I just watched the new Christmas action movie, Red One, by Warner Bros. My expectations were low coming into the movie, and the movie still failed to entertain me. This movie follows Santa Claus’s bodyguard and the world’s best tracker as they embark on a mission to rescue Santa after he is kidnapped.
In Red One, the protagonist, Jack O’Maley, helps an anonymous group find seismic activity in the Arctic, which secretly is the North Pole. This group abducts Santa Claus to steal his power and hurt everybody who has done anything immoral. Santa’s bodyguard and closest friend Callum Drift, is set on finding Santa with the help of Jack O’Maley within 24 hours to save Christmas. By teleporting through mystical portals in the utility closet of toy stores, they find themselves all over the world to fight evil snowmen, and slap fighting Santa’s brother, Krampus, they try to the hideous ogress who has kidnapped Santa.
Chris Evans, who plays Jack O’Maley, does a good job in his part where he is an often absent father of one, and the world’s best tracker who has committed several things that are considered naughty, and most important of all, a non believer of Santa. Dwayne Johnson plays Callum Drift and does a mediocre job even though it is a very easy part to play as a body guard that devotes his entire life to serving Santa Claus. Kiernan Shipka is the main antagonist who wants to punish everyone who has done anything immoral in their life. Shipka is neither good nor bad because she seemed very robotic, but I could also see that she was a very evil person.
The cinematography in this movie was amazing, especially when Santa would ride his sleigh. The reindeers’ horns are illuminated and they walk on the Northern Lights. This movie needed a lot of special effects because they deal with so many mythical creatures, so I was very happy with the way that they turned out in the film.
I thought that most of the outcomes of this movie were very predictable. I knew from the very beginning where Santa was being held captive, I knew that Krampus was not going to know where his brother was, and finally I knew who was a shapeshifter and who wasn’t because whoever was a shapeshifter acted very poorly. It seemed to me that everything that was going to happen in the end was foreshadowed in the first thirty minutes of the movie.
While watching this movie, I learned that it is better to help others that are in need than to be selfish and only help myself. I think that others will understand the same moral that was perceived as me. The movie made this theme very clear as they mentioned it many times throughout the movie.
Red One is rated PG-13. The group that would most likely enjoy this movie would definitely be kids around the age of 8-12. Though there are many times where vulgar language is used, kids that still believe in Santa, or kids that enjoy action should watch this movie. I agree to put this movie into the PG-13 category.
The plot of the movie was out of control and it felt like there was a new setting every ten minutes, and I could predict the outcome of the movie after watching it for a half an hour. The special effects on this movie definitely made this movie better, but they can not carry it too much. I would rate this movie a 2 out of 5 stars.
