5/5
Review by John P. Harvey.
The mission of delivering multiple parcels to billions of homes world wide annually with matchless speed requires the astonishing abilities belonging uniquely to the mythological person codenamed Red One — Santa Claus to the rest of us. According to the head of Red One’s security, Callum Drift (Dwayne Johnson), Commander of Enforcement Logistics and Fortification, Red One (J.K. Simmons) knows when you’re sleeping and knows when you’re awake — and whether you’ve been good or bad — and where you live.
Ne’er-do-well Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans) has always been an unfortunate Santa disbeliever. So when he uses underhanded means to obtain vital location information and sells it to a broker, he has no idea that he is providing the key to Santa’s abduction.
Once Commander Callum Drift — Cal — informs the Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority, MORA, of the breach in security and the abduction, its Director, Zoe (Lucy Liu), locates Jack, who is then obliged to help in the search for Santa — unwillingly at first — using a range of magical devices and magical infrastructure. For their teamwork to succeed, Cal must be able to trust Jack to understand that he mustn’t touch things in the mythological world. But Jack is… Jack. So of course one or two things get unnecessarily complicated.
The ensuing adventure, via many complications, has a dramatic peak, and I hope it’s not giving too much away to let you know that it ends well — but not before both Jack and Cal have undergone a good deal of punishing physical conflict with the forces arrayed against them.
Red One uses special effects well to manifest a story that seamlessly combines technomagical innovations with a great variety of Yuletide mythologies to establish a rich mythological world whose shocking reality even Jack is forced to acknowledge. Clearly aiming to provide family Christmas entertainment, Red One uses humour intelligently and wields its thoughtful morals with subtlety, even offering moments that are genuinely moving. Acted with subtlety and offering great action scenes and an uplifting soundtrack, it’s a film that everybody from teens upward can get a kick out of.