If I had a nickel for every video game movie adaptation that starred Jack Black, I’d have four nickels. It isn’t a lot, but weirdly, it happened that many times, right?
I think we as an audience, have been spoiled by a series of pretty high-quality films based on video game franchises in the past few years: Five Nights at Freddy’s, Sonic The Hedgehog 1–3, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, etc. Considering how hard it is to make a film where it panders to an audience that consists of either die-hard fans or families bringing their kids along, as well as keeping in mind the borderline nightmarish classics like the 1993 Mario film, the notion of a movie based on Minecraft of all things had me more than a bit worried.
And, sure enough, when I saw it on opening night with my partner, it didn’t fail to deliver a perfectly … mediocre time, all things considered. Let it be known that my opinions aren’t the law. Still, I feel like just because a movie is made for a younger audience doesn’t mean it has to become a nothing-burger in terms of narrative significance, and just because I’m not the target audience for this film doesn’t excuse it being bad.
A Minecraft Movie came out on April 4, 2025, and revolves around a group of random individuals being “Jumanji’d” into the world of Minecraft — the “Overworld,” if you will — and being forced to embark on an journey chock full of adventure as they’re accompanied by the one-and-only Steve, played by Jack Black.
Frankly, that was my first gripe with the film because Black is not the person I’d pick for the role. He is, unironically, just another wacky Jack Black character, the same way The Rock plays the same archetype in most of his films. He’s quirky and breaks into songs at times, but that’s it. They didn’t even bother shaving his beard or hair down a bit — just gave him a blue shirt and pants and told him, “Act natural!”
The movie itself is pretty slow for your average film — it doesn’t aspire to do anything unique with the game concept. It leaned more heavily into the mechanics of Minecraft in a way that felt somewhat infantilizing to the audience, rather than providing the basics and letting us figure it out from there. It was as if the film was a tutorial for the game, yet it failed to approach the subject effectively, as it merely pulled bits and pieces from the source material for the movie.
I remember seeing Detective Pikachu back in 2019 and loving that film because, while it was a Pokémon film, it didn’t bog people down with weird exposition to establish things. One example would be the oddly inflected ways Steve refers to the mobs (“Chicken Jockey!”) as if people needed to be reminded that in this strange new world, there are obviously strange things. The rest of the cast does a nice job with their roles, though. It’s always nice to see Emma Myers on screen again (loved her in Wednesday), and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy Jason Momoa at times in his role as Garrett, whose entire character is meant to be a sort of cringey retro gamer.
The biggest double-edged sword is the animation. We were right to be wary of how it looked in the original trailers — while the setting looks phenomenal and appears to have undergone a ritzy overhaul, the various NPCs with CGI models come off a bit uncanny. I hate the design of the Villagers, looking like some sort of fleshy Squilliam.
Outside of that, the interpretations of most of the mobs look pretty decent, but that doesn’t necessarily justify the movie’s shortcomings. The characters don’t do anything, as they wander about the setting for an hour and a half before the third act. I commented earlier about them getting “Jumanji’d” into the world, and that couldn’t be more of an apt description — both films revolve around four misfits getting sucked into a video-game world and being forced to team up with a person more experienced with the new world to retrieve an orb of mystical powers.
In the end, A Minecraft Movie is caught between two worlds. It oscillates between trying to please fans and casual viewers, but the result is more disappointing than anything. For a movie that preaches the importance of imagination and creativity, the sheer lack of innovation in the premise leaves it feeling shallow and lacking any true charm. It isn’t entirely unwatchable, but not worth a second viewing.
