“A Minecraft Movie” is not a good movie. That was my main thought leaving the theater. However, I couldn’t shake the strange feeling of happiness that watching it had given me. By all accounts, I should have been walking out of that theater completely disappointed. And yet, against all odds, I had a good time.
Directed by Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre), “A Minecraft Movie” follows the story of Steve (Jack Black) and a cast of other characters, who generally don’t have any plot development whatsoever, as they explore the world of Minecraft, called the Overworld. The main plot stems from their efforts to stop an evil witch from a hellish dimension known as the Nether from conquering the overworld. That’s it. That’s the plot.
Now that that’s over with, let’s get to the actual meat and potatoes of this review. As I said before, this movie is not good. The plot development barely exists for any of the characters, and when I was starting to write the review, very shortly after seeing the film, I had to look up what their names were. That’s how forgettable they are. They are cookie cutter archetypes who undergo zero growth over the course of the film. Even Steve, the main character of the game, is basically just Jack Black playing himself for an hour and forty minutes. And as for a decent plot, forget about it. It’s generic, and has nothing that stands out about it whatsoever besides the fact that it takes place in Minecraft.
On that point, the sets are quite beautiful, and the CGI isn’t half bad. It would be a really nice representation of the world of Minecraft, if it were more realistic. There’s some stuff they included in the movie that I wish was present in the game. Additionally, there are a few jokes that land, but only a few.
There are some people who think that this movie is a complete and utter waste of time and a massive failure. But to properly explain why they are wrong, I need to explain something about Minecraft itself. Once you beat the game, a poem appears that is commonly referred to as the “End Poem.” It is a strange, beautiful, artistic work that reflects on the meaning of life itself and the “Long Dream” of life, as compared to the “short dream” that is videogames and media. Numerous people wanted the movie to be similar to that. They wanted something that reflected the artistry, the beauty of a game where there are literally no limits to what you are able to do. To be honest, I wanted that too.
And technically, it’s still possible. There’s a reason the movie is titled “A Minecraft Movie” and not The Minecraft movie. But in the world we live in now, where games and other animation are generally considered to be incapable of the same depth and emotion as other media, there was simply no feasible way for the movie to end up any way other than how it did.
My argument is this: The way it ended up is pretty darn good. Not because of the quality of the movie itself, but because of the experience of going to see it. Because of the people. For months before the movie was released, the internet was abuzz with memes and jokes about the lines Steve was saying in the movie. It’s hard to explain why exactly it was funny, but it was, and it built up hype for the movie that eventually culminated in a theater experience that was one of the best I’ve ever had. People were clapping and cheering every time Jack Black said a line that they had seen in the trailers, they were jumping up out of their seats, they were laughing, they were having a good time. They weren’t looking for cinematic perfection, they were looking for a great experience, and they had one. At least, I did. My rating in terms of movie is a 4/10. In terms of experience, it’s a solid 8/10.