A merciless miscarriage of entertainment, marred in malevolence and merriment malpractice. This is the gluttonous belch of a film that seemed to have no understanding of the original film nor what made it enjoyable. Its almost as if it was dropped off at a Patrick Bateman level sociopath to watch and then create a film from, finding the only semblance of enjoyment derived from the torturous pain and misery inflicted on the undeserving characters in the film. It is an unabashed sin and even more remarkable endorsement of the film’s ethos that any type of cathartic enjoyment at the pain of villainous antagonists is expunged when they “flip the script” here.
In this film, the child is an unmoored and unapologetic demon of a lad; untethered from empathy, understanding, or emotional weight. He becomes the baddy, diabolically inflicting suffering and ruin on our would-be home-invaders - a bumbling couple, trying to scrounge their last shred of hope for keeping their house by recapturing their home-saving stolen property from the vile British hellspawn. Because of our empathy for them and their capitalist plight, every scaring misfortune and injurious ambush only feels mean spirited and uncalled for. There is no fun… there is no holiday spirit… there is only hollowed horror by way of spoiled savagery.
This film truly has nothing by way of entertainment. The closest we get is a quick appearance by the bully brother Buzz from the original film, but that is but a fleeting ‘Hey, that’s Buzz.” smirk, which quickly dissipates and drains into the malignant arsehole of apathy and loathing. If this is the modern interpretation of the beloved holiday tale, we might need to walk down our own Lego covered floor of the future - a dark night of the soul where we find hopelessness and ruin in our fate. A coming quagmire of compassionless imps, deconstructing the bonds of society and digging all of our graves with a compassionless shovel. Perhaps this is the true doctrine of the now; an expose into the monsters we have made and the impending downfall we all deserve.
Or maybe it's just a misguided failure of a film that lacks heart, hope, or holiday heft. All I can say is don’t watch it…your life might just depend on it.