A Minecraft Movie - Review

The video game movie genre has often been one of poor returns. Whether that be the Assassin’s Creed film or Warcraft. Even a super high-grossing film like The Super Mario Bros Movie, was poorly received critically and has diminishing returns on a rewatch. The latest film in the genre A Minecraft Movie, is also one with a built-in IP and fanbase. Perhaps why these films are always being churned out. They are a guaranteed box-office hit, fans of the game are bound to head out for the film. This is something I saw with my audience in a bizarre experience where every character reveal, or even a character expressing his love of bread was met with a rousing applause and whooping (a totally unfamiliar experience in a UK cinema).

A Minecraft Movie follows Steve (Jack Black) a man who yearns for the mines to escape his 9 to 5 job where he sells doorknobs. He finally commits to his call and heads into a mine where he discovers an orb and a crystal housing object. When he places the two together he opens a portal to the overworld (AKA Minecraft world), a utopic land during the day where he can build and create whatever he wants. The only issue is hiding at night (roughly every 25 minutes) from zombies and other nasties. However, Steve comes into some trouble from Malgosha, a piglin dictator who is after the orb. So to save his world, Steve sacrifices himself, giving the orb to his dog Denis, who takes it back to Earth.

A few years later the orb comes into the hands of Garrett ‘The Garbage Man’ Garrison (Jason Mamoa), a former gaming champion, stuck in the past and is now a bit of a loser. However, the orb only comes into use when Henry (Sebastian Hansen) finds it in Garrett’s store. They enter the overworld with his sister and guardian Natalie (Emma Myers) and their estate agent Dawn (Danielle Brooks). As they enter the world, they find Steve and they venture on a mission to return to the real world.

I was somewhat dreading to see this film. However, I was pleasantly surprised with the fun I had during its runtime. This may be because of the audience I was seeing it with, who erupted throughout like as if it had just finished playing at the Venice Film Festival, which gave the film an almost The Room-like experience. But also if you can slide into the film’s tone there is a bit of fun to be had. There are some laugh-out-loud dreadful lines and everyone hams their performances up to an absurd level.

Jason Mamoa nails the loser dude with a bodybuilder physique. His unique costume, a white vest which is too small for him and a pink jacket with raised shoulder pads definitely help with this. Whilst I also really loved Jack Black in this, a Marmite performance where he really Jack Black’s it up to eleven, except songs about lava chicken and mad facial expressions. That being said there really isn’t much here.

It has a boring A-to-B narrative that doesn’t show the creativity of Minecraft. There is no intrigue or danger throughout the film, and although there are some fun moments, there is little in the way of characterisation to get interested in. It is just an hour and a half easter egg fest, which I’m sure will be fun for the fans on a first watch, but after that, I’m not so sure.