‘A Minecraft Movie’ Builds the Foundation For Something Inexplicable

A Minecraft Movie brings the blocky world of the immensely popular video game to the big screen in a PG-rated adventure starring Jack Black. As the title promises, it is “a” Minecraft movie. Undoubtedly, not the best version of a Minecraft movie that they could have gone with, but it is, by definition, a movie. And it has also racked up the biggest box office weekend of the year so far, earning over $300 million globally.

As a parent of school-age kids, the success doesn’t surprise me. From the first trailers we saw last fall, my kids have been waiting for a Minecraft movie, any Minecraft movie. Even before the film’s marketing started to ramp up, Minecraft merch was ubiquitous, from branded toys and t-shirts to graphic novels set in the game universe. (My kids don’t even play Minecraft! They have only watched videos of other people playing Minecraft!)

With little to draw families to the theater since Paddington in Peru came out seven weeks ago, the timing was ripe for a movie with kid appeal. Similar circumstances led to the massive opening for 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, another video game adaptation that catered to young audiences and nostalgic adults. However, Minecraft is the most popular video game in the world right now with hundreds of millions of active players. Despite conservative box office predictions, this movie seemed assured to make money.

But is the movie any good? Not really.

It starts with a breakneck bit of table setting which feels like we have joined a Minecraft movie already-in-progress. They introduce us to Steve (played by Black), the first human to discover the hidden portal to the Minecraft realm, a.k.a. “the Overworld,” where he befriends a wolf and spends the next 10 to 20-ish years building things. Then comes a slowly-paced section back in the real world of Steve’s hometown of Chuglass, Idaho, where director Jared Hess’s surreal 1980s aesthetic is in full effect.

We meet the rest of the human characters who will eventually embark on their own adventure to the Overworld. Garrett “Garbage Can” Garrison (Jason Momoa) is a pompous former arcade champion and struggling small-business owner. There’s also Dawn (Danielle Brooks, an Academy Award nominee for 2023’s The Color Purple), who wears a tracksuit and has two jobs. And, the blandest of them all, Henry (Sebastian Eugene Hansen), a creative teen who needs to believe in himself, and Natalie (Emma Myers), his older sister who has brown hair.

The sections of the film in Chuglass feel interminable. At one point, as we watched two adult men argue about a storage locker auction, my child got out a Minecraft activity book she’d been doing before the movie started. I didn’t really blame her for seeking out something more interesting.

But that illustrates a big problem with A Minecraft Movie – there’s actually not much mining or crafting going on. Steve has either previous made or collected (off-screen), almost every object our heroes use on their quest. Any mentions of actual Minecraft mechanics occur as Black either quickly rattles off exposition or literally yells out references that gamers will appreciate (Flint and steel! Chicken jockey!), but otherwise don’t have any particular importance.

The Lego Movie did a better job creating an original story based on a nebulous IP. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves did a better job balancing fan service references with interesting characters and an engaging plot. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle did a better job of dropping “real” people into a video game world. In A Minecraft Movie, the heroes just randomly discover an underground portal to a fantasy world that they immediately must save. It’s a lazy way to get the story going, but feels even lazier when you realize that The Super Mario Bros. Movie has basically the same plot.

But A Minecraft Movie just might be critic proof. Audiences of gamers have been embracing the theatrical experience with reports from screenings of raucous cheering and clapping whenever the movie name-drops a bit of game lore. People love recognizing things. The bar is actually that low.

While A Minecraft Movie may not be top-tier cinema, my kids did think the movie was better than YouTube videos of people playing Minecraft. So, put that on the poster for “Another Minecraft Movie”–no doubt coming to a theater near you as soon as humanly possible.