill action blockbuster, devoid of creativity and chemistry whatsoever, wearing a Santa hat.

still courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.