A Minecraft Movie

By Ian Chandler - April 9, 2025

A Minecraft Movie is an unapologetic cash grab from Warner Brothers that is, somehow, fun. Starring Jack Black as himself under the alias of Steve, the film has enough zaniness to keep children from getting bored and enough charm to keep adults from hating it entirely. Other cast members include Jason Momoa, Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers, and Sebastian Hansen. Most of them are fine, but when compared to Momoa's overly zany performance, the gap in acting quality becomes noticeable. Also, for a film that boasts creativity, there are next to no crumbs of imagination to be found here. So, with uneven acting and lazy writing, the film was destined to be a misfire, right? Well, you may be surprised to hear that my verdict is no. It is ultimately an entertaining blockbuster, thanks in no small part to the film embracing its own silliness.

The first noticeable aspect of the film is its computer-generated world. The CGI team did a great job translating the bizarre, blocky world of Minecraft to the silver screen. The colors pop, and the creatures retain their signature designs-now updated with fluid expressions and impressive texture work. The environments are beautiful and clearly crafted with care. However-and this is one big caveat-the blend of real humans with the Minecraft world creates an unfortunate eyesore. Remember those Spy Kids movies from the early 2000s? Well, this $150 million film features green screen effects that are only slightly better than those. It does the world-building a huge disservice.

The characters are also a mixed bag. Jack Black is always pleasant to see, but he's not a character, he's just Jack Black. Jason Momoa does the heavy lifting as he plays a washed out, egotistical video-game fanatic. Gone are the suave vibes he usually brings. Momoa plays what is potentially his goofiest role yet, and he fully commits to it! The others are not necessarily spectacular, partially due to the lackluster script they've been given. Also, expecting an Oscar worthy performance from the younger actors would be simply unfair. The villain is a cliché, but a good one. She reminds me of an '80s villain: little motivation, diabolical antics, and a commanding voice. Aside from Momoa, she was my favorite character. Even though Jack Black doesn't act at all, what he brings to the table is a lot of contagious fun. He clearly has no boundaries and he seems to be having a blast jumping around a green screen doing... well, whatever it is Jack Black does.

The plot is the most corporate element that is put on the crafting table. It is basically a Goodwill version of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, which also had Jack Black in it. There is nothing interesting that happens, narratively speaking. Every plot point can be seen by the time the logo appears on the screen. I understand that kids need a breezy story in order to not feel overwhelmed; but this is simple to a point where the comedy has to pull the writing's slack. Most fatally, if the jokes do not land for someone, they will find almost nothing worthwhile. Even the Minecraft pigs wouldn't eat slop like this. But, at the very least, the story never was a component in the source material; so, the lack of a refined one is not very offensive, by any means.

Lastly, and this isn't to the credit or fault of the movie, the theatrical experience can wildly vary. Because of internet memes, teenagers are obliged to clap, cheer, and sometimes spill popcorn over Jack Black making Minecraft references. In my experience, there was some cheering and clapping, but it was harmless fun and it ceased by the time the line ended. However, multiple families have issued refunds because many modern high-schoolers don't have manners. Some jump on seats, others stand up and run around and shriek like they are on fire. This does nothing to my overall score, but it is worth mentioning if you consider buying tickets. Disregarding the teenage craze, this film is a fun evening at the theater, especially if you have children eager for it.

Score: 63/100

Summary: A Minecraft Movie has the imagination of a zombie and it chickens out on making an enchanted story, but there is enough energy here to liven up this blocky adventure.

While I'm not completely familiar with the lore or overall structure of the game Minecraft, a game I've only played once in my life, I'm extremely familiar with the filmography of Jared Hess; an eternally goofy yet somewhat clean indie filmmaker with an uneven yet auteur worthy filmography under his belt. When I went to see A Minecraft Movie on Tuesday, I didn't go in to see a movie about Minecraft. I went in to see a movie from the director of Nacho Libre and Napoleon Dynamite. And in that regard, I was entertained. The film is full of Hess' strange trademarks such as awful hairdos, silly replacements for swear words, comedically macho characters, odd sentiment towards the retro, a fondness towards Idaho and potatoes, and familiar faces in the form of Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, and Jermaine Clement. It was exactly what it needed to be: silly, good humored dumb fun.

Minecraft is certainly a Movie, and if you didn't know already, the main character is Steve, as you know the blueness of him gives it away. Although that aside, Minecraft is a mindless, and fun affair, although a few faults in the movie takes it down a notch.

The Effects near-the-end caved in, and looked like the green screen was on show, which was slightly effected. Another thing, is the creativity. Surprisingly, for a Minecraft film, nothing was evidently creative, not much was built aside from Houses and a grand looking Castle, so I felt more could of been made. But I enjoyed the colours and the objects, as they did resemble the game very closely and opted to go down that route was a fantastic one, as it shows the bricks, the building work, and the craftsmanship that made that game so fulfilling and fun to play.

Although, I did enjoy the movies energy, it was slightly rushed at times, especially in the 3rd act as mentioned. But Jack Black gives an all-out crazy performance as Steve, he puts his heart and soul into this, and he's always been fun and an energetic person on-screen, so as you could tell, he was having a blast. Even if he didn't resemble Steve in any conceivable way, he was still a shining light. And he made the movie feel humorous and adventurous. Giving it that top-tear energy that's sometimes missed in big Blockbusters.

The script is fairly hammy and cheesy, with one-liners, family drama. But all this doesn't add much and feels like it's their to breath time, only the writing isn't up to par. As the Siblings feel like they've only just met, and the other characters don't get much to work with, and sometimes they do look confused rather then anything else. As they don't know where to look, the expressions. It does feel tonely inconsistent in that respect, but the films humour, heart and passion is definitely to be admired.

The world-building was also fun, seeing the Villages and the evil sadistic ones made the feel exciting and added that layer of adventure and optimism. You didn't know what to expect next, and the spiders design was mastered, it really did look like the games version that came to life, and that was wonderful. They looked scary and intimidating, and the skeletons and the Zombies made for some fun action-sequences.

The Villains motive is plain and simple, and that can mean it can effect the characters, as they'd have to stay on their feet and miss anything that's thrown their way, again the creativity wasn't vast, object comes their way, they escape. And that's basically what was happening. Jumping from one tree to another, only a stone is between them. That best describes the villainous arc and her story, and the villains as a whole, the Pig Villages.

But their are more positives, the look of the world was amazing, as it did feel like a live-version of the film brought to our screens, and the Movie handles the villains, the designs and the costumes fairly well in my eyes, brilliantly crafted suit. And some memorable scenes definitely was put out for memes, but genuinely speaking I had a fun time.

I'd rate this film a 6 out of 10 Because I enjoyed the humour, Jack Black's energy and performance altogether, but the films creativity and 3rd act was heavily flustered. But a nice Entertaining time, definitely would recommend it.

I see a lot of people criticizing this movie heavily I don't get why I mean it's a kids movie. It's not supposed to make any sense and honestly, I kinda like the way it is because it's dumb, but it's funny, dumb and enjoyable and plus this movie was special because everybody in the theater while I was watching Clapped every time a famous line for the movie was said and it was so funny when was the last time that a movie made people get together and actually enjoy each scene this movie did. I like that they reference Technoblade too. He would've loved this movie especially the reactions. If I had to read this movie, I would give it a 7 it honestly was enjoyable and people are too quick to criticize it but my point is that it isn't perfect but it's the people you watched with that make it enjoyable.

I walked into the Minecraft movie hoping for at least a spark of the creativity and mystery that made the game iconic. Instead, I got 90 minutes of painfully generic kids' humor, zero emotional depth, and a plot so lazy it could've been written by a focus group high on sugar. Jack Black? He's the only soul in this lifeless block-fest. Man pours his heart into it, cracks some laughs, and single-handedly saves this thing from being a total trainwreck. Respect to him. But even his talent can't fix the fact that this movie does nothing for Minecraft fans. No lore, no cool nods to Redstone engineers, no epic Ender Dragon moments - just a forgettable cash grab dressed up in pixel skins. It's a movie made for 6-year-olds whose only exposure to Minecraft is watching YouTube shorts. For the rest of us? It's just insulting.