With the Christmas season near and repeats of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” playing on the radio, it was only time before we got a proper seasonal Christmas movie. Fortunately, Red One fits perfectly into this category as an action-comedy. When Santa Claus (played by J.K. Simmons), code named “Red One,” is mysteriously kidnapped, Callum Drift (Dwayne Johnson, A.K.A The Rock) and Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans) venture on a mission to find him.
The plot starts days before Christmas, as Santa and the E.L.F. team prepares for Christmas. Callum Drift, the head of the North Pole’s Enforcement, Logistics and Fortification, a.k.a. E.L.F., gives his resignation letter to Santa after being disheartened by unspirited adults, hoping to do one final Christmas run before leaving the team for good. However, as Callum reflects on his decision, Santa is kidnapped by an unknown force. Then Jack O’Malley, a middle aged man who specializes in hacking into systems legally, is hired by E.L.F. to find the person who hired him to break into their systems. Both Callum and Jack team up and are forced to get past their differences in order to save Christmas.
The main antagonist, Grýla, is a shapeshifting witch that wants to punish naughty people all over the world, so she kidnaps Santa Claus to do so. She is played by Kiernan Shipka, portrayed as a beautiful woman, until the final battle, where she turns into her canonical mythical appearance, a viscous, Icelandic ogress. The second antagonist in the movie is Santa’s estranged stepbrother, Krampus. He started out as Santa’s companion, helping him give presents out to children every year, but later decides that bad children do not deserve presents. According to the movie backstory, Krampus and Grýla dated each other for a while because they agreed that children had to be punished for acting badly. In original folklore, Krampus was especially popular in Central Europe, described as Santa Claus’ partner, who punishes mischievous children. The movie depicts him similarly to the canonical appearances, a mix between a demonic form and a goat. The movie’s attention to other folklore stories are what make it so interesting, as you never knew which christmas creatures would appear next.
However, as funny as this movie may be, there are some unnecessary moments. When Jack is forced to find who hired him, they travel by portal to Aruba and to a beach, where they find a mafia boss they need to interrogate. When the mafia boss tells them that Grýla hired him, Grýla uses her magic to possess him. This scene is immediately followed by a fight scene when she releases the mafia boss, and giant snowmen come out to freeze the mafia boss to prevent him from talking more. This seems highly unnecessary, as if Grýla had the power to possess the mafia boss, she should have had the power to get rid of the mafia boss in the first place. If they had better reasoning as to why she couldn’t get rid of the mafia boss herself this would have made that scene more understandable, rather than having an ice cream truck with ‘ISCREAM’ license plates come out of the sea after a huge display of power. However, this is a fantasy action movie, so while it may not make sense realistically, it is entertaining to watch characters fight giant snowmen.
If you allow yourself to just go along for an amusing trip, touching on folklore, fantasy elements, techno spy hacker thrills and the redeeming of the antihero Jack in the movie, it’s a family friendly action Christmas movie that will definitely keep you entertained. This movie puts attention into the small details of other folklore rather than just Santa Claus, making it family friendly for all ages to watch and enjoy with a cup of hot cocoa.