“I did not expect that to be THAT bad” (@AlternateCyclizar1885), “Times like these are when I wish we had the dislike option [button] back” (@LKOnyx), and “Why does the movie look like a bad SNL skit?” (@mccuish), are few of the many disappointed comments left under the new live-action Minecraft movie teaser, expected to be released in April of 2025. A Minecraft Movie is a nightmare sloppily wrapped in greenscreen and aimed at younger audiences who know no better. 

Minecraft is a three-dimensional multiplayer game released in 2011, in which players can build whole worlds using 1,600  items, including 31 species of mobs. A player can use one of five modes– Survival Mode, Creative Mode, Hardcore Mode, Spectator Mode, and Adventure Mode. Each mode offers distinct gameplay features and mechanics, one of many reasons it is such an engaging, popular platform. The game is a stamp of nostalgia for early-late Generation Z, (1997-2012), it has generated around 3 billion dollars since its release in 2011, sold over 300 million copies as of 2023, and maintains a loyal fanbase. Upholding a simplistic design and few modes, Minecraft has continued to climb the charts despite any newer competition that relies on adrenaline-rushing gameplay. The game currently upholds the record for the most purchased game. The player perspective uses nine diverse choosable skins: Sunny, Kai, Makena, Zuri, Efe, Noor, Ari, Alex, and (one of the first introduced characters within the newest trailer), Steve, (Jack Black). One can also create their skin. Jack Black is not the only notable name in the film, it also includes Danielle Brooks as Dawn, most known for her role as Taystee in Orange is the New Black, Emma Myers as Natalie, appraised for her role as Enid on Wednesday, a hit TV show directed by the brilliant Tim Burton, and Jason Mamoa, the main character in Aquaman. What do all of these actors have in common? Their prior roles have each been in famous TV shows or movies which are taken seriously by the film industry, and which label them as good actors. Within the 3-minute movie trailer, Jason Mamoa has an eccentric (to say the least) outfit. He sports a pink tasseled pleather jacket, dirt-stained jeans, and a layered thick light brown wig, with bangs brushing over a slitted eyebrow. Oh, Jason… what have they done to you…

To get a better sense of the overall feelings surrounding the trailer from the CAPA community, I asked a few students about their opinions.

“I don’t understand why they’re making a movie, I don’t think there’s any plot to Minecraft, so I think a movie would just be, like a concept,” Emily Denicola says, a 10th-grade Creative Writing major. She had just finished watching the trailer for the second time. Denicola didn’t see the purpose in the movie, noting she just “thinks it looks bad”. Emily has never really played Minecraft, so her knowledge of the differences between the movie and the game is limited. As a fan of movies instead of Minecraft, she does know the cast. In her opinion as well as my own, Jack Black looks nothing like Steve, and therefore shouldn’t play him, and Jason Momoa’s outfit made her giggle. Overall, she agrees that there is zero context in the trailer itself and that the addition may have strengthened viewers' opinion of the movie's release. Is it a Jumanji thing where the characters are placed in the Minecraft world? Do any of the characters know each other? It's kind of a weird team, two teenagers, two adults, and whatever Jack Black is, oh sorry, I meant Steve...

Negative thoughts about the trailer such as my own and Emily's were not the only ones heard. Taking in the bustling scene of the 32 bus route on the ride home, I encountered a group of CAPA kids and decided to jump on the opportunity for a quick and easy interview. Ibrahim Sokouna, a 12th-grade MDTV major, is confident that the movie will turn out well. As a faithful Minecraft player, playing since he was “8 or 9 years old”, he has no doubts that he will enjoy the movie after its release. He comments that the trailer was unexpected, “a little bit odd”, but Minecraft trailers are always “a bit quirky”. Ibrahim also doesn’t think of Jack Black as the right choice, claiming they stuck him in a blue t-shirt and gave him the line, “I am Steve.”. In his eyes, it's less about the design elements and choices of the creators, but more about the humor and meme culture found within the movie. Sokouna shares that he has faith in Mojang, and as a real Minecraft player, I may have to trust him a bit. “It doesn’t look like Minecraft, it looks good.”, he shares with me, moving his hands in gestures to show passion. A bald tattooed man sitting behind him mutters under his breath “I hate Jack Black.”. Real man, real. 

This movie has a large intended audience. It is meant really, for those who play Minecraft at all, or experience nostalgia related to the game. Since the game has nostalgic meaning for those in late Generation Z, it has high expectations. However, it is also intended for kids in the generation after, regarded as the gen alpha brain rot kids. To get an unbiased perspective from someone who experiences neither nostalgia nor newness to the game, I decided to speak to Mr.Lipschutz, a chemistry and biology teacher in his late 50s. Mr.Lipschutz has never played Minecraft, but he has been shown a world by one of his students, so he is familiar with the looks. “I…uhh… I think it looks visually pleasing, I mean I’m not surprised, it looks computer-generated, and Minecraft is computer-generated”, he says, shrugging his shoulders in response to the original question. Insisting that he was not the right person to interview, he mentioned his novelty to the topic three or four times. Different from others, he thinks Jason Mamoa and Jack Black were great choices. “So I don’t have a personal stake in Minecraft, I like the graphics. Any movie with Jason Mamoa and Jack Black, it has to be great,” he states confidently, resting his hands below my paused computer. That is definitely an opinion. Lipschutz addresses his thoughts about the trailer with simplicity. To sum up, without all of the ums and ahhs and laughs, Mr.Lipschutz thinks the movie will be alright, but maybe only on a surface level, and he doesn’t take me seriously in the least.

This is one of those trailers which is easy to form strong viewpoints on at first glance. The plot looks a little ridiculous, the casting choices are interesting, and the concept of turning a Minecraft world into one of high quality and outward form hasn’t been done before. What I gathered from all of these interviews is that the speed at which you make judgments may be influenced by your personality. Emily, as one who doesn’t play Minecraft period, but is an avid movie watcher and enjoyer, doesn’t have high expectations for the outcome. Ibrahim, as someone who looks for humor in media, and one who loves Minecraft and its products, thinks he’ll enjoy it in the end. Mr.Lipschutz, well, he just really likes Jason Mamoa in a kind of weird way. Each has their own biases. Maybe I should ask them again about their thoughts in April of 2025 when the movie inevitably comes to theaters. Five months from now, I’ll be there, and we’ll see who was right after all…