A Minecraft Movie – REVIEW

A Creeper and Jason Momoa in A Minecraft Movie


Yes, I know that this is a later than I hoped it’d be, but don’t get it twisted: I feel obligated to write about A Minecraft Movie, mainly because of my experience watching it. You’ve seen the videos of audiences (that mainly consist of children and teenagers) losing their minds over “CHICKEN JOCKEY,” and I’m here to say… that didn’t happen at my screening. It was insanely packed, but there really weren't any rowdy reactions. As someone who respects good theater etiquette, I’m glad to see that it isn’t dead. Either way, there’s no denying that Minecraft, the game, and A Minecraft Movie are now cultural beasts. The game has been around since 2009, and its popularity really hasn’t dwindled since then. It’s the highest-selling video game ever, and I was saying that even before we’d see the record-breaking box office performance it’s currently in the middle of, this thing was going to make so much money no matter what the reviews were. The same went with the Mario movie from a few years ago, and Warner Bros. is even following that same strategy with Minecraft: same release date, a whole lot of marketing, and Jack Black. Before you scroll down to see the grade (which I know at least some of you do, and that’s okay), I need to tell you that I am not the target audience for it. I may be in the age range for being an OG Minecraft player, but I really only played it once in middle school and watched a *lot* of YouTube videos about it back in the day. It never really was the kind of game I enjoyed playing, but that’s okay. However, I do think that movies geared towards kids and families still need to be good movies. Making something for children shouldn’t mean that you get to slack off, it’s not an excuse. That’s where A Minecraft Movie falls on its face for me. If you don’t know anything about Minecraft, which I don’t, it was a struggle to begin to dig into the world. I know that was the driving force behind a lot of negative reviews for the Mario movie, but… that’s Mario. We all know who Mario is. A lot of people know *what* Minecraft is. If you’re not a gamer, you’ve definitely at least heard the name. A Minecraft Movie immediately made me understand why that was such a barrier for Mario, but this has that problem tenfold. I’d probably lose my mind if I went in-depth to every little thing that upset me in that way, so I’ll leave it at this: The Overworld never really clicked for me, and that’s my biggest roadblock to enjoying this movie. There’s still some enjoyment to get out of this, though. Jason Momoa and Jack Black have good chemistry together, and whenever they aren’t in the Minecraft world, it’s actually just a zany middle school movie with Jennifer Coolidge playing the principal of the school. I guess that’s what happens when you get the director of Napoleon Dynamite. Either way, I think I’ve just accepted that A Minecraft Movie just wasn’t for me, but that doesn’t mean that the kids don’t deserve a good movie.


Ryan’s Grade: D+