A Minecraft Movie (2025)

​“A Minecraft Movie” stars Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, and Sebastian Hansen.  Released on April 4, 2025, the film follows four strangers as they encounter a mysterious cubic wonderland thriving with imagination.

The film is directed by Jared Hess, who also directed films such as “Napoleon Dynamite”, “Nacho Libre”, “Gentlemen Broncos”, and “Thelma the Unicorn”.  It is based on the 2011 video game created by Markus Persson and developed by Mojang Studios.  There’s a golden rule that many people strive to follow when making their creations.  With the right amount of imagination, anything is possible.  That rule persists to this day, leading to specific designs that are creative or bizarre beyond belief.  Additionally, it sparked an idea for a game designer named Markus Persson to create a video game where multiple people around the world can use their limitless creativity to their hearts’ content…by using nothing but blocks.  That game became known as “Minecraft”, a revolutionary sandbox experience that played a prominent role in streaming and education.  With its simple yet unique approach, technological achievements, and endless amounts of game mechanics, “Minecraft” is seen by multiple players as the “proper form of creative freedom”.

The popularity of “Minecraft” resulted in it spawning a franchise that includes plenty of spin-off games.  It also led to the creation of parodies, adaptations, and merchandise to capitalize on its success.  But, of course, with every successful video game franchise, a cinematic adaptation is soon to follow.  Of course, like clockwork, “Minecraft” is the latest to receive this treatment, fourteen years after its release.  Unsurprisingly, it’s not without its controversial issues that caused concern for the film adaptation, including the decision to make it live-action instead of animated and the CGI designs for the game’s residents.  Fortunately, the recent trailers gave us some glimmer of hope for a proper adaptation that’s designed to be a fun movie-going experience for families and gamers alike.  With that said, let’s dive into the cinematic world of “Minecraft” and see if it’s imaginative enough to warrant its existence.

The story centers on four different misfits struggling with ordinary problems in the real world.  They consist of former video game champion Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Momoa), siblings Henry (Hansen) and Natalie (Myers), and their real estate agent Dawn (Brooks).  One day, fate draws the four strangers together when Henry discovers a mysterious mine containing a magic portal and a blue cube that acts as its key.  As a result, they are suddenly pulled through a portal into a peculiar wonderland known as the Overworld, where everything they can imagine is created by blocks.  The strangers then encounter an expert crafter, Steve (Black), who resides in the Overworld.  When the world is under attack by an army of piglins led by Malgosha (Rachel House) living in the Nether, Steve and the misfits must unleash their bold creativity to save the Overworld and return home. 

I’m one of the few people who have never played “Minecraft” nor have any interest in trying it out.  I admire the franchise's influence on its fans regarding the gameplay and creative freedom.  However, I prefer to play video games that are more narrative-driven than the ones where I do nothing but create something in the expanding sandbox.  Those games usually give me something worth looking forward to compared to just making something and having it destroyed by demon pigs, “creepers,” and whatnot minutes later.  But despite my inexperience with the franchise, I was looking forward to its film adaptation, primarily due to my curiosity toward the filmmakers’ attempt to turn its plotless concept into a feature-length movie.  Of course, there’s also Jack Black, who has been in his “gaming phase” since the “Jumanji” films, and former Aquaman star Jason Momoa.  But as usual, they’re part of Hollywood’s plan to utilize A-listers in video game adaptations to lure in audiences.  Just look at the other recent adaptations like “Uncharted” and “Super Mario Bros” for example.  With the game’s ever-lasting appeal and the film’s family-friendly tone and celebrities, there’s no doubt that fans, including the younglings, will be eating this up as they did with the other adaptations.  But does the quality have enough creativity to take advantage of those elements?  Surprisingly, no.

Regarding its concept involving unlimited creativity and a slew of old and new talent, especially director Jared Hess, “A Minecraft Movie” should’ve been another slam dunk in the game-turned-movie category.  Instead, it wound up missing a ton of blocks to form a properly cohesive quality.  Since I have been playing video games in my spare time amid my movie reviews, it begs the question of why I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.  Well, as I stated before, I have no experience playing “Minecraft” as I only admire the concept and its influence, so I’m partially to blame for not feeling engrossed in the concept as much as its fans.  For that, I do apologize to all of you mine-crafting fans reading this.  Secondly, I found it to be too thin and loopy to the point of exhaustion.  It certainly has some moments that captured that sense of amusement and imagination, including the visuals, but besides that, “A Minecraft Movie” felt like an Easter egg-filled expansion pack of the game dedicated only to its fans and no one else.  Admittedly, it does its job of pleasing some of the game’s fans, but that could only take it so far as to please the non-gamer side of its audience.

With “Minecraft” being all about creativity, it’s crucial for the movie to reflect that element through its storytelling and messages, which it unsurprisingly did.  “Minecraft” motivates players to embrace their own sense of imagination and create the things they dreamed of making…with only blocks.  While initially seen as a waste of time, having a passion for creating actually helps get by in the real world, which admittedly was one of the reasons I admire Markus Persson for developing a game like this.  Its film adaptation respectfully conveyed the importance of innovation, mainly through one of its characters, Henry, who tries to fit in at a new school through his creative side.  Guess how that turned out?  Unfortunately, like the movie’s creepers, its inspiring themes were blown up by its overly cliched screenplay.  It followed the usually basic elements of every family-friendly story we’ve heard before.  The siblings move to a new town following their mother’s death, the new kid at school, good vs. evil, you name it; this script has it all.  On paper, it’s an acceptable approach to teach its younger audience about the values of teamwork, friendship, and creativity because those kids will need them if they want to thrive in life.  But when put on screen, the script felt incredibly half-baked in showcasing its elements, including character development and world-building.  As a result, the narrative lacked the tools needed to match the level of innovation of the game's blocky realm.

One of the issues that stemmed from its flawed script was its characters.  In addition to Steve, the film introduces audiences to the “misfits” from the real world, indicating that they’ll grow to be better people and even best friends.  While that is the case, the film fell short of enhancing the characters’ development and charisma, making their arcs feel less rewarding than anticipated.  Natalie and Henry were supposed to be the driving force behind the movie’s emotional depth due to them dealing with their mother’s death and Henry being an outsider with his innovative personality.  Sadly, the developing relationship between the two was too one-dimensional to the point of being non-existent.  However, the worst offender was Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison, played by Jason Momoa, a struggling former champion striving to earn money to keep his arcade store open, but eventually learns what’s really important.  I also found his arc to be bland due to the character not changing much throughout his own journey, which can be pretty annoying because his egotistical personality failed to provide some laughs.  It’s no wonder people call him “The Garbage Man”.  The fact that they put Momoa as top billing instead of Black or the young actors playing the siblings should be studied as hard as how we study our crafts in the games.  As for Dawn, well…she’s just there for the laughs.  If the writers spent a bit more time developing their characters and improving their mundane humor, the film would’ve been emotionally impactful enough to coincide with its messages and overshadow its corny nature.

The other problem was its inconsistent pacing, which constantly breaks the flow of its seemingly fun narrative.  At times, the movie takes a bit to return to the Overworld, especially in the first half, where we explore the characters in the real world before they enter that imaginative world.  There’s also the subplot involving the nitwit villager falling in love with the vice principal (Jennifer Coolidge) in the real world that shows up in between the Overworld sequences.  They’re pretty brief, even if they seem like humorless time-wasters, but it’s one of the scenarios where a film wouldn’t change much if they were removed completely.  Other times, the movie flew by like a fire-breathing hot air balloon and missed a few plot details and its emotional grasp.  Finally, there’s the dialogue, which came off as cheap and excessively explanatory.  Understandably, it’s a movie aimed at children, so it has to play things safely with its cartoony tone, humor, and narrative.  The problem is that children aren’t the only target audience.  It’s also the teens and adults it’s attempting to attract, whether they’re familiar with the source material or not.  While I can definitely see the kids having some fun with its vibrant and dopey approach, I also felt that some older audiences might have a difficult time adjusting to its loopy, kid-friendly appearance, especially since it became too silly and corny for its own good.  Additionally, there were a few occasions when the dialogue was talking down to the kids like they didn’t see what was happening, which is usually a bad way of making a movie for the younglings.  The film had the right idea for its tone, especially with Jared Hess’s unique style of the film's visual gags.  However, in terms of execution, it leaned too heavily toward appealing to children, making it challenging to engage adults like me as well.

While the movie’s characters were very forgettable, I can appreciate the cast’s effort in delivering what the script gave them, especially Jack Black.  If you enjoyed Black in his other works, you might feel the same way toward him as Steve.  He’s undoubtedly his usual expressive and charming self as he’s always been, which may or may not be enough to maintain people's interest in the film.  However, regarding his involvement in the video game business, Black’s portrayal of the game’s default-skinned character didn’t strike my gaming mentality as much as his role as Bowser from the Mario movie.  I can’t fault the guy for being himself, but the way he expressed Steve was so exaggerated that its humorous charm started to wear thin quickly.  Jason Momoa wasn’t too bad as Garrett despite his underwhelming line delivery and forced attempts at physical humor, which didn’t help improve his character’s uninteresting arc in the slightest.  The same goes for Danielle Brooks, known for playing Leota Adebayo in the “Peacemaker” series from DC, who was fine in specific sequences as Dawn but not enough to stand out among the pack regarding the movie’s humor.  The only actors I tolerated the most were Emma Myers and Sebastian Hansen, who made a noticeable effort to play Natalie and Henry, respectively, but that’s not saying much.

If there’s one thing I can praise this movie for, it would have to be the visuals.  The CGI didn’t make a good first impression when the teaser trailer was released last year, especially regarding the creatures’ blocky appearances.  I was one of the few people who actually didn’t mind the designs since that’s what they’re supposed to look like from the games.  Fortunately, people started to come around as we inched closer to its release while my positive thoughts stayed the same.  After watching the film itself, it’s easy to say that it still met my expectations of how the world of “Minecraft” is created.  It’s vibrant, rich, surreal, and even blocky to boot.  I would even say the designs for the Overworld characters were suitably detailed, especially the piglins in the Nether.  It’s no “Dune” levels of visual grandness, but as a film adaptation of a popular sandbox game, it’s pretty nifty in staying true to the mechanics’ roots and charm, even if its visual gags didn’t match the CGI’s creative essence.

Overall, “A Minecraft Movie” doesn’t pack as much innovation in its disappointingly half-baked narrative as it does in its colorful visuals.  Admittedly, it does have a couple of entertaining moments that’ll likely impress its audience, including the kid-friendly action scenes.  However, those scenes can only take the movie so far when dealing with its tiring tone and undeveloped plot.  “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” had a similar problem in that it’s more about being an Easter egg-filled experience than an actual movie with a developing narrative, yet it succeeded in being entertaining for all types of audiences, including gamers and kids.  “A Minecraft Movie”, on the other hand, felt more like the game it’s based on, yet lacked a sense of depth and entertainment in its characters, charm, and underdeveloped storyline to attract those beyond the game’s fans and children.  Its cast and visuals managed to carry most of the film’s weight, which were basically the only good things to come out of the movie.  Unfortunately, regarding its mediocre screenplay, one-dimensional characters, uneven pacing, forgettable humor, and hit-and-miss direction, this latest addition to the video-game-turned-movie lineup lacked the creative spark needed to fix itself out of this colorful cinematic mess.  If you love playing “Minecraft”, you might enjoy certain elements from the film.  Otherwise, you’re better off continuing to build your creations in the games.

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