A Minecraft Movie review: nether expected it to be this good

I was highly skeptical when it was announced that Minecraft would be getting a film adaptation, even more so when it was said it’d be live-action.

That first trailer rolled around and I honestly wasn’t impressed, but by the second trailer I was starting to warm to the idea.Now that I’ve seen the vision fully realised? I can honestly say I had a great time.

Take a look at the trailer for A Minecraft Movie below

Straight out of the gate it’s explained to the audience that this isn’t the Minecraft movie, it’s a Minecraft movie. Minecraft is a game about imagination and creating your own adventure, you have to because there’s very little to go off when it comes to story or lore - although that has changed over the years.

A Minecraft Movie’s strongest trait is how it respects the source material in that way, taking audiences both young and old on a journey vastly different to what you’d probably have come up with yourself.

The story itself is a rather simple one, and one that’s echoed across several films catered to a child-like audience. You’ve got the washed-up character down on his luck who makes some very detrimental choices but learns from their mistakes, the brother-sister duo falling apart but rekindling their familial bond, and some more comic-relief characters. I didn’t really vibe with the “drama”, but I can appreciate that I probably wasn’t the intended audience; it’s Minecraft after all, I wasn’t expecting War And Peace.

Where it really picks itself up, though, is the humour. Some jokes land smoother than others, but when they did land I was creasing my sides with laughter. Every scene with Jennifer Coolidge was absolutely hysterical, I’d take an entire film centered around her character. Top-tier comedy. A lot of it had the same vibe as The Lego Movie, with plenty of jokes that’ll probably go straight over kid’s heads, but adults will get a good laugh out of. Even the more slapstick gags were pretty funny.

As for adapting the video game into a live-action film format, it’s a little hit and miss. Let's start with Steve. Jack Black inhabits the role of Steve very well in my opinion;again, this isn’t Steve, it’s Jack Black’s Steve. As always, he steals the show with his line delivery and overall screen presence, and I couldn’t help but crack a smile at him just naming various Minecraft stuff with those comical inflections he does. He has boundless energy and you can tell he was having fun with, as was Jason Mamoa who was equally silly, even giving ol’ Jacky Boy a run for his money at times.

Warner Bros Pictures

That said, no wonder the actors looked like they were having a grand time with the world that was created for them. Don’t get me wrong, most of it was CGI, but there were plenty of practical effects and props for them to play with. The various tools like swords and pickaxes looked straight out of the game itself, and the Ender Pearl looked oddly…edible. Plenty of it was just window dressing too, so eagle-eyed fans will have a good time identifying what’s in frame but not focused on.

The world of Minecraft didn’t always translate well to live-action though, as the animals and villagers in particular were monstrous to look at. It feels like this was intentional to get people talking to be honest but nevertheless they were pretty unnerving, more so than the zombies, skeletons, creepers etc weirdly enough.

Something I sincerely loved about the film - and yet I don’t know whether it was intentional or not - is it felt like each character represented a different kind of Minecraft player. Minecraft caters to so many different types of people, and the experience you get out of it is entirely down to your preferences. I’m not really the creative type, I can’t build colossal structures and works-of-art, I just don’t have the time or patience. What I do love is building a little house and slaying monsters, plus doing some exploring on the side.

That’s something I think the film tackled quite well;it felt like I’ve known people who play the game exactly like some of these characters, the builder/designer, the animal tamer, the one who has no idea what they’re doing and is just there for the vibes etc.

All in all I had a great time watching A Minecraft Movie. The age gap of Minecraft fans is incredibly wide, and I feel like the film did an admirable job of catering to all ages, and again I’m glad it positioned itself as just one of an endless amount of stories that could be told. This approach opens the door to some cheeky sequels in the future, and I’d love to see the cast be completely different each time.

It also really, really, really made me want to play some Minecraft afterwards, so if that was the goal, it absolutely smashed it.