Rating: 3/10
The latest outing from Hollywood superstar Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, “Red One,” proves to be yet another lackluster and uninspired dive into the action-comedy genre for the former wrestling star.
Partnering yet again with filmmaker Jake Kasdan, who most notably collaborated with Johnson on “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” as well as its sequel, “Jumanji: The Next Level,” “Red One” finds the popular actor-director duo playing it remarkably safe, trending closely to the preestablished formula they are known for with their past works.
The film begins with an admittedly fun and interesting premise in which a government organization oversees the operations of Santa Claus every Christmas Eve, playing on several tropes and elements of the mythology surrounding the holiday creatively and entertainingly.
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The situation escalates further when Santa is kidnapped under mysterious circumstances on the night of Christmas Eve, with the film then unfolding into a more action-driven approach.
After this inciting incident sets in, much of the Christmas-themed comedy is dropped, and the film quickly spirals into another generic action movie featuring Johnson as the stereotypical stoic, “tough guy” action hero.
It’s difficult to consider this a Christmas film as it loses much of its genre identity after roughly 20 minutes. The film is disjointed in this regard, stuck in deciding whether it is an action, comedy or Christmas film, failing to succeed at being all three.
Outside of the original premise, the comedic elements of the film fell flat. While Johnson has proven his comedic chops throughout his past work, he changes little to nothing within his performance here, leading to a familiar and generic protagonist in his character, Callum Drift.
Johnson does not really play a character here; rather, the character serves as a platform to showcase his personality in an attempt to attract audiences.
Johnson’s co-star Chris Evans, who plays freelance hacker Jack O’Malley, is another example of how the film attempts to draw in audiences with star power, seeing as his character in the film is largely an extension of a popular Hollywood personality that audiences are already familiar with, leaving very little development or distinct qualities for his actual character.
The plot sees these two characters teaming up to save Christmas — but both Johnson and Evans lack any real on-screen chemistry and are completely miscast for the story the film wants to tell.
Visually, the film appears bland, uninspired and cheap despite its estimated $250 million budget. There is a lack of any real visual style or substance, with many of the action scenes consisting of poorly green-screened and animated CGI effects that appear dated, even by today’s standards.
Many creature designs and set designs for locations such as the North Pole also suffer from the lack of quality in the CGI.
To give some credit to the effects team, there is a scene at roughly the halfway mark in which Johnson and Evans’ characters visit Krampus (Kristofer Hivju). The film employs mostly practical effects, using costumes and makeup to portray Krampus and the other mythological creatures that inhabit his lair.
Overall, the effects are incredibly impressive throughout this scene, especially considering the mediocrity of the CGI effects that came before it. Unfortunately, this is the only scene that showcases this team’s talent, as immediately after it, the film returns to the same generic green screen and CGI effects found throughout the rest of its runtime.
“Red One” remains an incredible example of wasted potential. The talent, money and resources thrown at this film should have been more than enough to follow through on its initial premise and deliver a fun Christmas film.
