A Minecraft Movie review

“It’s harder to create than to destroy. That’s why cowards tend to choose the deuce.” You may be wondering where this quote is from. Could it be Aristotle, or maybe Friedrich Nietzsche penned it in The Birth of Tragedy? It’s certainly thought-provoking enough to be mistaken for the work of any notable philosopher.

But this theological statement is actually from one of this generation’s greatest minds: Jack Black in A Minecraft Movie. It sums up the core message of this film: No matter how difficult it is to create something, hard work and practice always pay off; a very Minecraft sentiment.

Instead of trying to become the new canon Minecraft experience, A Minecraft Movie decides to focus on a few individuals and their experiences within the game. Jack Black’s version of Steve isn’t the Steve; he’s just a Steve. And while there is a story in the form of the Piglins trying to get the precious orb back from Steve and friends to complete their domination of the Overworld, this is more of a vessel for the core cast to explore and interact with Minecraft.

The best parts of the film (other than all of Jennifer Coolidge’s scenes) were all the times when characters interacted with Minecraft just like any other player would. During a zombie/skeleton invasion on the first night, Henry, the young protagonist, manages to create a fortress to protect himself and his friends from the unfriendly mobs. Later on, we get to see more builds that Jack Black, aka Steve, made during his time in the Overworld. There’s a working Ferris wheel, a booby-trapped diamond mine, and of course a fitting tribute to his trusty wolf dog, Dennis.

It’s a very human experience to point at something familiar and go, “I do that!” which is probably why I enjoyed seeing the Dennis statue or Steve, Garrett, and Henry fly through canyons with elytra whilst getting chased by a swarm of Ghast-riding Piglins so much. Playing Minecraft is a very relatable experience, something that binds all of us who play. Everyone’s hidden in a hole or a little dirt hut on their first night, celebrated once they cracked their first redstone build, or aspired to build the magnificent diamond block house. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that this movie thrives when it’s simply being a relatable Minecraft experience while also showing off just how limitless Minecraft’s world is.

Unfortunately, this film isn’t just about gazing at vistas and watching its characters make cool builds. The problems with this film lie in its character development and rushed story.

It ender drags-on a bit

From the start, you can see that one of the issues that the creators had to overcome was how to get their characters from point A (the real world) to point B (Minecraft’s Overworld) as fast as possible. There would’ve been a couple of nifty quick ways to do so, one of which being a Jumanji-like scenario in which Steve would’ve been swept into the Overworld via some old grey PC, later to be followed by the rest of the core group.

But instead, Steve decides to break into an abandoned mine, breaking some poor man’s ankles when he sidesteps him into oblivion on the way in. This is where Steve finds the orb and the earth crystal, which he combines to create a gateway to the Overworld.

After making a couple of cool builds, Steve gets robbed of his orb by the Piglins and their leader, but to save the Overworld from complete destruction, Steve hands the orb to Dennis to hide in the real world.

It’s at this point where we’re introduced to the rest of the group, and where the film really struggles with finding the right pace. Most of the character introductions are rushed to get to the Overworld quicker, except for Garrett, a pro retro gamer, who got an odd amount of backstory for someone who I think was meant to be a secondary character or at the very least behind Henry.

Because of this, most of the characters don’t feel massively rounded out. Occasionally, there’d be a moment or two where there’d be some attempt at character progression, only for it to be cut short to retain the attention of its younger audience.

But to be fair, A Minecraft Movie never marketed itself as a film with a ton of layers, so I can’t really be angry that it yells about crafting tables instead of providing a deep character study.

A decent block-buster

Once I looked past some of these pitfalls and just decided to enjoy this movie for what it is, some good light-hearted fun, I started to enjoy my time with it a bit more. Instead of dwelling on why the Piglins didn’t attack Steve straight away as he had no gold armour on, I instead found myself smiling at fun references to creeper farms and a lovely little Technoblade tribute.

It’s obvious that this film is really meant for the younger Minecraft playerbase rather than those who played the game back when it first released, with Jack Black regularly yelling out the name of items like flint and steel or crafting table. But there’s just enough cool references and some funny jokes to help you sit through the movie.

Jennifer Coolidge’s scenes, which take place in the real world as she romances a lost Minecraft villager, were the most consistently funny scenes in the entire movie, and her story arc alongside the lost villager made me laugh way more than I thought it would. I’m not going to lie, her mid-credits scene made my day.

So, to older fans of Minecraft, I’d say go check out A Minecraft Movie if you’re up for some casual fun and want to check out a pretty impressive visualisation of the Overworld and Nether. A Minecraft Movie probably isn’t the serious storytelling that some players want, but it’ll make you laugh a couple of times, and at least in my case, it’s given me the bi-annual itch to play Minecraft again.