Red One

A confounding project that is clearly trying to be for all audiences (it’s weirdly kiddie-oriented, but feels more aimed at adults) and is so bad it ends up being for none.

The aggressively secular and gift-based systems of Red One are almost enough to prompt a moist-eyed holiday wish for more piously churchy seasonal entertainment.

This is the big American blockbuster of the week, and it is absolute crap.

“Red One,” a film that has the courage to ask: What if the Santa Claus story was like a Marvel movie?

With all its North Pole mayhem, Red One plays like a feature-length version of The Night the Reindeer Died, the Christmas movie spoof that kicked off Scrooged (1988). But that was satire, and Red One isn’t kidding.

But what “Red One” is really missing, what every Christmas movie worth its eggnog requires, is summed up in one word: magic.

If “Red One” is meant to mark the beginning of the filmic Christmas season, the holidays ahead look to be more dismal than anything.

I guess in the end, it sort of works.

Closer in kinship to an MCU extravaganza like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness than a Yuletide charmer like Miracle on 34th Street, this picture is busy busy busy as it sets up multiple storylines and creates new mythologies.

While it certainly does have its share of issues holding it back, you could certainly do worse than a so-so piece of family entertainment like this.