What visuals come to mind when you think of a Christmas movie?
Happy families. Happy homes decorated with Christmas trees, stockings and presents. Cute and fluffy Santa Claus spreading the holiday cheer. Lively neighbourhoods. Feel good, celebratory vibes with dash of drama.
Well, Red One is the exact opposite of that set up.
Holiday season is not all fun and games, its capitalism and everyone’s on their worst (or naughtiest) behaviour on earth.
AND Santa isn’t all soft and chubby. He’s a charming, weightlifting, go-getter who’s on a mission to protect the innocence on Christmas.
If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ll know it’s a Christmas film with a twist.
Santa Clause gets kidnapped and his entire brigade along with a mortal come together to find and save him.
Now, all this is wonderful and a great setup for a new-age Christmas film. However, what you see in the trailer are the best portions of the film, leaving the remaining 120 minutes a huge drag.
What could’ve been a clever take on the essence of Christmas in a fresh action-comedy, is a long boring film where even the actors look bored.
The film starts on a high but soon becomes a mishmash of mythology, magic, good versus evil, drama versus comedy…
I terribly wanted to enjoy the film and looked for positive elements. But the film is another perfect example that no amount of technical brilliance such as supreme CGI, set design, costumes or BG makes up for an underwhelming screenplay.
If I can’t connect with the story, I can’t connect with the film.
Red One is a Christmas Avengers film, except I’m not sure who the target audience is – kids, adults, sci-fi lovers, dramedy enthusiast or Christmas movie-lovers.
