In a similar style to many superhero movies still to date, Santa Claus: The Movie sets out to tell the origin story of how the world’s most indulgent gift-giver came to be. Whether this really needs to be told, and not left more as a magical mystery, this is the portion of the movie that works.

The second part revolves around current time in a big city where a childrens toy tycoon (John Lithgow) tries to steal the christmas for himself with an elf (Dudley Moore) living in exile. It all gets very disoriented fast and as good as Lithgow is as the villain of the movie, the script doesn’t give him much to work with.

While I appreciate the attempt to tie in the commercialization of the christmas with the whole concept, I found myself snoozing off a LOT at this point.

In the very end the film turns out to an action movie with chases and bombs – and somehow misses that whole christmas thing.

This is the kind of movie I wouldn’t mind having open in the TV in the christmas eve as just a background noise, if you know what I mean. As an actual movie I’d sit down and watch, I’ll be skipping it in the future.

80s-o-meter: 65%

Total: 55%