fter a much-needed break from the constant planning, rehearsing, and logistical calculations of delivering billions of presents in a single night, Santa Claus (J.K. Simmons) heads back to his highly secretive North Pole headquarters on Christmas Eve. Despite a variety of protections and a well-trained E.L.F. security detail led by the formidable Commander Callum Drift (Dwayne Johnson), a band of unknown intruders breaks into the fortified building and kidnap “Red One.” With few clues to go on, Drift and Zoe (Lucy Liu), the determined director of a government agency tasked with safeguarding all mythological creatures, combine their forces to locate notorious computer hacker “The Wolf,” who also happens to be Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans), an unscrupulous scoundrel and generally absentee father to his son Dylan (Wesley Kimmel). Agreeing to help rescue Claus for a price, Jack goes with Callum to track down the broker involved in acquiring the jolly gift-giver’s location. But it’s not long before the unwitting rapscallion is wrapped up in a mystical adventure filled with reindeer, shape-shifters, witches, and an angry talking polar bear named Garcia.

“You don’t want to get on the naughty list, do you?” Perhaps reflecting a sizable portion of the cynics of the era, the lead character here is skeptical of all elements of karma; he’s a deadbeat dad, a degenerate gambler, irresponsible, lazy, distrustful, selfish, reckless, and unhealthy (his only two onscreen meals are pizza and churros). He’s also a wiseguy, a loner, and a thief, who also happens to be one of the best hackers in the world. Inexplicably, despite earning that reputation from more than one source, he still appears broke, driving a crappy car, living in a small apartment, and having negligible assets. In the film’s efforts to depict him as a stereotypical computer guy, they somehow forgot that his dark-web dealings would surely have netted him a more glamorous life, at least privately.

Nevertheless, the formula is apparent, with the standard faithless ruffian finding that his broad disbelief is challenged in the most jarring of ways – by witnessing outlandish preternatural entities and magical miracles firsthand. And his sudden confrontations with the supernatural are guided by a person with the opposite outlook: one of absolute faith. It’s quite the stretch that the mythologies behind Christmas tales would be largely accurate – save for the North Pole Complex being a futuristic metropolis of blinking lights, intricate architectural structures, and alien-like inhabitants, as well as the fact that no one ever mentioned that Santa has an oversized copilot bodyguard who rides on his sled with him.

The setup is, of course, a fantastical excuse for an action-oriented teaming of disparate soldiers, who get to solve the burning question of what it would be like if yuletide personas were thrust into the midst of a Marvel movie. And while Santa is himself a superhero, he’s not immune from plots and attacks by equivalent supervillains, with both sides employing plenty of heavily-armed, supernatural commandos, wielding hyper-advanced technology and weaponry. Unfortunately, with the attention to adventure, utilizing anthropomorphic beasts and sci-fi gadgetry, the physics and believability of visual stunts are utterly nonsensical and altogether absent, respectively.

“So much bad behavior out there …” Though Jack might be beyond redemption in a realistic setting (he literally steals candy from a baby in the introductory moments), the realm of this fantasy comedy allows for greater leniency (but not sensibility, since Jack continues to act shocked the second, third, and fourth times that he encounters otherworldly oddities). And since he’s partnered with someone staunchly serious about the mission, it becomes a comic clash of sobersided heroism and goofball antics, as well as a clash of cultures, personalities, belief systems, and existences.

Yet as “Red One” borrows a couple of concepts from “Cabin Boy” (itself a sendup of Harryhausen peplum) and a wealth of ideas from the Harry Potter movies, “Dungeons & Dragons,” “Hellboy,” and comic book flicks, it’s actually the subplot of Jack’s messy family affairs that stays most affective. For such a generic mix of other filmic properties, there’s a curious authenticity to his predictable realization that distancing himself from his son isn’t necessarily what’s best for the boy. Even when obvious problems arise – like how a puny earthling isn’t just immediately squashed by gigantic, immortal creatures – the dependable humanity of choosing to do good is plainly enjoyable. The picture may be unoriginal at times and downright silly at others, but the Christmas cheer at its heart is rewardingly uncomplicated. “Good tidings.”

– The Massie Twins