REVIEW:
This is an enjoyable, kid-friendly and somewhat smart Christmas movie. I say somewhat start because the idea of how Santa delivers the presents on Christmas Eve, utilizing top notch elves in secret stealth mode is genius. And we’re not just talking about a small group of elves, but about an army. Santa doesn’t travel in a sleigh, he travels in a space ship. So this is the futuristic Santa movie, and that idea is pretty unique and cool. But the movie ends up making the case that simpler is better and that the old way was the right way, as Arthur, the son of Santa, has to bring back the sleigh and reindeer to deliver one last present the old fashioned way.
We’ve seen a bunch of movies about relatives of Santa having to help out or take over at this point, (Noelle, Fred Claus, The Santa Claus.) And it’s always about saving Christmas. So this movie doesn’t actually veer that far off from the usual story, and the second half, where Arthur gets stranded in the water, Cast Away-style, definitely less steam. But even still, for the futuristic approaches to Santa alone, this movie is worth the time.