On September 4, 2024, fans of the world’s most popular and best-selling video game, “Minecraft,” were in for a shock when Warner Bros. Picture studios dropped the theatrical trailer for the long awaited “A Minecraft Movie.” This film, featuring actors Jack Black and Jason Momoa, is based on the legendary game many of us grew up playing. The disappointment and frustration among life-long “Minecraft” gamers following the trailer’s release was prominent and it seemed to be all that the internet could talk about for the following weeks.
Many fans agreed that, based on the trailer, the movie was going to be a distasteful and downright awful interpretation of the “Minecraft” game, featuring live actors with unusual-looking computer-generated imagery (CGI) animation for the “Minecraft” world and creatures. In Forbes magazine, one observer stated, “I do not understand the decision to have live action actors in the Minecraft world, when Minecraft translates so incredibly well to animation. The green screen here is horrendous.” Another commented, saying “While I wasn’t expecting amazing things from this… I was expecting MUCH better than what is embarrassingly shown here. My goodness.” Before the film’s release, there had already been plenty of memes and videos mocking the movie, further making the whole creation seem like it had to be a joke…right?
I had to find out for myself whether or not this movie really was as bad as the internet was predicting it to be, especially since I love “Minecraft” and have been playing it ever since I can remember. On release day, April 4, I saw the film in a completely full theater, just for my worst fears come true. The internet’s assumptions were correct: the movie wasn’t great. In all honesty, I did not particularly enjoy it and, by the end, I left thinking “What did I just watch?” On opening day, though, the film raked in a whopping $58 million.
Within the film, I feel as though the whole plot and how they chose to portray the game is WAY overdone. The majority of the comedy within the film feels forced and the acting almost seems as if it is entirely satirical. To touch on the internet complaints made about the animation choice, I have to say that the CGI makes the world within the movie feel very little like the “Minecraft” world we all know. To me, the animation just feels off, especially with having live-action human characters within the odd-looking CGI. I think it would have been better off being a completely animated film.
One aspect of the movie that I did think was cool, however, is that there is a brief appearance of a group of popular “Minecraft” YouTubers, including Aphmau, LDShadowLady, DanTDM, Mumbo Jumbo and Valkyrae. The movie even pays tribute to a famous and beloved “Minecraft” streamer, Technoblade, who lost his life to cancer in 2022. In the theater where I watched the film, most of the crowd shouted aloud some of the viral quotes from the movie, such as “I am Steve,” “Flint and steel” and “Chicken Jockey,” which did make the viewing experience somewhat more humorous. Videos of similar theater experiences have gone viral, as fans have been clapping, cheering, and shouting aloud to the iconic scenes and lines.
As a lifelong “Minecraft” fan, I was pretty disappointed with how this film turned out as it certainly did not do the game justice. Let’s be honest though; no movie would ever be able to capture the entirety of the historic, nostalgic and amazing game that is “Minecraft.” No movie would ever be able to replicate the feeling of the countless hours many of us spent with our family and friends playing this game and making memories.
Personally (and sadly), I give this movie a rating of about 3.5/10. I think that movie had SO much potential, and it feels wrong that we waited so long for this game to be portrayed in a movie and this was all that came out of it. I could understand how some people would enjoy it though, as some say it is not supposed to be serious, but instead, stupidly funny. Online, people have been saying that, “the movie is so terrible that it’s somehow good.” However, I was hoping for a more quality, honorable and realistic adaptation of the game.
