A Minecraft Movie, directed by Jared Hess and based on Mojang’s popular 2011 video game Minecraft, quickly became a popular meme on social media before its release on April 4. Nostalgic as it was for those who enjoy the video game, it only received a 6/10 on IMDb and 47% on Rotten Tomatoes. It has failed to meet many expectations and has received a lot of criticism.
The movie begins with Steve (Jack Black), an office worker with an incredibly boring life who has “yearned for the mines” ever since childhood. He discovers the Orb of Dominance and the Earth Crystal, two cube-shaped pieces that create a portal to the Overworld. He is transported to a different world where everything is made of easily manipulated cubes after stepping through the portal. He builds everything he desires and stumbles across a portal to yet another world called the Nether, where he is captured by a Piglin named Malgosha (Rachel House), obsessed with gold. She wants the Orb of Dominance since it would give her power over the whole realm. Steve has his dog, Dennis, hide the orb in the real world under his bed.
The story follows two siblings, Henry (Sebastian Hansen) and Natalie (Emma Myers), who move to the fictional town of Chuglass, Idaho, after their mother’s death. Henry finds the Orb of Dominance and the Earth Crystal in Garrett Garrison’s (Jason Momoa) video game store. He combines the crystals, which lead him and Garrett to Steve’s old mine.
Natalie realizes that Henry is missing and tracks him down with the help of Dawn (Danielle Brooks), their real estate agent. After finding Henry, the five of them fall into the portal. When Malgosha learns that the Orb of Dominance is back in the overworld, she agrees to let Steve leave the Nether so that he might bring her the orb.
The movie is funny, but there are many aspects that many people did not enjoy. First, the style of the overworld and the creatures in it have caused a lot of disappointment among viewers. Everything looks a bit odd, and while it is easy to identify that it was the Minecraft style with the blocky structure. However, many of the aspects added to make things look more realistic turned out to be a bit unsettling and disappointed many fans of the original video game.
Another issue with the popularity of the film was how audiences acted in the theaters. Some people were extremely destructive, throwing popcorn and being disrespectful to the rest of the audience. According to The Salt Lake Tribune, someone even brought a live chicken into the Cinemark Provo 16 theater in Provo, Utah, because of the popular “chicken jockey” line.
This film deserves a 2/5 because it is a letdown. It had many opportunities to be a beautiful, nostalgic piece of art. The acting is phenomenal, and the film is hilarious, but the story is weird. A Minecraft Movie missed many opportunities that players can do in the game that would’ve made it a better movie, such as defeating the Ender Dragon or exploring the overworld more extensively.
