- Starring
- Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Jennifer Coolidge
- Director
- Jared Hess
- Rating
- PG
- Genre
- Action, Adventure, Comedy, Family, Fantasy
- Release date
- April 4, 2025
Overall Score
Rating Overview
Rating Summary
A Minecraft Movie follows four misfits—Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison, Henry, Natalie, and Dawn—who are unexpectedly transported from their ordinary lives into the vibrant, blocky realm of the Overworld. There, they encounter an expert crafter named Steve and must navigate this strange world, battling threats like Piglins and Zombies. Together, they embark on a quest to master the Overworld’s challenges and find a way back home, rediscovering their creativity along the way—a skill that proves essential for their survival and growth both in the game and in reality.
A Minecraft Movie Review
Live-action video game movie adaptations haven’t exactly had an illustrious history. Starting with the acid trip nightmare that was 1993’s live-action Super Mario Bros. and carrying through the decades to as recently as last year’s intravenous Ambien-drip, Borderland’s, it’s safe to say that the net results have been less-than-stellar. Despite its technical superiority to many of those that came before, A Minecraft Movie is in no danger of breaking the trend.
Unexpectedly multifaceted performances in films like the biographical black comedy Bernie once had audiences and critics alike believing that Jack Black was capable of more than just loud noises and surprisingly agile physical comedy. However, between cinematic chum like the recent blasphemous bomb, Dear Santa, and now this, it seems that any ability or ambition to achieve excellence that he may once have had has come to an end. In A Minecraft Movie, an unhealthy-looking and red-faced Black screams his way to near myocardial infarction in scene after scene of beautifully rendered but ultimately meaningless noise.
When his character Steve, ostensibly the same blue-shirt-wearing character who fans of the building block game have known and loved for almost twenty years finds himself face-planting through one of the film’s never-ending MacGuffins and ending up in the Overworld (the land of Minecraft), he’ll spend 30 years off-screen doing who knows what for who knows why in preparation for a ragtag group of misfits ranging from bland and forgettable to over-the-top and forgettable to stumble their way into a cubist utopia for no other reason than so that the movie can happen.
Jason Momoa gives it his all as a one-time arcade champion, now middle-aged man-child stuck in the 8-bit glory years of his childhood. However, credit where credit is due, in this waste of digital resources, the big guy, best known for looking cool while giving wooden performances, shows surprising range, and no one can doubt his commitment to the role. Regrettably, it’s wasted as any chance he might have had to shine is lost amongst the incompetence of A Minecraft Movie’s writers and director.
It’s beyond ironic that a game about building lacks a fundamental understanding of the foundational concepts of narrative structure. As the movie bounces from one locale and situation to the next… because it must, the undeveloped (not under. Un) creative potluck, feels more like its writers handed in a flowchart than a fully developed script. As a result, what we get is a confused jumble of quasi plots with characters that don’t belong and whose motivations and arcs don’t stretch beyond the most basic.
What’s strangest of all about A Minecraft Movie is how tacked-on and artificial three-fifths of its main cast feel. The main character(?) is a young teenage boy who’s smart and nerdy but whose biggest personal obstacle to overcome is figuring out how to build a jet pack. Meanwhile, his older sister, who is raising him, is… you know… there, as is a real estate agent… They don’t make sense. There’s nothing about the world of Minecraft that teaches them any particular lessons or is related to their life issues. They’re wallpaper in a tool shed– unneeded and in the way.
Ultimately, A Minecraft Movie feels like it was written in crayon by a room full of 8-year-olds high on Skittles and Red Bull. So, if loud noises and quality digital backgrounds do it for you, you’re in luck. A Minecraft Movie was made just for you.
PARENTAL NOTES
Important Information for Parents
Our Parental Notes flag the material parents may want to know about before pressing play, including profanity, blasphemy, adult content, extreme violence, frightening intensity, hyper-stimulating sequences, and other family-content concerns.
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James Carrick
James Carrick is a passionate film enthusiast with a degree in theater and philosophy. James approaches dramatic criticism from a philosophic foundation grounded in aesthetics and ethics, offering insight and analysis that reveals layers of cinematic narrative with a touch of irreverence and a dash of snark.
I guess I am getting good at identifying bad movies based on the trailer. Even when I saw the trailer I thought this looks phoned in and stupid.
Going to see it (against my will) tomorrow. Can anyone tell me what the deal is with the guy in the pink jacket? Is he supposed to be trans or something?
Not trans. Just a loser. I’ve been slammed but ill get the review up before tomorrow.
Ur reading into something that isn’t there bro. It has absolutely nothing to do with trans. It’s supposed to be a funny contrast that there’s this buff bro dude man wearing a pink jacket. Wether or not u find it funny is up to u
I’m VERY picky when it comes to woke crap, and I hate it when kids movies are used by Hollyweird to introduce adult content. And I must say, this movie was better on both counts than I expected. A few mildly objectionable, weird bits. But nothing too “progressive” (aka, weird or gay). Most of the actual humans are actually WHITE, if you can believe it!! And my kids (who like Minecraft) enjoyed it. It actually was a bit funnier than I expected . Go see it if your kids like Minecraft.
I want to see it with my kids and they loved it. I thought it was frankly badly written and not the best acting, but I loved the scenery. I have to disagree about the woke stuff. The best roles by far went to the Caucasian men. At the end, they also seem to grow the most.
Again, the story and writing was pretty bad, but all I cared about was my kids absolutely loved it. Will be going to see it again in the movie theater to support it.
My 14 yr old daughter who loves Minecraft went in with low expectations and says it was even worse than she could imagine. No coherent plot, no character development. She felt they missed great opportunities to play off the game mechanics, feels they should have animated the world, and it was just Jack Black being silly. Says it’s probably fine for younger kids who like Minecraft but any older fan will be disappointed. Rates wokeness as mostly in the background but notes all the men were totally incompetent.
I really liked this film, not because of the content or even the film at all. Instead their was fireworks being lit in my theatre, someone gotten beaten up by security and got AT LEAST 20 liters of Coke~Cola brand product dumped on my body by overzealous teens and tweens. All-in-all I think that they should make another one but
Minecraft movie was alright but i’d view it as more of a shi post (yk what I mean) the whole thing is a joke and it would be a little hard to make a movie about Minecraft, or not but it was alright, I watched it for free because I waited till it was free
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