Review: You'll dig 'A Minecraft Movie' despite it being squarely aimed at a mass audience

Warner Bros. Pictures, 2025.

When a movie based on the popular sandbox video game "Minecraft" was announced nearly a decade ago, fans cheered. Moments later, many of them thought, "Wait...what?"

Despite it's tremendous worldwide popularity - it is in fact the #1 best-selling video game of all time, outselling even games like Super Mario Bros. and Tetris - its open-world format doesn't necessarily come with a minable (pun intended) storyline suitable for a feature film. How would a Minecraft movie even work? What would it be about?

Well, now we know. And the result is that "A Minecraft Movie" isn't all bad, in that it's a complete romp that both makes fun of and honors the blocky-universe it is based on. It's silly, ridiculous and ends up being a bit better than it has any business being. Albeit, it was a very low bar...video game movies have generally been awful, and expectations were minimal.

​Ironically, it's the hard-core Minecraft gamer, not the casual movie-goer, that may take issue with this movie the most. In aiming it at the masses, it obviously becomes a more accessible movie, but it simultaneously risks losing the adoration of those that made it popular in the first place.

Grade: B

The plot, of course, isn't the draw. The hero, simply known as Steve (Jack Black, appearing at full volume) is a human who finds himself living in the "Overworld," after discovering a portal to this pixelated dimension. He had hidden a powerful artifact back in the real world that was meant to stay hidden. But when it is stumbled upon, a group of unexpecting characters are sucked into the world of Minecraft...worse yet, the artifact awakens a Piglin Sorceress, Malgosha (voiced by Rachel House, who also voiced Gramma Tala in the recent "Moana 2"), and her evil army that has assembled in the Nether. She looks to conquer the world, as villains in these type of movies tend to do.

Henry (Sebastian Hansen) and Natalie (Emma Myers) are an orphaned brother and sister duo, and are as about as generic a pair as they come. Dawn (Danielle Brooks) is a real estate agent and mobile zookeeper (don't ask) who is just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The most colorful of the bunch - both figuratively and literally, with his pink leather jacket - is Garret Garrison (Jason Momoa), a pompous and clueless grown man whose greatest life-achievement to-date was becoming an arcade champion back in the 80s.

Seeing the movie with my son - an eight year-old Minecraft fanatic and expert - along with my teenage nephew - a "seasoned" Minecraft veteran - added multiple 
layers of depth and understanding that I might not have had otherwise. The "more-realistic" textures and features of some of the mobs (what creatures and monsters are called in the game) made both of them very unsettled. My nephew even compared some of the renderings to the failed Sonic the Hedgehog version that ignited an online firestorm so big that it forced the filmmakers to go back and re-imagine the character's look (thus saving the film franchise). This of course, is the lowest comparison one can make.

I would also get whispers like, "Dad, wolfs in the game can't really howl at the moon!" or "Zombies and skeletons wouldn't really work together like that!" that really enhanced my understanding of how a real Minecraft fan might be taking in this film.

The teenager ended up loathing the film, mostly for its inaccurate portrayals, and for what was left out. You have to understand that some people have been waiting for a Minecraft Movie for THEIR ENTIRE LIVES. "And this is what we get?" has been a common response.  My son on the other hand, couldn't bring himself to "recommend" the film (he truly is following in his father's footsteps), but did admit that the movie far surpassed his incredibly low expectations. He had planned to hate this movie. He ended up really liking the story...but still insists that many of the mobs looked awful.

For me, the parent, "A Minecraft Movie" was everything one might hope for: A family-friendly film that wasn't torturous.

There is a sub-plot that means entirely NOTHING to the overall movie featuring our national treasure, Jennifer Coolidge, who plays the children's principal, who falls in love with one of the grunting Villagers that wanders out of the Minecraft world and into real life. You could just imagine her ad-libbing each of her scenes...and she is hilarious throughout. During the end credits, we find that the Villager has been taught to speak English, and I laughed out-loud as to who they got to voice this character. These sorts of jokes are peppered throughout...ones that no child would be expected to get, but that anyone over the age of 25 surely appreciates.

So the verdict is a firm "it could have, and very well should have, been worse." But by accounts of those that know the game the best, it also could have, and perhaps should have, been better too. An optimistic take-away from the film, is that at least they really went for it as a absurd comedy. If this is a big hit, get ready for a slew of future Minecraft movies to come. Because just like the game, the possibilities within this universe are truly endless.

Grade: B

Genre: Comedy, Family, Adventure.
Run Time: 1 hour 40 minutes. 
Rated PG.

Starring: Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Emma Myers, Sebastian Hansen, Jennifer Coolidge, Danielle Brooks.

Directed by Jared Hess ("Thelma the Unicorn," "Masterminds," "Nacho Libre," "Napoleon Dynamite."

"A Minecraft Movie" is in theaters everywhere on Friday, April 4th, 2025.