Not just bad, but very boring

I walked out after about 45 minutes, thankfully a friend of mine works in the cinema so I saw this for free but it truly is exactly what you said. Also really unfunny as well. Only just read now that it's written by Chris Morgan who also wrote 7 of the 11 Fast & Furious films.

Don't get me wrong the Fast films can be fun trash thanks to the ridiculous action sequences but Red One was just actual trash.

I expected to dislike it more than I did. But it's still very bland. I did like the idea behind the movie and some of the backstory like with Krampus. But they weirdly don't really do much with it. It's just a chase movie and despite the budget, it felt small. The stakes felt so low despite friggin Santa Claus being kidnapped! To your point, it did not ever look like it cost $250M. But for me, it was a short sit. I was kind of surprised at how fast we got to the climax.

Started decent. The middle was utter garbage. The ending was ok. Basically everything having to do with Christmas was ok. The rest was just digital trash nonsense action crap.

I like Johnson, but this movie was lousy. I paused it two or three times to see how much time was left, and groaned each time. I would've bailed except my wife wanted to see it.

Boring?! WHY?! Please explain!?