A Minecraft Movie finally brings the iconic game to the big screen in a way that works better than it should…even if that’s not saying much.
A Minecraft Movie
Directed By: Jared Hess
Written By: Chris Bowman, Hubble Palmer, Neil Widener, Gavin James, and Chris Galletta
Starring: Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers, Sebastian Hansen
Release Date: April 4, 2025
I had very little, probably zero if I’m being honest, expectations for A Minecraft Movie going into it. Despite my kids being into the game, I never got into it, and the trailers didn’t exactly sell me on it. So imagine my shock when I found myself laughing and hooting throughout. It’s not a “good” movie, per se, but it isn’t the utter disaster one would expect either.
The story centers on Steve (Jack Black) who uncovers the “Overworld” and spends years of his life there, instead of going back to the real world. When evil forces from the “Nether” threaten the Overworld, he sends his dog companion (Dennis) out into the real world with an Orb that’s the key to it all.
When the new kid in town, Henry (Sebastian Hansen) joins up with a local gaming legend well past his prime, Garrett (Jason Momoa) they accidentally open the portal to the Overworld. Joined by Henry’s sister, Natalie (Emma Myers) and their realtor, Dawn (Danielle Brooks) for some reason, they enter the Overworld. There they embark on a quest to not only find a way home, but save the world in the process.
Yeah, it’s a pretty straight forward fish-out-of-water fantasy adventure. Much to my surprise, it actually has a whole lot in common with the plot of The Super Mario Bros. Movie. But in the efforts of keeping things spoiler free, I’ll leave it at that.
Surprisingly, there’s a lot of fun to be had with A Minecraft Movie, and it’s genuinely the hardest I’ve laughed in a theater in a bit. The biggest reason for this (and arguably the film’s greatest asset), is the fact it doesn’t even try to take itself seriously. The script is quite aware of how dumb things are and the situations presented. This allows the film to take the concept of this alternate game world and go hog wild with it.
It doesn’t get bogged down in the rules of how the world(s) work. Things simply exist and work the way they work, and it’s on the audience to accept it and sit back. This means they can do some fun/silly things that otherwise wouldn’t work; especially in the context of many of the sight gags.
Even better, everyone in the film—from the main leads to the minor side characters—are all in on it. Because they’re along for the ride in much the same way we, the audience, each of the characters are given some hilarious/fun moments. The result are a number of absolutely ridiculous/nonsensical moments that, in any other context, shouldn’t work. Yet they do, hilariously so.
The flip side of that coin, however, is almost nothing else in the film works. The plot and characters are just kind of…there. It jumps around from beat to beat fairly quickly. This allows for the humor (and a surprising amount of action) to take the lead, but prevents anything from standing out. There are a handful of interesting story ideas that pop-up, but the story being told isn’t interested in exploring those and moves on too quickly to dwell on.
The characters suffer the most from this approach. Jack Black and Jason Momoa are clearly having a blast being silly and goofy and their dynamic makes for some of the funniest moments that’ll stick with you. Everyone else is given the barest of backstories along with a couple bits of info meant to convey a personality they cannot veer from. Which is a bit of a bummer, as it feels like everyone does a fairly decent job with what they have to work with.
There are points in the story where each of these characters have some sort of growth, or revelation. Moments where they embrace some truth about themselves (or one another in the case of the siblings Henry and Natalie). Normally, these types of things help give the characters depth and help hammer home the larger themes at play. In A Minecraft Movie, however, they pop up randomly and feel wholly unearned.
Near the end of the film (without diving into spoilers), all of the characters share some touching moments and join together like a sort of found family…This is despite the fact the characters were split up for a majority of the time, with a couple of them having only one or two previous interactions with each other. Their sudden fondness for one another just feels weird.
There are a lot of things like that throughout the film. The whole film embraces that old-school Saturday morning cartoon logic. These aspects work within the context of the scenes they take place, makes no real sense when you think about it for any length of time. Which sums up A Minecraft Movie pretty well.
Before I wrap up, I want to mention the visuals in the film. For the most part, I was impressed with the animation/design of the video game elements and characters. The realistic approach to the blocky world works better than expected and makes for some neat moments and sight gags.
The only problem, is that the human actors don’t always fit within it. There are several times where it feels pretty obvious that it’s just a bunch of actors in a room with nothing but a green screen. I mean glaringly obvious moments jarring enough to completely take me out of the moment.
