Director: Jared Hess
Writer: Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer, Neil Widener
Stars: Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Sebastian Hansen
Synopsis: Four misfits are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal into a bizarre cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination. To get back home they’ll have to master this world while embarking on a quest with an unexpected expert crafter.
I don’t love Minecraft, the game—because I’m an adult and not under five years old. What I do love about it is the way it sparks creativity in such a powerful and accessible way. So, imagine my complete lack of surprise at how pedestrian and mundane the final product can feel. A Minecraft Movie looks great, but it’s overproduced to the point of becoming repetitive and redundant.
A strange trait for a film based on intellectual property is unlimited imagination.
That said, it’s clearly meant to be good-natured fun for a younger audience, which might lift parents’ spirits just enough to act as a form of emotional medication to get them through the one hundred and one minutes of A Minecraft Movie. Unfortunately, this movie has more holes in it than those blocks can patch and fill.
The story follows Steve (Jack Black doing what Jack Black does best), a lovable oddball who enjoys digging through his hometown’s abandoned mines, which he believes is his calling. (Maybe someone should have him stream October Sky and reach out to Homer Hickam.) There, he discovers a couple of mysterious artifacts, including a glowing liquid-blue block. Steve combines them, and just like peanut butter and jelly, something miraculous happens—he’s sent to the Overworld, a place of freewheeling creativity where anything is possible.
Jason Momoa also stars as Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison, a man with a unique flair—sporting a hot pink jacket and a fabulously voluminous shag, just like any former diva gaming champ from 1989 might. He’s also pulled into the Overworld, the eccentric and offbeat cubic realm where players hone their skills to become master crafters. He’s joined by two orphaned siblings, Natalie (A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder’s Emma Myers) and her little brother Henry (Sebastian Eugene Hansen).
The fourth member of their unit is Dawn (Danielle Brooks), who dreams of owning her own zoo someday. Unfortunately, Brooks is given so little to work with in the film. After her standout performance as a human stick of dynamite in The Color Purple, she only gets a few decent scenes and rarely has the chance to showcase her comedic chops. They eventually come across Steve, who introduces them to the “Endear Pearl,” which can help you imagine anything you want, as long as it’s in block form.
Yes, if this sounds like Tetris meets Jumanji, the filmmakers are probably laughing maniacally while smoking a fat cigar with their feet on the desk, counting their money as we speak.
A Minecraft Movie was directed by Jared Hess, known for Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre, and last year’s underrated Netflix animated film, Thelma the Unicorn. Like the latter, Hess incorporates an infectious sense of humor, mainly drawing from the energy of Black and Momoa. However, the themes that could resonate with both parents and children feel sterile and recycled. The timely message of substance over style—what family and community mean to each other—is lost in the material’s overwrought style.
I will say the look and aesthetic are pleasing—full of fun and lively energy. The mash-up of real life and video game visuals is a hoot at times. Hess keeps the movie moving at a fast pace, which is a double-edged sword. On the plus side, you’ll never get too bored, though it can feel chaotic for an ADHDer like myself. Still, it moves so quickly that when you start to question the canon components of Minecraft, you don’t have time to dwell on them. In a way, that’s almost refreshing.
Where A Minecraft Movie suffers most is in how unimaginative it feels compared to the game itself. The source material offers an endless world of creativity, stimulating young minds with the sense that anything is possible. The film, however, boxes that imagination in with tired genre clichés that are sometimes yawn-inducing, making the story utterly predictable from start to finish. Rather than taking bold swings with its narrative, the movie falls victim to corporate risk-aversion, leaning too heavily on safe, family-friendly material that plays it far too safe.
Of course, we know precisely who the film is aimed at: those who grew up with the best-selling video game that has stood the test of time since 2012 and the little ones who are just now discovering it. If judged overall, Minecraft is a mild rejection—no doubt kids of all ages will dig it, since it was made for them.
Unfortunately, in this critic’s eyes, it lacks the spirit of what the IP was meant to represent.
You can watch A Minecraft Movie only in theaters.
