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“A Minecraft Movie” – Slop or Not?

Yesterday I had the pleasure of watching the blockbusting film A Minecraft Movie and have some thoughts I wanted to share. Keep in mind that I did not watch it in a theatre, so I didn’t experience the viral hootin’ and hollerin’ moviegoers have witnessed but I understand their enthusiasm. I’ll elaborate on that more later but the version that I watched was split between a cam rip with gambling advertisements baked in and an earlier render with some unpolished CGI. At one point, the movie paused and it zoomed out to reveal a bus full of young men egging the viewer to make a bet on whatever gambling website was kind enough to let me watch this flick for free. Another moment had villagers without their CGI, which were played by real human actors (pic related. So it goes without saying that my experience may have not been the best way to experience it but nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

In a way, I grew up with Minecraft. I found out about the game when I was in middle school and played it when it came out on the Xbox 360 in 2012. I have a lot of fond memories of playing with my brother or my friends online, particularly in survival mode. I had stopped playing for a while by the time newer things like the Illagers or Piglins (which are very prominent in this film) were introduced but had picked it up for the occasional “2 week Minecraft phase” that others have joked about and became informed about the latest updates through my job and sheer curiosity. I think despite that, even if you aren’t well versed in Minecraft’s mechanics Jack Black does a good job of explaining it and any of the other human characters would serve as the straight man.

At first, I scoffed at the casting decisions but it was an unexpected highlight. Jason Momoa’s character, a washed up former arcade champion was an interesting foil to Steve because he stood in for that “old gamer” archetype which may not understand Minecraft. I’ve had boomers ask me “What’s the point of that game, how do you even win” while I was playing Minecraft and tried to explain that it’s more about building and making your own goals to no avail so I related to this dichotomy. His character even says “I just need to win” early into the film which really resonated with me and exemplified this generational division really well.

The best part of this film was how it never took itself too seriously. A problem that I’ve had with a lot of other modern blockbusters like any Star Wars or Marvel film in the last decade is that they’re tonally all over the place, like you’re supposed to take it seriously but they have corny jokes and one liners that dull the tension. I’m not saying having corny jokes or one liners is bad because A Minecraft Movie has a plethora of them, but it’s a fun vibe through and through which makes this style of humor more welcomed. Even the names of the characters were funny, like Garret Garrison (Momoa), General Chungus, or the town they live in being called “Chuglass, Idaho.”

As far as video game films go, A Minecraft Movie is the best one since Five Nights at Freddys (2023). I’ll preface this by saying that I seldom enjoy video game films – I liked the FNAF movie but had negative impressions of other silver screen debuts such as The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023), Detective Pikachu (2019) and the Sonic the Hedgehog series. I believe where a lot of these movies fall short is when they mesh the aesthetics of the video games they’re based on with live action actors and locations, but A Minecraft Movie did a pretty good job at making the world of Minecraft seem real. I’ve heard some people say that they wish it could’ve been animated like the Mario movie but with so much Minecraft content available to watch for free on the internet I’m glad they did what they did with the budget they have.

Another thing A Minecraft Movie excelled at over the previously mentioned films was it’s pacing. Something I didn’t like about the Mario movie was how faced paced it was, and I get it, it’s a kids movie so that’s what’s expected but I felt like it tried to cram too much into the relatively short runtime and could have saved the Mario Kart or Donkey Kong portions for a sequel later on. In comparison, there is so much A Minecraft Movie could have touched on but didn’t, which allowed them to go more in depth on what they did include. Like I said, it is a kids movie, so it isn’t the most riveting or creative story you’ll ever hear but I like how they let some moments simmer instead of just showing off more mobs or biome just for the sake of pleasing fans.

In conclusion, I liked this movie a lot more than I thought I would. If you’ve ever played Minecraft then I would recommend this, and if not, probably play it before watching this because the game is much better. Overall, it is quite good compared to it’s contemporaries and I’m looking forward to the inevitable sequel and ponder what might make the cut the next time around. I’ve never done a film review like this before so if you liked this or disagree with me feel free to leave a comment down below. Thanks for reading!

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