Energetic Red One an Action-Packed Yuletide Carol of Hopeful Resilience
It’s all too easy to roast Red One over a roaring yuletide fire. While the screenplay is credited to Fast & Furious go-to sequel scribe Chris Morgan (he’s written or co-written seven installments), and with a story crafted by Jumanji sequels producer Hiram Garcia, if any scenario felt like it was dreamt up by an AI algorithm programmed by analytically-minded studio executives who care only about the bottom line, it would be this one. Even with a budget sitting somewhere between a reported $200 to $300 million, many of the film’s omnipresent digital effects have a mushy and muddy quality that gives the overall picture a muted visual palate that’s frequently off-putting.
Those are the most glaring issues, and I could go on from there. But somehow, someway, director Jake Kasdan and stars Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, and Kiernan Shipka did just enough to keep me pleasantly distracted for almost all of their Santa Claus abduction epic’s 123-minute running time. Once jolly old St. Nicholas (J.K. Simmons) becomes the prisoner of wicked shape-shifting witch Gryla (Shipka) and North Pole head of security Callum Drift (Johnson) joins forces with selfish naughty-lister Jack O’Malley (Evans) to rescue him, I surprisingly managed to lean back in my IMAX theater seat and enjoy myself.
While I’m not about to complain about that, I admit that I’m still rather shocked by this. Other than a lovely bit in a crowded mall where Santa secretly becomes his own department store doppelgänger to interact with children two days before Christmas, the entire opening section is an unappealing slog. Everything looks like a video game. Nothing is real, even when it is. It’s as if a distracting digital sheen has been added somewhere in the film’s post-production, and this gives things a mutedly garish aesthetic I absolutely loathed.
It’s hard to say when it happens, but there is a moment between the time crack cybernetic thief and versatile con artist O’Malley learns that Santa (and a whole realm of mythological monsters, fairies, and demigods) is real and the second he confusedly strides into a tropical resort next to the forcefully determined Drift where I began to smile. Not broadly, mind you, but just enough that I noticed. There were some clever jokes involving toy stores, a Hot Wheels gag (obvious product placement notwithstanding) was a good one, and, most importantly, the chemistry between Johnson and Evans began to show signs of ignition.
I’m going to give much of the credit to Kasdan. While I’d love it if he could get off of the Johnson merry-go-round (this is his third production working with the actor after the double-bill of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Jumanji: The Next Level) and return to his wittily acerbic roots showcased in his brilliant 1998 debut Zero Effect, it’s still clear the director isn’t phoning it in. Most of the core action sequences have an energetic clarity reminiscent of 1990s favorites like The Rock or Con Air. He allows his actors the freedom to breathe and thus give life to their respective character’s emotional permutations.
Most of all, Kasdan isn’t afraid of color. Once the story is free from the confines of the North Pole the screen sparks to life with vibrant greens, reds, yellows, blues, and flashes of cottony whites. Outdoor sets appear to be mostly practical. “Sunlight” isn’t a bad word. There is a tactile physicality to the environments that allow otherworldly entities like belligerent snowmen to appear far more lifelike than they otherwise would have. These and other technical elements are all worthy of celebration.
Another thing that works exceedingly well is this adventure’s clever and imaginative makeup effects. There’s an elongated set piece where O’Malley and Drift venture into a secretive domain ruled by the demigod Krampus (Kristofer Hivju). While the scene is an obvious riff on the Jabba the Hut throne room sequence from Return of the Jedi, it’s still a lot of goofy fun. The bevy of monsters dreamt up by Kasdan’s creative team are good ones, and as inane as this brief sojourn by the two heroes was, for me, this sequence was easily this adventure’s highwater mark.
I can’t say I was all that amenable to the idea of transforming Santa Claus into a generic superhero complete with a buff physique and a leather suit more appropriate to battle Hydra’s minions while wearing than it was to deliver presents to all the world’s nice little children. But Simmons still does what he can with a rather thankless role, and he does have a few lines of dialogue that hit home. On the flip side, Shipka is a wonderful villain, and watching her gleefully ham it up as she greedily consumes every scene she’s in is a thing of seductively loathsome beauty. Sometimes a bad guy, even if they think the reasons for their evil have merit, is just plain bad. That’s the case here.
The climactic clash between good and evil is something of a snooze, the digital sludge from the opening once again making its ugly presence felt. But while I am as cynical about the current state of the human condition as anyone, Red One taps into something honest and hopeful. Right now, with all that’s going on in the real world, those aren’t emotional states of being I want to take for granted. More importantly, I’d like to believe I’m not the only one who feels that way.
Film Rating: 2½ (out of 4)
