Video game movies have become very popular lately. With movies like The Mario Movie and the entirety of the Sonic Movie franchise making tons of money it’s not a surprise that other games would get movie adaptations. The latest of these was the Minecraft Movie, directed by Jared Hess and released April 4.
The Minecraft Movie is about a group of people who get sucked into the Overworld via the Orb of Dominance and Earth Crystal and now they have to try and get home with the help of Steve, played by Jack Black, while the evil piglin sorceress Malgosha, voiced by Allan Henry, tries to take the Orb of Dominance for herself. The group consists of Garett Garrison, played by Jason Momoa, Henry, played by Sebastian Eugene Hansen, Natalie, played by Emma Myers, and Dawn, played by Danielle Brooks.
The story wasn’t good, it was very basic. Now, basic can still be fun and engaging, but the Minecraft Movie’s story was neither of those. The main conflict of the movie was the group not being able to go home because the Earth Crystal had been destroyed during a fight with zombies, so Steve had to take the group to a Woodland Mansion to get a new one. There is also a secondary conflict, the group has to keep the Orb of Dominance out of Malgosha’s hands so she doesn’t set the Overworld into eternal night. Both of these conflicts could be interesting in theory, but they just weren’t for some reason in the actual movie. It probably doesn’t help that the main villain is a horrible villain.
Malgosha is not a threatening villain, which I assume was by design. The Minecraft Movie is heavily comedy driven, so the directors probably wanted a funny villain rather than an intimidating one. The only problem with that is that Malgosha wasn’t funny. None of the jokes she made landed for me. The closest one was when she kept trying to stab Steve at the end of the movie, but even that didn’t make me giggle. Her villain origin story was even a joke with her dancing being laughed at on ‘Nether’s Got Talent’. This made her renounce creativity, one of her two motivations for taking over the Overworld. The other is the fact that she wants more gold. Having both of these motivations feels a little unnecessary, I think it would’ve been best if Malgosha was only fueled by greed instead of also hating creativity. Steve is Malgosha’s thematic opposite, and compared to her he is a decent character.
Steve was a fairly enjoyable character being one of the strongest characters in the movie. Steve is a goofy guy who left the real world after finding the Orb of Dominance and the Earth Crystal. He stopped Malgosha from taking the Orb of Dominance years ago, and when it returns to the Overworld he works towards keeping the orb away from her. He is the guide for everyone else and easily the funniest character. Sadly, the rest of the cast isn’t as good as him.
Garett Garrison is a video game store owner who won gamer of the year in 1989, and he made that his whole personality. He is the only character to really go through a character arc and is the second funniest character in the movie. Henry is the character I’d label as the main character. He’s a creative kid who brought everyone, minus Steve, to the Overworld and he is the one to take the Orb of Dominance back from Malgosha at the end of the movie. Natalie is Henry’s older sister and guardian after their mother died. She is protective of him, but she doesn’t have much personality outside of that. Finally, Dawn is a real estate agent and she has no reason to even be in the movie. Her character serves no purpose and every thing she did could’ve easily been done by another of the main cast instead. Both Dawn and Natalie to an extent could’ve been removed from the movie without changing it too much. Their lack of personality makes the B plot of the movie so much worse.
The worst part of the movie was the B plot of Vice Principal Marlene, played by Jennifer Coolidge falling in love and getting engaged to a villager, voiced by Matt Berry, after she hit him with her Jeep Grand Cherokee and took him to dinner to avoid being sued. I hated this B plot, and it had no reason to be there, especially when if it was removed we could’ve gotten a B plot revolving around Natalie and Dawn instead giving them much needed purpose and character.
The movie wasn’t all bad though, the visuals at times looked nice and the chicken jockey fight scene was entertaining solely for the fact that two grown men were getting beat up by a baby and a chicken. Jack Black and Jason Momoa played off each other well, most of the entertaining bits occurred when those two were on screen together. The creepers looked really nice when they were about to explode. I also enjoyed the cameo of a bunch of Minecraft youtubers in the beginning of the movie. It was nice seeing some of the youtubers I watched a lot as a kid.
Overall, the Minecraft Movie is an awful movie, but it could still be a fun watch if you go pretending it’s a satire movie. It may also be a more enjoyable watch if you enjoy crude humor. I do not particularly like crude humor so that could have affected my enjoyment of the movie. I wouldn’t suggest seeing it in theaters however, it’s not worth the money and the theater I was in was loud, especially when Jack Black said “Chicken Jockey”. There have also been many reports of people throwing things at the screen during the same part. If you are wanting to watch the movie I’d wait until it comes out on a streaming service.
