As a light flashes across the screen, I watch Santa Claus’s bodyguard shrink into a smaller version of himself to dodge evil snowmen’s attacks. The cringey combat scene is nothing new, following an exhausted movie trope, and I feel my initial excitement drain quickly.
The anticipated Christmas movie “Red One” is an action comedy released to theaters on Nov. 15. The movie follows Callum Drift, Santa Claus’s bodyguard, and Jack O’Malley, a hacker who specializes in tracking down individuals, who team up to track down and rescue Santa after he is abducted. However, the simple plot combined with the forced humor leaves the movie lacking major entertainment factors.
“Red One” revolves around a boring, unoriginal main plot: a character gets kidnapped, and a hero has to save them. By focusing efforts on amusement, such as through special effects and cheesy humor, the director did not ever expand on plot and character development, leaving the movie’s storyline a hot mess.
Specifically, the movie’s convoluted web of conflicts and character interests makes the plot scattered. The director attempts to create multiple plot objectives in “Red One”: fixing Jack’s relationship with his son, saving Christmas by finding Santa and helping Callum realize that not all adults have bad intentions. These jumps in theme and conflict not only overwhelm the audience, but also stop the movie from being cohesive.
Additionally, the movie struggles to find a specific target audience. “Red One” does not appeal to adults and teenagers, as the movie contains cheesy humor that younger kids would enjoy. However, the movie is not suitable for younger audiences due to its language and violence, leaving the movie without a target demographic.
The movie features many famous stars, including Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu and J.K. Simons. With this well-established and experienced cast, the movie had incredible potential to draw people in and play to the actors’ strengths in acting, yet it failed to capitalize on both.
For example, “Red One” features much awkward humor, which could have been less cumbersome by taking advantage of Johnson’s experience in action comedy.
In contrast to the plentiful negatives, some of the simple details added in make the movie amusing. Whether it is a cracked glass of milk left on the floor signifying that Santa was abducted, or an evil ice cream truck with the license plate “I-SCREAM,” the movie’s subtle parts added humor, making the movie charming despite its negative aspects.
The confusing storyline, bad use of the cast and poor production planning hurt the movie significantly, its only saving grace being its subtle humor. In an attempt to create an appealing comedy-action Christmas movie without thinking through the plot properly, “Red One” ends up as just another unremarkable holiday flick.
