The best-selling video game of all time gets a fun adaptation from the director of Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre.
Plot: Welcome to the world of Minecraft, where creativity doesn’t just help you craft. It’s essential to one’s survival! Four misfits—Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison, Henry, Natalie, and Dawn — find themselves struggling with ordinary problems when they are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal into the Overworld: a bizarre, cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination. To get back home, they’ll have to master this world (and protect it from evil things like Piglins and Zombies, too) while embarking on a magical quest with an unexpected, expert crafter, Steve. Together, their adventure will challenge all five to be bold and reconnect with the qualities that make each of them uniquely creative…the skills they need to thrivein the real world.
Review: Minecraft, the best-selling video game of all time, has had a long road to the big screen. While the game has been a global hit since it launched in 2011, the movie has had a rocky journey, passing through projects led by directors Shawn Levy, Rob McElhenney, and Peter Sollett before finally coming together with Napoleon Dynamite helmer Jared Hess. Starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa, A Minecraft Movie blends the unique visual style of the blocky world of the sandbox game with a quirky CGI universe. Audience reaction has been divisive since the first trailers debuted. Still, A Minecraft Movie is a lot more fun than I was anticipating, thanks to Black and Momoa embracing the surreal sense of humor at the core of the film, which will please younger fans and long-time fans of the game who will spot tons of cameos and easter eggs peppered throughout. A Minecraft Movie also has much more edgy humor than I expected from a PG-rated film, which will keep adults as engaged as their kids.
Opening with title cards and credits inspired by the pixelated video game aesthetic, we get a crash course on how Steve (Jack Black) made his way to the Overworld and befriended a wolf named Dennis. When his discovery of a cube-shaped orb is coveted by the villainous pig Malgosha (Rachel House), Steve sends Dennis back to Earth to hide the cube, where it remains for years until it is found by 1980s video game champion Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison. Clinging to his fading celebrity status, Garrett desperately needs money to keep his business going. That is when he comes across Henry (Sebastian Hansen), a bright and creative kid who recently moved to Idaho with his older sister, Natalie (Emma Myers), after the death of their mother. In a similar conceit to Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Henry activates the orb, which draws him, Garrett, Natalie, and their realtor, Dawn (Danielle Brooks), into the Overworld. As they try to understand how the physics and mechanics of Minecraft’s world operate, the quartet comes across Steve, who guides them on their journey.
A Minecraft Movie draws heavily on the formula of the recent Jumanji films but does so with a sense of fun and silliness that never takes itself too seriously. The fully CGI world rarely feels tangible but it evokes the feel of Minecraft enough that you can suspend your disbelief enough to go along for the ride. Fans of the games will recognize many of the materials, techniques, and terminology used in the movie. Jack Black is a great guide as Steve names everything along the way so those unfamiliar with Minecraft can tell an Evoker from an Enderman. The screening I attended had many kids and older Minecraft fans who said the names of things in the game world aloud, along with Jack Black, and applauded when references came up on the screen. The enthusiasm in the audience was noticeable, and applause erupted throughout the movie. The action never gets scary, even if the evil Piglins, zombies, and giant spiders are designed to be. At its darkest moments, A Minecraft Movie never feels like it would scare the youngest viewer.
What surprised me is how funny A Minecraft Movie is. Yes, it is incredibly stupid humor, but it works because Jack Black is in full Nacho Libre mode as Steve. Virtually every line of dialogue from Jack Black is said in a half-yell and over-enunciated for comedic effect. Black does not fit the physical look of the eight-bit video game avatar he is portraying. Black clearly got to do what he wanted with the role, including multiple musical numbers that call on his Tenacious D skills as a vocalist. Sebastian Hansen is a good young protagonist with whom audiences can align, while Danielle Brooks and Emma Myers are woefully underused in their roles. Still, Jason Momoa is hilarious in a role considerably different from any he has had. With a ridiculous wardrobe and hairstyle, Momoa holds his own opposite Jack Black, making for the best onscreen comedy duo since Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill in 21 Jump Street. After a while, I was so entertained by Black and Momoa that I could forgive a lot of the wasted opportunities, like Jennifer Coolidge in a role that serves no purpose to the film outside of adding about fifteen minutes to the running time to pay off a joke in the mid-credit scene.
Written by Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer, Neil Widener, Gavin James, and Chris Galletta, from a story by Allison Schroeder, Bowman, and Palmer, A Minecraft Movie gives us a glimpse of the Overworld in the first few minutes of the film before then spending almost half an hour in the real world. For those thirty minutes, I laughed harder than I have in a long time, which is a credit to director Jared Hess. Hess brings the same odd humor from Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre to A Minecraft Movie, including references to alpacas and tater tots. The scene featuring Jason Momoa and Jennifer Coolidge feels far beyond what I expected in a PG-rated film but had the adults cracking up in my screening alongside me. Once the action shifts to the CGI world, the film still highlights the comedy. Any film that blends live action and CGI has the challenge of either feeling too much like a cartoon or not nearly enough. Jared Hess emulates elements from the video game and adds some new twists that keep the momentum moving,g which keeps viewers from poking too many holes in the weak narrative structure of the story. There are so many elements set up in A Minecraft Movie that never come to fruition or fall by the wayside, holding the film back from being better than it is, but it remains a fun popcorn flick.
A Minecraft Movie is light entertainment with funny moments and a cast that is more than up to the challenge of acting silly on screen for the benefit of younger audiences. Jack Black and Jason Momoa have not had this much fun on screen in a long time, and director Jared Hess takes full advantage of that. The story itself is formulaic, but you have to start somewhere when you base your story on a game with no narrative structure. The film’s title hints at the possibility of a sequel going in a totally different direction, or it could revisit these characters for another adventure. Either way, the challenge of even realizing this world on screen has finally been met, and now the creative team behind A Minecraft Movie can try to make the next one even better. Parents will find themselves having more fun than expected with this movie, while kids and Minecraft fans will be pleased to see their favorite game leap onto the big screen.
A Minecraft Movie opens in theaters on April 4th
