There’s been an obvious trend over the last few years regarding Christmas movies. They recently tend to tilt in one of two ways. First, you have the bright-as-can-be holiday romance, where you follow an entertaining but formulaic story from the meet-cute to full-blown yuletide bliss. The other is the rather disturbing direction of violent slasher-type films. There aren’t that many notable family-friendly Christmas movies lately.

Enter Red One, which, at PG-13, is the closest thing in a long time. And while it does have fistfights and explosions, it also delivers a warm fuzzy feeling department.

Right before Christmas Eve, Santa Clause, played by J.K. Simmons, is kidnapped from his residence (more a small municipality, really) in the North Pole, and it is up to his man Friday and head of security, Callum Drift (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) to find him. Burnt out and disillusioned after a few centuries of service and what he views as mankind’s slow descent into naughtiness, Callum was ready to throw in the towel. But now that his boss and friend are missing, he must stay on and get Jolly old St. Nick is back safely.

With him are Zoe, the head of a mysterious secret agency played by Lucy Liu, and a giant but immediately lovable polar bear enforcer named Garcia. Chris Evans joins them as Jack O’Maley, information broker, hacker, all-around shady character, and level 4 naughty-lister.

He’s got the least Christmas Spirit in him than anyone and is the last person in the world you’d expect to rescue Santa Clause. He is, however, very good at what he does, so he’s reluctantly dragged into the search.

It's a search-and-rescue twist on the usual saving Christmas premise, and this particular chase leads our protagonists worldwide. Balancing the action-adventure angle with the holiday cheer is tricky in films like this. But in this case, director Jake Casdan, working off of a script from Fast and Furious scribe Chris Morgan, manages to walk that fine line.

What catches your attention is the world-building that went into the film. It approaches the story of Santa Claus from a modern perspective, updating it for the times. 

Think Rise of the Guardians, but not animated. One could argue that adding unnecessary detail and explaining things gets in the way of the mystery and magic of Christmas, and for some people, that might be true. Did we as kids question how Santa got around in just one night or how his sleigh was pulled across the sky by reindeer? No, we chalked it up to Christmas Magic.

But in a cinema landscape filled with superheroes and linked universes and multiverses, some embellishment and fleshing out of some well-told tales will be appreciated by those fanboys and girls who live for the minutiae of their fandoms.

The film also introduces us to a different side of the mythology that surrounds the Yuletide season, such as Santa’s brother/partner (depending on which sources you find), Krampus who punishes naughty children instead.

There is so much here, particularly with Lucy Liu’s shadow agency, that can be a foundation for a franchise. If they have a sequel, I’m asking for the Yule Cat, who eats children who do not receive any new clothes for Christmas. That should make all you young ones out there thank your grandmas for those socks she always gives. I, for one, wouldn’t mind a dependable recurring holiday film series. And Red One could be just the thing.