commandos get past the North Pole’s defenses and cloaking devices and kidnap Santa (J. K. Simmons). The Santa-nappers are led by Gryla (Kiernan Shipka), an actual evil female character from Icelandic Christmas mythology. Gryla also believes too many people are on the naughty list, but she has a more drastic solution. She wants to use Santa’s powers to shrink all the naughty listers and imprison them individually in her massive collection of snow globes.

Callum’s boss (Lucy Liu) sends him to get Santa back before Christmas Eve to avoid a worldwide disaster. Callum discovers the commandos hired a hacker named Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans) to get past the North Pole’s defenses. He finds Jack, who isn’t so much pure evil as weak, amoral, and selfish. Jack also has a teenage son who’s grown increasingly distant because of Jack’s inattentiveness. (Most moviegoers can see how this plot thread is going from as far away as the South Pole.)  

Most viewers will have little doubt about the eventual outcome of Red One. However, director Jake Kasdan and screenwriter Chris Morgan (who worked on several Fast and Furious”movies) conjure up some bizarre set pieces along the way. One that doesn’t work involves a battle in Aruba featuring now-reluctant allies Callum and Jack versus three giant snowmen who emerge from the ocean. Don’t ask. The more imaginative and successful set piece involves a trip by Callum and Jack to visit Santa’s brother, Krampus. In this storyline, Krampus rules his own domain somewhere in Europe. There, various misshapen creatures gather in a giant dining hall every night to get drunk and play Krampus’s favorite game, Krampusschlap. It’s a variation on the venerable drunken frat slapping game, where combatants take turns slapping each other’s faces until one quits. Here, Krampus (who is not a CGI creation but a heavily made-up actor, Kristofer Hivju) and Callum square off.

These two scenes’ descriptions show the strengths and weaknesses of Red One. Some innovative ideas work, like the sequence in Krampus’s lair. In another clever twist, Callum reveals to Jack that Santa’s operatives have installed portals in the janitor’s closets in every toy store in the world. Like a Star Trek transporter, these portals allow them to teleport from one location to another instantly. Other gimmicks are overblown. That’s most noticeable in the climactic sequence in which Santa’s loyal helpers, including Callum and Jack, square off against Gryla’s minions and. Eventually, Gryla herself joins the fray in her true form as a monstrous giant CGI-witch.

These extravagant, effects-laden battle scenes in Red One allow Dwayne Johnson to put his combat chops on display. They also explain how the movie’s budget ballooned to $250 million and straight out of Prime Video and into theaters. However, like all holiday films, Red One has a limited shelf life, especially with the twin powerhouses, Wicked and Gladiator II looming, a mere week away. While Red One might have been a decent streaming release like The Christmas Chronicles, its flaws are magnified on the big screen. Head-scratching set pieces and highly predictable holiday storylines fare poorly with audiences.

Casting Chris Evans as Dwayne Johnson’s co-lead doesn’t work either. Evans has played several smarmy villains in recent years, but he lacks the raffish charm to make his flawed character work. Ryan Reynolds (who played a similar role opposite Johnson in Red Notice, a non-holiday feature on Netflix a few years ago) would have been perfect here. Evans never quite bonds with either his son or Johnson in their scenes together.

For all its flaws, Red One has a lot to like. Krampus is a hoot whenever he’s on screen. J. K. Simmons is perfect as a buff Santa Claus, and Bonnie Hunt (who needed more screen time) is a delight as Mrs. Santa. Lucy Liu also has her best role since Elementary went off the air and is the only reason to look forward to a possible sequel. I even liked the CGI polar bear, who’s a member of Santa’s security detail. However, I can’t quite recommend the movie as a theatrical release. I suggest audiences wait a year and enjoy it when it gets a heavy promotion on Prime Video as its 2025 holiday release.