Red One and Moana 2 – Movie Reviews

Directed by Jake Kasdan (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and The Next Level), written by Chris Morgan, and starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, and JK Simmons, Red One begins when Santa Claus is kidnapped the day before Christmas, it is up to E. L. F. Agent Callum Drift and tracker Jack O’Malley to find him and save Christmas.

Happy I finally went to see this because I wanted to determine if it was as bad as everyone was saying. I’m happy to say that they are correct. The story, characters, acting, cinematography, CGI, and world-building are all just *bleh*. It’s all serviceable nonsense—a movie made for streaming but with a $250 million budget. There’s just nothing actually memorable about this film, except for you, Krampus (you and the makeup team did amazing). It feels like it was made for people to “watch” while on their phones.

What I hated most was that this is supposed to be a Christmas movie, but they removed all the Christmas magic in favor of light U. S. military propaganda, strict schedules, Ant-Man technology, and trolls. It’s not to say it can’t be done. I think of The Santa Clause and The Polar Express, where those elements are present, but they aren’t included at the sacrifice of Christmas magic. All in all, Red One is everything wrong with big-budget Hollywood films these days—a movie made to appeal to as many people as possible, and therefore, it’s made for no one. Not recommended at all.

‘Red One’ Rating – 1.5/5

Directed by David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, and Dana Ledoux Miller. Co-written by Jared Bush, Dana Ledoux Miller, and Bek Smith. Starring Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson. Moana 2 revolves around our titular character, who is on her way, finding her path, trying to locate other inhabited islands when she gets a message from her ancestors on how to find them.

There is no way dancing around this: Moana 2 is a significant downgrade from the first film. It isn’t awful like I feared it would be, but it’s not great either. Most notably, the songs are not as catchy or don’t capture the mood of the universe. The story lacks a deeper substance than just “work together.” The new characters have a charming moment here and there, but mostly, they are forgettable. Maui being sidelined doesn’t help.

You can tell this was supposed to go to streaming until they changed it at the start of the year. If there is something positive that comes out of this, they might realize they simply can’t make as much money on streaming as they thought and need to condition people to go to the movies again. As I said, it’s not bad; it’s just not as mature as the first film. All in all, Moana 2 has its moments, but I’d rather just watch the original again. Not Recommended at all.

‘Moana 2’ Rating – 2/5

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