What a blatantly average movie at best. The movie starts out bad, with a music video by Justin Bieber, no less. That pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the movie. He's singing Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. Couldn't he sing something original like what Mariah Carey did? Anyway, once that torture is over with, we start with the movie. The song plays briefly again, and we just wanted it to stop! Then we see these elves stealthy enter people's homes and try to deliver presents without being seen. This part was actually pretty cool and it starts off with some energy. After that whole scenario, the energy winds down as we are introduced to the plot. It seems it was a successful mission, or so they thought, as one present wasn't delivered to some little girl named Gwen. Arthur is determined to deliver this present, despite his brother Steve (played with cool by Hugh Laurie) and his dad Santa Claus not really caring and calling it a night. So Arthur takes his grandpa and some reindeer out to deliver the present in some wild adventure ride.
You see, the problem is: I just don't care. Arthur cares. His grandpa cares, but I don't. Apparently my friends didn't, either. The characters all seem one-dimensional aside from Hugh Laurie's portrayal of Steve and the filmed lacked all energy at this point. It was as if the film was being made because it had to. Aside from a couple of good scenes (the lions attack scene and Arthur getting back on the sleigh), this film was just one boring ride. Also, sometimes when the action is getting good, they keep cutting to someone talking and it drove me nuts! By the end of it, it was a forced happy ending and when I say forced, I mean FORCED! The words happy is practically shouted off on the screen as if to assure all the little kids that everyone is happy. Well, I really didn't care and the movie was pretty lame. Oh yeah, and the 3D wasn't very good and it was mostly blurry and nearly hurt my eyes!
If you want to go see a decent Christmas film, I suggest Harold and Kumar's 3D Christmas or better yet, catch Polar Express at the IMAX or something. This is a rather tame film, hanging off between average and below average, and it's best be a present left in its wrapping paper. I don't know where all these good reviews are coming from, but they steered this sleigh in the wrong direction!