Arguably one of the most popular video games known to man, Mojang’s Minecraft, has recently gotten a PG, big screen adaptation starring renowned actor, Jack Black (seen in popular movie “Nacho Libre” and R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps movie), alongside the main cast of Jason Momoa (starred in the D.C. “Aquaman” and Justice League movies), Rachel House, Emma Myers, and Sebastian Hansen.
Minecraft was introduced in 2009, and its console version was released in 2011. From then on, the game became increasingly popular among the younger generations. The game remains the world’s best-selling video game of all time, with just over 300 million copies sold worldwide, according to Forbes.
As a testament to Minecraft’s long-running legacy, a live-action movie has been in production for over a decade and has finally been released. For publicity and marketing, the movie collaborated with the popular food chain McDonald’s by creating a meal called the “flint and meal” as a nod to the video game’s “flint and steel” item.
The movie’s director is Jared Hess, who has worked with the star of the movie, Jack Black, twice. He is quite the accomplished director with around six film awards, according to his IMDB profile. The writers of the movie are Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer, and Neil Widener.
The movie got relatively poor reviews overall, getting a 6/10 on IMDb and a 47 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Personally, I rated the movie a five out of ten. Its dialogue needed work. Its cinematography was subpar, and the story overall wasn’t very deep.
I went into the theater with low expectations, and I got what I paid for.
I watched because Minecraft is iconic, something I personally wouldn’t want to miss: a movie about one of my favorite games.
In the movie, there are four main characters and one antagonist: Steve (Jack Black), Garret (Jason Mamoa), Natalie (Emma Myers), Henry (Sebastian Hansen), Dawn (Danielle Brooks), and Vice Principal (Jennifer Coolidge).
The plot surrounds two siblings who recently lost their parents and made the move to the small town of Chuglass, Idaho. Here, we meet a Vice Principal (Coolidge) of the town’s school, broke store owner Garret (Mamoa), and Dawn (Danielle Brooks).
The main part of the story begins after the four main characters (Garret, Henry, Natalie, and Dawn) find a way into the Minecraft realm and find Steve. From then on, the five characters face a variety of obstacles while trying to get acclimated to this new world. The plot then surrounds the characters’ mission to return back to the real world and keep Steve’s Minecraft realm in order.
The main villain, Maldoga (voiced by Rachel House) is then introduced, adding a new plot twist. She’s a greedy dictator who rules over an evil place called “The Nether” and tries to take over Steve’s world, proving to be a big problem for the main cast.
Steve, played by Jack Black, was entertaining to watch and provided the movie with decent comedy. Jack Black, although I didn’t think he was fit for the role, was genuinely good in the movie.
Garret, played by Jason Mamoa, was equally as funny, and the way that he played the “butt of the joke” was perfect; trying to act cool, but in reality was just laughable.
This is not the same for the rest of the characters. Henry is supposed to be this kid who’s creative and smart but isn’t appreciated for it, but ultimately, it comes off as annoying. He isn’t exactly funny or cool in any way.
Natalie is Henry’s responsible and hardworking older sister. However, that’s all she is. Myers has limited screen time with this limited character who simply serves as a plot bridge for other characters.
Dawn is nearly irrelevant and she offers little in terms of comedy, which is disappointing because the Brooks, who plays her, has the potential to be genuinely funny. Last but not least, the Vice Principal had so much potential to be a better developed character, and a majority of Coolidge’s scenes were funny and memorable, more would have been better.
“I thought the movie was exceptional, the highlight of my year. But the movie was so bad that it was funny, like good-bad. And low key, I’d watch it again,” expresses Caleb Meissner ’27.
McDonalds and Minecraft collaborated to market the film. (Tristan Timones)
The movie was laughable, had lots of action, and definitely appealed to the original game with the amount of references. For example, popular Minecraft YouTuber, Techno Blade was referenced in one of the movie scenes. Another popular content creator, Dan TDM, made a cameo at the beginning of the film. The movie was decently accurate to the games.
“I think the movie was amazing, really good. Being at the theater was really fun, and it was a good experience,” states Jake Warner ’27.
On the downside, the dialogue was unbearable, to say the least. The actors were not bad, but the way the lines were written and expressed created a robotic feeling to the conversations. For example, in one of the scenes, two characters make up for a big argument, and then in the very next scene, they say they hate each other again. The way that they said it was so bland and forced, and that was the case with multiple scenes.
“By far the worst movie I have ever watched, and I’ve watched a lot of bad movies. I hated it, it was horrible. It wasn’t even good-bad; it was bad. Yet, I would watch it again,” expressed Aiden Escobar ’27.
Overall, the movie is mediocre at best. Maybe a younger me would’ve enjoyed the movie a lot more and called one of my favorites. I appreciate that this beloved game has made a big screen appearance, but it’s not what I had hoped for.