By John Corrado

Red One, directed by Jake Kasdan (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Jumanji: The Next Level), is a not as bad as it could have been but still thoroughly mediocre film that takes the Santa Claus story and turns it into a bloated, big budget action fantasy.

The movie (which played in theatres for a month before dropping on Prime Video) stars Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans as a sort of mismatched buddy comedy tag team. But the real draw here is J.K. Simmons as a ripped, muscular Santa Claus. And herein lies one of the main problems with the film.

While Simmons is a fun casting choice as a fit Santa, the Oscar-winning actor is also severely underused, being MIA for a lot of the running time. Instead, much of the story involves Santa’s bodyguard Callum Drift (Johnson), who runs security for Old Saint Nick.

Callum is the head of E.L.F. (Enforcement Logistics and Fortification). But he is having some yuletide doubts, and ready to retire, discouraged by the growing number of people on the naughty list. Things change when Santa is kidnapped, and Jack O’Malley (Evans), the hacker who leaked Santa’s location for money, is brought on to help track him down. The issue is that Jack is on the Naughty List (in fact, he’s a Level 4).

Callum and Jack are forced to team up to defeat Gryla (Kiernan Shipka), a Christmas witch who is hellbent on punishing naughty listers. The screenplay by Chris Morgan (Shazam: Fury of the Gods, several of the Fast & Furious movies) is dense with its own mythology, including introducing Krampus (Kristofer Hivju), a demonic figure with twisted horns coming out of his head. The North Pole functions as a sort of technologically advanced manufacturing and delivery hub, like an Amazon fulfillment centre run by fantasy creatures (including an anthropomorphic polar bear who walks on two legs).

This is hardly the first high tech take on the Santa story (the animated film Arthur Christmas did some of this, and better), and Red One‘s attempts at building up its own universe is both the film’s strength and weakness. The film feels bloated and overlong at just over two hours, and needed a much snappier pace. It also would have benefited from stronger, more organic chemistry between the two leads. Evans’ predictable portrayal of the brilliant, sarcastic deadbeat is matched by Johnson’s self-serious schtick, but a lot of the popping off between them feels somewhat forced.

The film’s attempts at sentimentality also feel forced, with Evans’ character being too one-note for the attempts at giving him an emotional backstory to really land. Like Simmons as Santa, Bonnie Hunt is a fine choice for Mrs. Claus, but she also feels underused. Lucy Liu rounds out the cast as the director of M.O.R.A. (the Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority), a secretive organization overseeing the mythological world that monitors all fantasy creatures, from the Easter Bunny to the Headless Horseman. We can tell how badly this wants to be the start of a new cinematic universe.

There are some fun elements in Red One (toy stores being used as portals is a cool idea, and the concept of Hot Wheels cars and other toys being “adjusted to reality” for everyday use is also sort of fun), and it is intermittently enjoyable as an action comedy. But we are left with a film that too often gets bogged down by its own attempts to do too much, giving way to dimly lit action sequences and some cheesy visual effects.

Sure, there is an audience of older kid viewers raised on cinematic universes who want something a little edgier out of their Christmas movies that will likely take to Red One. As such, it’s not a terrible streaming option to pass a couple of hours over the holidays. But maybe watch the Christmas classics first.

Film Rating: ★★ (out of 4)

Red One is now playing in select theatres and available to stream on Prime Video.