Jasmine Liang
Arts & Entertainment Editor
Jack Black’s voice booms across the dark theater, filled with college-aged theater-goers squealing at the meme-turned-reality film: “A Minecraft Movie,” an adaptation of the best-selling game of all time. Viewers are introduced to the film’s version of the “Minecraft” world with a long, expository narrated sequence that rushes through Steve’s life and discovery of the Earth Cube — a glowing, tesseract device that opens a portal to and from the block world.
The movie truly begins with Steve caged by the evil Malgosha, the queen of the piglins, a humanoid pig race that lives in the lava-infested Nether. Siblings Henry and Natalie navigate a new town that stifles creativity, and eventually find themselves partnered with Garrett, a washed, former pro in the fighting game scene, who is struggling with finances. Their real estate agent, Dawn, joins them on an adventure in the “Minecraft” world to find the Earth Cube and return home.
Released April 4, “A Minecraft Movie” has already become the second-highest grossing video game film, just after “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (2023). However, it scored low among critics at 47 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. But anyone who has seen the film can attest it wasn’t made for critical acclaim — it’s a kid’s comedy that combines timely jokes and just about every trope ever made. The plot follows a classic retrieval fantasy arc, with an overall theme that highlights the importance of creativity, but it’s done through characters that have been seen before in an unoriginal format.
Henry takes the classic role of a secret genius new kid who’s immediately bullied for being different, Natalie is the naive and misguided older sister forced into a parental role because their parents died young, Garrett is the jaded adult who gains his childlike whimsy and kindness back after interacting with the kids, Dawn is mainly comic relief, and Steve is the mentor figure who guides the characters through the unknown world. The dialogue plays even more into these tropes. For a film with eight writers, it feels like a generative artificial intelligence model made it.
However, there is some appeal for “Minecraft” fans. The film has received 87 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from moviegoers, and a trend has popped up for attendees to throw popcorn, yell, or otherwise celebrate when Steve says the infamous “chicken jockey” line. The detail in the world, items, and game mechanics shown in the film implies some care for accuracy — there’s references to specific redstone functionality, mob farms, water bucket clutches, and more that require at least some degree of familiarity with the source material.
Thus, it becomes unclear who “A Minecraft Movie” is appealing to: children, who have just begun learning “Minecraft” mechanics, or long-time fans who have aged out of cliche writing tropes? The amount of references and nods to the game points more to the latter, but the shallow writing doesn’t do it any favors. They name a character General Chungus, use the line, “As a child, I yearned for the mines,” and other meme-related material that will quickly age this film as those jokes lose their punch.
Despite the cheap humor and thoughtless characters, the movie has received attention as an ironically humorous and enjoyable movie, one that can at least be laughed at. If you haven’t seen the movie but wish to — go in without any expectations, and look out for popcorn flying behind you.