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It’s not hyperbole to say we’re in the midst of a golden age of video game adaptations.
From Arcane, Fallout, and The Last of Us TV shows, to the Sonic the Hedgehog films and The Super Mario Bros Movie on the big screen, there have been plenty of fantastic animated, live-action, and hybrid reimaginings to enjoy recently.
That’s not to say there hasn’t been the occasional dud and, unfortunately, A Minecraft Movie falls squarely into that category. Lacking a clear identity, and at times hideous and garish to look at, Warner Bros’ take on the best-selling game of all time isn’t the blockbuster video game adaptation I was hoping for.
Press play
A Minecraft Movie tells the story of four human misfits who are inadvertently transported to the Overworld, a surreal, cube-based reality where your imagination is the only limitation to what you can craft.
However, the quartet – washed-up gaming champion Garrett (Jason Momoa), struggling realtor Dawn (Danielle Brooks), and orphaned siblings Henry (Sebastien Hansen) and Natalie (Emma Myers) – soon realize that this idyllic dimension isn’t all it seems.
It’s hard not to be impressed by… how incredibly faithful A Minecraft Movie is to Mojang’s hugely popular sandbox game
When the malevolent Piglin leader/sorceress Malgosha (voiced by Rachel House) learns that the group possesses the Orb of Dominance, a magical cube that grants its wielder unlimited power, she sends her Nether-based forces after them. Cue Henry and company teaming up with Steve (Jack Black), another human outcast who’s made the Overworld his home, to stop the Orb falling into Malgosha’s hands – or, rather, hooves.
Right off the bat, it’s hard not to be impressed by the scope of this film, nor how incredibly faithful A Minecraft Movie is to Mojang’s hugely popular sandbox game.
Indeed, the attention to detail is tremendous. From the gorgeous, block-based backdrops, whose draw distance adds to the movie’s scale, to the sheer number of Minecraft references and other gaming secrets dotted throughout its 100-minute runtime, A Minecraft Movie is a near-perfect example (from an Easter egg viewpoint, anyway) of a video game adaptation done right.
Unfortunately, that’s where A Minecraft Movie‘s positives largely begin and end. Awestruck though I was by the background imagery, Warner Bros’ live-action-animated hybrid flick isn’t pleasant to look at.
That’s being polite about its visuals, too. When its first trailer dropped last September, I couldn’t decide if A Minecraft Movie looked beautiful or horrifying. Having seen the full film and spoken to its director, Jared Hess, about its incredibly divisive visuals, which he described as being “taken out of context” by audiences, I’m firmly entrenched in the latter camp.
Warner Bros’ live-action-animated hybrid flick isn’t pleasant to look at
Whether it’s the uncanny valley nature of the fauna that inhabits the Overworld or the film’s fleshy, nightmare-fuel-inducing take on Minecraft’s villager contingent, I just couldn’t get on board with its aesthetic.
There’s no reason, as some long-time fans like Alumio on YouTube have demonstrated, that A Minecraft Movie couldn’t have stuck with the game’s block-based, pixel art style. In fact, I’d argue it would have a far better chance of not only succeeding but also getting fans on side if its creative team had retained the video game’s 16-bit-esque visual approach.
Player selection issues
There’s little to shout about on the human cast front, too.
For one, A Minecraft Movie doesn’t know who it wants its protagonist to be. Yes, there’s an argument to be made that Minecraft is more enjoyable as a multiplayer experience than a single-player one. From that perspective, it makes sense to build the movie’s plot around an ensemble and ensure each character, who all possess unique personalities, strengths, and weaknesses, has their fair share of screentime.
A Minecraft Movie doesn’t know who it wants its protagonist to be
A Minecraft Movie fumbles the bag with this approach. Its prologue, which outstays its welcome by a good 10 minutes, suggests Steve will be its central character. One quick pivot later, though, and Garrett is set up as the movie’s primary hero. No sooner has Momoa’s character been established as the protagonist than Henry is installed as its champion-in-chief. Simply put, A Minecraft Movie‘s multifaceted main character energy outweighs the group dynamic nature it desperately wants to emulate.
It doesn’t help that it somewhat relegates its female characters to the sidelines.
A Minecraft Movie tries to make Dawn and Natalie feel important to the story, but they’re just kind of… there. Character-wise, they’re not as fully formed as their male counterparts, which feels like a huge misstep in the current climate. Their burgeoning friendship is only fleetingly explored when the boys are off having much more thrilling adventures, too.
A Minecraft Movie… doesn’t devote enough time to establishing bonds between its core cast of characters
But theirs isn’t the only dynamic that feels half-baked. A Minecraft Movie spends so much time on slapstick moments and winking to the camera that it doesn’t devote enough time to establishing bonds between its core cast of characters.
The exception to that rule is the slightly gratifying expansion of Steve and Garrett’s relationship. What starts out as an amusing rivalry, as they attempt to one-up each other, leads to a deep respect for what their former frenemy has to offer. Black and Momoa may be playing archetypal individuals – Black’s character, in particular, is just a heightened version of himself – that we’ve seen them portray many times before, but they play the parts well, so I can excuse their trite character portrayals to some degree.
Refusing to enable creative mode
What’s less forgivable is A Minecraft Movie‘s lack of innovation from narrative and thematic standpoints.
As I said, Hess and company deserve credit for their meticulous approach to Minecraft‘s in-game lore and other homages to Mojang’s hugely popular video game. But, in a virtual world where creativity is king, A Minecraft Movie‘s inflexible and derivative approach to its story, and lack of action-based invention, leaves a lot to be desired.
A Minecraft Movie would’ve shone far brighter if it had been braver on the originality front
There are moments when A Minecraft Movie seems like it’s ready to break free from its self-imposed shackles.
Henry and Garrett’s respective crafting of a Tater Tot Gun and Buck-Chuckets (the latter being two buckets joined by an iron-link chain) are unorthodox, but at least they’re wholly original weapons that aren’t copy-and-paste jobs from Minecraft‘s extensive items list. The movie’s final battle does something similar with the leader of an Iron Golem army, too – further evidence that A Minecraft Movie would’ve shone far brighter if it had been braver on the originality front.
I’m always hesitant to criticise a movie or TV show for its plot pacing, especially one like A Minecraft Movie that, at its core, is designed for kids.
However, it gets off to a slow start due to the aforementioned sluggish prologue before performing a dizzying U-turn and barreling through its main quest. It’s certainly lean in its make-up and, therefore, tailor-made for young minds with shorter attention spans, but I do wish it had been slightly more methodical tempo-wise.
My verdict
Two questions have dominated my thoughts since the press screening of A Minecraft Movie.
The first – ‘Will families and/or Minecraft devotees enjoy this?’ – can be answered with an emphatic ‘yes’. Whichever way you slice it, A Minecraft Movie is a child-friendly film that’s also designed to nostalgically appeal to those of us who have spent countless hours exploring procedurally-generated maps that allowed our imaginations to run wild.
As much as I want to recommend A Minecraft Movie, though, the answer to the second question that’s been on my mind means I can’t. Whenever I leave a film screening, I always ask myself, ‘Did I enjoy that?’ and, unfortunately for this movie, the answer is a firm ‘no’.
A Minecraft Movie had the building blocks to be a great video-game film, but, for me, it’s been crafted on shaky ground, rather than a layer of bedrock. My advice? Quit this game while you’re ahead and wait for one of 2025’s new movies to be available to stream on Max instead.
A Minecraft Movie launches exclusively in theaters worldwide on April 4.
