When Amazon and MGM announced Red One starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans, I wasn’t sure it was going to be a good movie at all. The trailers looked pretty good with all the action and Christmas mythology stuff, but yeah I never really had high hopes for it honestly. I mean, I grew up watching movies like Jingle All the Way with Arnold Schwarzenegger and The Santa Clause films, so yeah, action-packed Christmas movies is not something new, but it’s been a while since we got something like this on that scale with big budget and big names attached to it.
Red One 2024 Review Scores
| Review Platform | Rating Score |
| MovieSharp | 6/10 |
| IMDB | 6.2/10 |
| Rotten Tomatoes | 30% |
| Metacritic | 34% |
Review scores are based on publicly available data collected on December 20, 2025
So the movie came out November 2024, directed by Jake Kasdan who also did Jumanji movies with The Rock, and honestly those Jumanji films were pretty entertaining (Rock being Rock I guess), so I had some hope that maybe he can pull off something similar here with Christmas theme.
The plot is simple enough, Santa Claus gets kidnapped on Christmas Eve and Dwayne Johnson who plays Callum Drift, the head of North Pole security, have to team up with Chris Evans character Jack O’Malley who’s some kind of hacker bounty hunter guy to find Santa and save Christmas before it’s too late.
Now the thing about Red One is, it’s enjoyable while you watching it, like you’re entertained for those 2 hours, there’s action, some decent CGI effects with mythological creatures and stuff, J.K. Simmons playing Santa which was fun to see. But once the movie end and you walk out of theater or turn off the TV, you realize that there’s really nothing memorable about it, like it’s just another generic Christmas fun movie that you watch once and probably forget about it by next week.
The biggest problem I have with this movie is that it feels like Dwayne Johnson is literally just playing himself again, like same character he plays in every single movie. That tough guy who’s strong, bit serious, then crack some jokes here and there, have some emotional moment..it’s the exact same thing we’ve seen in Black Adam, in Jungle Cruise, in Jumanji, in like half of his Movies at this point.
Don’t get me wrong, I like The Rock, he’s charismatic and all, but at some point you want to see him actually acting as different character instead of just being Dwayne Johnson in different costumes and settings. It’s gotten to the point where I can predict every single line delivery and facial expression he’s gonna do before he even do it.
Chris Evans was trying to do something different here I think, playing this cynical guy who don’t believe in Christmas magic anymore and all that, and he does bring some energy to his role compared to The Rock. But even his performance is not enough to carry the movie because the script just don’t give him much to work with beyond basic character arc of “guy who don’t believe learns to believe again” which we’ve seen million times in Christmas movies. Evans has shown he can do comedy and serious roles well in other films, but here it feels like he’s just going through the motions.
The movie cost like $250 million to make which is absolutely insane amount of money for a Christmas movie. For context, that’s around same budget as Avatar (2009), Spider-Man: No Way Home, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 or The Lion King remake. And honestly you can see where some of that money went with the visual effects and action sequences, but lot of it just feels wasted on stuff that don’t really add anything meaningful to the story.
There’s reports that came out saying The Rock was showing up late to set everyday which added like $50 million extra to the budget, and if that’s true then that’s just unprofessional and explain why the movie feel bit rushed and not well thought out in some parts.
The movie only made about $186 million worldwide at box office which mean it’s definitely a flop financially, didn’t even make half of what it cost to produce not counting marketing expenses. It opened with $32 million in US which is not terrible but definitely not good enough for a movie with this budget and these stars. Critics absolutely destroyed it too, it got 30% on Rotten Tomatoes which is pretty bad, with most reviews saying it lack the Christmas magic and heart that makes good holiday films work.
But here’s the thing, the movie did find success on streaming when it released on Prime Video in December 2024. It got like 50 million views in first four days which is huge, and became one of the most watched films on Prime Video. So maybe this was always meant to be streaming movie and they should have just kept it that way instead of doing theatrical release, because lot of people seem to enjoy it as background Christmas movie they can put on while doing other stuff at home.
I think this movie could have actually been good if they got someone else to play the main character instead of Dwayne Johnson, someone who can bring more range and depth to the role. And maybe if they improved the plot to make it more interesting beyond just “find Santa before Christmas” basic premise. The worldbuilding with MORA organization and all the mythological creatures had potential to be something cool, but it all feel surface level and underdeveloped.
The action scenes are okay, nothing spectacular but not terrible either. The CGI is hit or miss, some parts look good while other parts look bit cartoonish and fake, especially during the big fight sequences. The movie try to have this serious tone at times dealing with themes about belief and goodness in people, but then it switch to silly comedy moments that don’t really land, so the whole tone of the movie feel inconsistent and confused about what it want to be.
Lucy Liu is in this movie too playing some MORA director character but she’s barely in it and don’t get much to do which is shame because she’s great actress. Same with Kiernan Shipka who plays the villain, she’s trying but the character is not written well enough to be threatening or interesting villain.
Red One 2024 Review: Is It Worth Watching?
So do I recommend Red One? I mean, if you just want some mindless Christmas entertainment to watch with family during holidays and you’re not expecting anything deep or memorable, then yeah go ahead and watch it on Prime Video since it’s included with subscription anyway. It’s one of those movies that’s fine to have on in background while you decorating tree or wrapping presents, you can zone out for bit and come back and you won’t miss anything important.
But if you looking for a Christmas movie that’s actually going to stick with you and become something you rewatch every year like Home Alone or Elf or even newer ones like Klaus, then this is not it. Red One is just another Hollywood product that was made to fill content quota and make some streaming numbers look good, it’s not made with any real passion or creativity behind it. It’s perfectly average Christmas movie that you’ll forget about as soon as credits roll, and honestly that’s kind of disappointing given the talent involved and the massive budget they had to work with.
The movie prove once again that you can’t just throw money and famous actors at something and expect it to automatically be good, you need actual good script, direction, and performances that feel genuine. Red One has none of those things in any meaningful way, it’s just expensive mediocrity wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper.
Cheers to you all!
Watch the Official Red One 2024 Trailer!