(Image courtesy of IMDB.) “Despite its all-star lineup, ‘Red One’ fails to capture holiday magic.”
Aaron Preziosi
Connector Editor
With the holiday season approaching, a new wave of festive films and TV shows is close behind it. Some are great and turn out to be classics like “Elf,” “Home Alone,” or “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.” Others are not so successful, like this year’s “Red One,” whose cast alone serves as an indication of the film’s budget. Featuring Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, J.K. Simmons, and Lucy Liu, “Red One” promises a holiday romp full of action stars gassing themselves up, lots of mayhem, and plenty of CGI action.
The film feels uninspired, using Christmas spirit as a thin wrapper for The Rock to flex his muscles and act tough while Chris Evans does his best to be a comedic foil. The visuals are dark and overly serious, seemingly forgetting it is meant to be a Christmas film at every turn. The film’s answer to every dilemma is either over-the-top violence or insufferable self-importance. The writing is torn right out of “Guardians of the Galaxy” (which is a fine film, but that’s beside the point), and leaves the film unable to decide if it wants to be a high-stakes, action packed blockbuster or a lighthearted holiday jaunt, and ultimately fails to be good as either.
What “Red One” does excel at is simply being mediocre. It is good at being an unsubtle, two hour, $250 million celebration of Hollywood giants hyping themselves up with half-serious writing, as if they are never quite in character throughout the entire film. Even with a 90% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, “Red One” is struggling to make profit. Having been released on Nov. 15, the film has been out for a little over a week and has only grossed around $90 million worldwide, barely half of its budget. Combined with extremely negative reviews from critics, the film is struggling to perform where it matters the most. Turning to Rotten Tomatoes, one critic says “Red One” is a “ho-ho-ho-hum action-adventure.” Another says, “doesn’t have a single original bone in its body,” and that it feels like “an amorphous mixture of different elements that worked better in other (and superior) films.” The general critical sentiment surrounding “Red One” is that it relies too heavily on CGI, lacks chemistry, loses its holiday cheer to constant action and mayhem, and has very little meaningful character. Yet another critic calls it “a lifeless, ugly Christmas movie shrouded on CGI slop without an iota of joy.”
To say critics are not enjoying “Red One” would be a drastic understatement. However, the audience is seemingly having a much better time. Some audience members praise the film’s fantastical premise and over-the-top delivery, and others call attention to the lack of nuance, saying “most movies aren’t made to be artistic masterpieces… it might offer a serving of cheese every now and again but not as much as most other secular Christmas movies.”
“Red One” will undoubtedly remain in theaters for some time, so perhaps it’s worth going to see. However, if critics are to be believed, that may not be the case. It certainly wasn’t when viewing for the purpose of review.
Grade: F
