Film Reviews

April 4, 2025

For those uninitiated with the world(s) of "Minecraft," and, who knows, perhaps even the hundreds of millions already familiar with it, "A Minecraft Movie" throws a lot at you, hard and fast. It races with energy and dispenses loads of information at what feels like breakneck speed. And yet, as a video game adaptation, it doesn't spiral out of control or go down a fanboy rabbit hole of head-scratching esotericism. On the contrary, it has an all-are-welcome sort of feel, and this, along with its zaniness, is what keeps it going. "Minecraft" virgins like me will find plenty to enjoy here, and I can only assume longtime masters of the game will be in heaven.

Given that the game is the best-selling of all time and debuted nearly a decade and a half ago, it's surprising to think it took a major Hollywood studio this long to forge a big budget feature out of it. Nevertheless, I think fans will find it was worth the wait. In fact, the theater I was in had plenty of clapping and cheering at the mere sight of the structures, creatures, and ideas from the game being realized by what seemed like intentionally clunky digital effects and green screen technology, not to mention characters enthusiastically expounding how to navigate the movie's three different planes. It's not all crisp and pretty, but I think, overall, it's what the intended audience came to see, and even though I was having a difficult time keeping track of it all the details, the movie's sunny disposition and sense of humor held my attention, and seeing it alongside seasoned "Minecraft" aficionados only added to the fun.

In a way, the underlying story is in the tradition of many family adventures aimed at kids and prepubescents, including "The Wizard of Oz" and "Harry Potter," in which different characters of all shapes and sizes, each with unique gifts, get transported to fantastical worlds and must pool their resources to battle evil. In this case, there are four main characters and three distinct worlds.

First, the worlds: the idyllic, green Overworld; the dark, fiery Nether; and of course, good old-fashioned Earth. It's on Earth where we first meet the big-bearded, lovable, and restless Steve (Jack Black), who tells us he's had a penchant for mining ever since he was a kid. One day, he finally gets the gumption to walk into a mine and randomly discovers a magical orb-crystal pair, which he combines to create a blue portal to the Overworld. Here, most things are fundamentally made of blocks, and even the animals, such as the pink sheep, have block-like features. Steve wastes no time and immediately starts crafting, using tools and materials of all kinds that leverage Overworld's physics and mechanics. Before long, he stands up three houses and, eventually, an entire amusement park. He even befriends a wolf named Dennis.

However, Steve's utter bliss is cut short when he accidentally stumbles into the lava-filled Nether, where the evil hunchback Malgosha (voice of Rachel House), head of the Piglins (humanoid pigs), captures him and locks him up, apparently because she despises anyone who mines, creates, or thinks outside the box. Lucky for Steve, Dennis manages to escape the Nether and hides the precious orb and crystal back on Earth.

Cut to Chuglass, Idaho, where Garrett "The Garbage Man" Garrison (Jason Momoa, very funny) is a has-been arcade gamer still stuck in the 1980s, and who owns Game Over World, a vintage toy shop on the financial decline. With his one-time fame all but faded, Garrett is facing eviction until he uses money he doesn't have to buy Steve's old belongings at an auction, including the orb and crystal, which he promptly puts up for sale. These mysterious items quickly catch the eyes of the inquisitive Henry (Sebastian Hansen, who could easily pass for a young Dustin Diamond), an ambitious kid and admitted rocket scientist wannabe who has just moved to Chuglass with his older sister Natalie (Emma Myers), who's taken a job at the local potato chip factory (to improve their social media presence of all things). The siblings' only friend and contact in town is the bubbly Dawn (Danielle Brooks), a real estate agent who also runs a zoo out of her car.

After a science experiment at school goes awry, and he faces expulsion from his high principal (Jennifer Coolidge), Henry figures he has nothing to lose by combining the orb and crystal, despite the very explicit note that says otherwise. Soon enough, the rest of our motley and colorfully dressed crew of characters find themselves in the Overworld, and just like Dorothy in Oz, it's on them to save this alternate universe from an evil takeover and hopefully make it back home.

The setup and story arc of "A Minecraft Movie" are nothing new, but where it makes up for its familiar structure is with its happy-go-lucky spirit. The movie captures what's at the heart of so many people's loves for fantasy video games, which is that anything seems possible, and that in this space, we feel free and encouraged to accept illogical rules and just go with the flow. One of the reasons we seek out these places is to temporarily escape pressure, conformity, and cynicism, and in fact, for adult viewers, the movie will test our ability to let go and not take things so seriously. Even if we start to think the movie should be less inane, or that it's merely empty calories for the brain, because it's so speedy with its action and developments, we've almost no choice but to let its jet stream carry us. This approach doesn't always work for family movies, and oftentimes we want to push back on the nonsense, but in this case, director Jared Hess and his team are able to successfully manipulate us through jolliness and enthusiasm.

With that said, I'll admit a lot of the names, actions, and explanations of how things work went over my head. Had I not known "A Minecraft Movie" was based on a video game, I would have thought the six screenwriters simply rolled the dice or threw darts at a board to establish a logic, or lack thereof, for what transpires in the Overworld. So much of what happens feels random, but research tells me it's mostly loyal to the design and reasoning of the game. This includes but is not limited to the Woodland Mansion and all its treasures; the use of ingots to craft tools, armor, and other items; phantom membrane wings called elytra, which allow characters to glide; the peaceful, mute villagers with unibrows and 90-degree-angle heads; and a chicken jockey wrestling match. Nothing in this universe feels taboo, impossible, or off limits.

And yet, nothing seemed like too much. Hess establishes a "whatever, just play" tone early on and runs with it, and the movie is fun at best or merely innocuously silly at worst. The cheerful nature with which it's been made, the cast's ability to sell bewilderment and frivolity, and the steady humor kept me interested. Granted, not all the jokes land, and some action sequences go on for too long, but the overall takeaway is that it gets viewers to recall their beloved childhood game—video, board, or otherwise—where imagination was key, and it didn't matter how things got explained. What mattered is that you enjoyed playing it.

At a brisk 100 minutes, "A Minecraft Movie" is an entertaining ride that lasts just long enough. Editor James Thomas seems to have intentionally not allowed the movie to linger or take a breath, perhaps because he figured it might lose viewers after a while (a sugar rush can only last so long) and/or because the point of the “Minecraft” game is to think on your feet and adapt to new challenges quickly. Does the movie make me want to play the video game, or even learn more about its world? Not really, but did it teach me about a piece of pop culture I wasn't familiar with. It also put a smile on my face, not only because of its high energy and spirit but because it's nice to think that ardent fans of the source will believe they've gotten their wish that a big-budget movie has done their beloved game justice.