A Minecraft Movie is a 2025 American fantasy adventure comedy film directed by Jared Hess. It is based on the 2011 video game Minecraft. The movie stars Jack Black as Steve, Jason Momoa as Garrett, Sebastian Hansen as Henry, Emma Myers as Natalie, and Danielle Brooks as Dawn. The film premiered at Empire Leicester Square on March 30, 2025,[1] and was released nationwide on April 4, 2025.[2]
| A Minecraft Movie | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Making a Minecraft movie isn't the worst idea, unless if it's live-action, which might make the idea stale.
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Hostile Qualities
- The film is a combination of poor animation and live action:
- The decision to make the film partially live-action is questionable given the history of poorly received live-action remakes.
- Steve's design is just lazy, like Jack Black in a blue shirt.
- The designs of the mobs are perhaps the worst offenders, with some of them looking like rejected Minecraft mods or even rejected models from Roblox or Rec Room. Special mention goes to the sheep, which somehow sport a visible muzzle, making it look uncanny.[clarification needed]
- It would have been far better if the film had just used Minecraft animation for the whole film (or at least for the Minecraft world), but they instead decided to go with mediocre CGI animation that winds up looking uncanny.
- Jack Black as Steve, despite his performance being admittedly hilarious and amazing, is just the same character he plays in every film in which he stars.
- The plot is notoriously lacking, as it is yet another massive cliché storm about a brother (Henry) and sister (Natalie) duo. This older sister (Natalie) must take care of her younger brother (Henry), getting trapped into another world, teaming up with characters (Steve, Garrett, and Dawn) along the way, while returning home. It is effectively ripped off from Playmobil: The Movie, which is already a bad film.
- In fact, the entire plot is just a lazy rehash of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, but with Minecraft slap in it (right down to the fact that Jack Black starred in both movies, with him portraying Bethany Walker/Professor Sheldon "Shelly" Oberon in the Jumanji franchise).
- It is also questionable that various important elements of the original game are not as significant in the film, with the Ender Dragon being absent from the film and Alex only having a brief cameo.
- While it tries to be faithful to the source material, it does so to the point that Minecraft lore is widespread, and it is hard for non-Minecraft fans to understand and/or enjoy the film.
- Malgosha is a weak villain. She is evil because she was laughed at in her dance competition. Granted, this was done because it was funny, but it is still a weak motivation.
- Most of the humor is poor and generic, like one scene where a llama gets caught in a piglin stampede, only to resume eating like nothing happened.
- There is a pointless subplot of one of the villagers (Nitwit) entering the real world and forming a relationship with the vice principal (Vice Principal Marlene) at Henry's school. While it is hilarious (many people said it was funny and the funniest thing in the movie), it adds nothing to the plot, and no one is bothered that a man in the shape of a rectangular prism with a cube-shaped head has entered the real world. You could remove this subplot from the film entirely, and almost nothing about it would change.
- Missed opportunities:
- For whatever reason, the Ender Dragon is completely absent here, as there are no appearances at all. It doesn't help that she is in one of the pieces of concept art for this movie, but she was cut. It can specualuted and implied that's because the Ender Dragon is probably and most likely going to appear in a sequel to A Minecraft Movie, alongside with the fact that the movie's writers most likely wanted to do and make an original villain instead of a video game villain from the video game as well as an already existing villain. If the movie's writers had made both the Ender Dragon and Malgosha as its main antagonists, it'd probably be seen as way too crammed. Alex also only appears in the second post-credits scene, of which she could have had a major role here. Can be excused as if the film had Alex in it, it'd most likely end up being crammed, and she'd end up being sidelined.
- This film doesn't focus on creativity that much if you really think about it, and the movie mostly focuses on the battle scenes more often, which can be seen as a missed opportunity.
- Similar to the aformentioned 2019's Playmobil: The Movie and even 2023's Wish, Natalie says that their mother died, and even Henry looks at a picture of them together with their deceased mother, but beyond that scene in Natalie's house, it's never brought up again in the movie and it is not mentioned ever again at all in the entire movie, which is wasted potential and a missed opportunity, as it could have been emotional if Natalie and Henry brought it up again and maybe even mention it to Steve, Garrett, and Dawn, similar to the emotionalness of Mufasa's death from The Lion King and its 2019 remake of the same name that Simba and 2019 Simba had to go through in those movies, respectively.
- It's never explained how the Piglins can survive out in the Overworld, because unlike the video games, the Piglins can't survive in the Overworld except if they're in a Shadow spot like Trees, but here, it's never explained how they can survive in the Overworld. However, Jeb on X teased that the piglins in the movie survive in the Overworld in the same way as the Piglins from Minecraft Legends; by using Nether Wart.[3]
- For whatever reason, the credits are just in a black background with pink text (even if the pink text is creative), and it made a huge missed opportunity to have the credits in the Minecraft style, but maybe not the rolling credits.
- There is a mean-spirited moment where Malgosha kills a baby piglin just because the piglin showed her a colorful drawing of the Overworld.
- Similar to The Super Mario Bros. Movie (despite being a good movie), the pacing is way too fast for non-fans to get used to the world of Minecraft.
- Ironically enough, both movies have Jack Black in them (he voiced Bowser in The Super Mario Bros. Movie and portrayed Steve in A Minecraft Movie), are video game movies of popular franchises, and the movie was even released one day after on the same day that the sequel (The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2) would be releasing on (April 3, 2026, and that movie would be releasing one day before the first anniversary of A Minecraft Movie, of which the first anniversary of A Minecraft Movie would be on April 4, 2026, and of which the third anniversary of The Super Mario Bros. Movie would be on April 5, 2026), and the movie was even released one day before the second anniversary of The Super Mario Bros. Movie (the second anniversary of The Super Mario Bros. Movie was on April 5, 2025), and even both Mario and Minecraft are major big video game franchises that both start with an uppercase "M" in them.
- As of A Minecraft Movie, Jack Black has officially had two video game movies in April: Mario and Minecraft.
- Related to this, coincidentally Jack Black voices a major villain (Bowser in The Super Mario Bros Movie) and a hero protagonist (Steve in A Minecraft Movie).
- For some reason, Natalie and Dawn are pushed to the sides and barely get to do anything for a good 30 minutes of the movie, while Steve, Garret, and Henry go on a massive adventure.
- Similarly, Natalie and Dawn's little convo while killing the zombie was only there to satisfy the Bechdel test. While they are still likable, their presence was also pointless and did not contribute to the film in the long term.[clarification needed]
- Some cameos in the film seem a bit forced, like the one with DanTDM (despite being a decent cameo), who only appears for a few seconds during the auction scene, in which he does not get any lines. The same goes for the Technoblade-esque pig, although it is pretty touching.
- Plot holes:
- Why would Natalie call Dawn (a real estate agent) with her very own phone to look for Henry while she could have called the police? This can be seen as excusable, as with many people who know someone who has gone missing, they'd most likely end up calling a family member or a friend before they'd end up calling the police.
- How did Steve get the elytra wingsuits? In the game, to get to the end and get elytras, you must first get blaze rods from killing blazes in the Nether, which Steve was trapped in by the piglins as soon as he entered for the first time. So unless the method of obtaining elytras or going to the end was changed for the movie, the only possible way Steve could have gotten elytras was by finding an end portal that naturally has all 12 eyes in the portal frames, which is unlikely as there is only a one in a trillion chance for this to happen. Here, it is implied, and it can be speculated that Steve beat the Ender Dragon (although she is not mentioned at all here in this movie) early, way before Henry, Garrett, Natalie, and Dawn came into the Minecraft universe.
- For whatever reason, similar to how The Super Mario Bros. Movie didn't do a retro style that would have been similar to that of the Super Mario video game series, the credits are just in a black background with pink text, which, while creative, could have been done in a Minecraft style, showing yet again another missed opportunity.
- A huge and major criticism of this movie is that the humans look out-of-place and stick out as a sore thumb in the Overworld, as it looks like they were just CGI-ed and plastered onto the backgrounds, including Steve, Garrett, Henry, Natalie, and Dawn. Behind the scenes, they used a green screen to film their actors and actresses in the Minecraft world.
- The film had received widespread criticism for its features since its teaser trailer, and yet the criticism was completely ignored and the film was released as it was intended (although it could be seen as excusable, given the fact that Warner Bros. would not want to rush the animators and make them redesign everything and have the cast record all of their lines, respectively), inevitably leading to a mixed-to-negative reception.
- The film treats its audience as stupid (although many people found this hilarious), as it explains every joke and the big suspense scene when Henry is trying to reach the cube on the top of the tower before Malgosha does.[clarification needed]
- Unlike The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the movie does not even feel like a love letter to fans of the Minecraft franchise, and is just Mojang's next attempt to cash in with the resurgence of the video game film adaptation trend.
- You'll probably just find it and think of it as a cash grab.
- The film notoriously marketed itself with an action figure of Steve that is literally just Jack Black in a blue shirt, [4] which feels weird for a toy.
- The film also did a weird collaboration with Young Sheldon (the first spin-off TV show of The Big Bang Theory), out of all live-action TV shows, which was just out of nowhere.[clarification needed]
- False advertising: The Dragon Egg is seen in the first commercial for the McDonald's collaboration, as Grimace goes over to try and pick it up, but in the final film, the Dragon Egg does not appear.
- Several moments try to be emotional but fail, especially with Garret's supposed "death", as it is incredibly clichéd.
- While not much of a problem, the Piglins destroyed the Village, which can be seen as kind of sensitive, especially when you consider how long it took for someone to build it.
- Chugless, while a creative name, can come across as a pretty laughable name for a movie.
Creative Qualities
- The concept of a Minecraft film sounds interesting despite its poor execution.
- Although most of the character designs are bad, some character designs, such as those for the chickens and villagers, are decent.
- The designs for most of the humans (save and except for Steve) are a combination of really great, good, and even good.
- The acting is good, despite Jack Black just being himself.
- There is a tribute to the late Minecraft YouTuber Technoblade, where a pig wearing a crown is shown to the protagonists and Steve describes him as a "legend."
- There are several comedic lines, such as:
- "I... am Steve!"
- "Flint and steel!"
- "First we mine, then we craft. Let's Minecraft!"
- This line pretty much says it all: "Chicken jockey!"
- The soundtrack and score are also good, and the song "Steve's Lava Chicken" is hilarious.
- There is a post-credits scene that hints at a sequel, where Steve goes to his old house and finds a woman named Alex, who is named after the original Minecraft character.
- The film's lighting is a massive and complete upgrade from every single Warner Bros. film, as it looks gorgeous, and it does have a lot of vibrant colors here and there, especially in the overworld and the real world.
- Great direction from Jared Hess.
- The Minecraft DLC for the film is decent.
- A lot of fan service and references to the game that remain faithful to its source material.
- Aside from Malgosha, as she is a weak villain, all of the characters are pretty much likable and well-written, including:
- Steve is the main protagonist of the film and is a former doorknob salesman who always wanted to go to the mines, but was not allowed to. He helps the main characters go back to their world.
- Garrett "The Garbage Man" Garrison is also a pretty likable character. He is a former game champion who has owned a store since 1989 and can't seem to move on from his previous fame, making him empathetic and even somewhat relatable.
- Henry is the creative younger brother of Natalie.
- Despite Malgosha still being a weak villain, she can be an imitating and entertaining one, as she can likable to some extent, as she has an interesting plan of trying to get rid of creatively and kill Steve, is intelligent, and even has her funny moments, even and backed up by a great voice performance by Rachel House (who previously has had previous experiences as female villains voicing them before playing female villains before.
- The ending is great, nice, and well-deserved, as it involves Steve, Garrett, Henry, Natalie, Dawn, and Dennis going back to the real world. And they finally decide to celebrate with a party. Dawn opens her zoo with Dennis as an attraction, Natalie begins teaching self-defense classes, Henry completes his jetpack, and Garrett also operates the game store with Steve, which means that all of the main characters get a happy ending, which is nice.
- Great soundtrack from Mark Mothersbaugh, especially the orchestra soundtrack from the video game.
- The battle scenes are great and imitating, and can be seen as one of the best things in this entire movie.
Reception
The film received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and audiences, especially from Minecraft fans.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 49% of 111 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5/10. The website's consensus reads: "Ostensibly a film about celebrating creativity, A Minecraft Movie provides a colorful sandbox for Jack Black and Jason Momoa to amusingly romp around in a story curiously constructed from conventional building blocks." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 47 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while 67% of those surveyed by PostTrak said they would recommend the film. Kids under the age of 12 gave the film an average rating of five out of five stars, while parents gave an average of four and a half out of five stars.
Critics were divided on the film's plot and whether or not A Minecraft Movie was a faithful adaptation of the game, as well as whether it made sense to viewers unfamiliar with it. Lovia Gyarkye of The Hollywood Reporter and Jesse Hassenger of IGN both believed that the film's plot was confusing. Gyarkye felt that it struggled to maintain a balance between appeasing the Minecraft fandom and writing a film that made sense to a general audience, and Hassenger said that the film was "conceptually muddy" and "confusingly and erratically presented". Mark Kennedy of the Associated Press believed that the film would likely make no sense to a viewer unfamiliar with the source material, but still believed that it was a faithful adaptation. However, he did highlight the films featuring concepts not present within the game itself to enable plot progression. Contrarily, Liz Shannon Miller of Consequence believed that the plot was fully comprehensible to someone unfamiliar with the game. Some reviewers viewed the fan service present within the film positively, particularly highlighting the tribute to Technoblade.
The performances of the cast were praised. Many viewed their performances as helping alleviate or distract from any problems present within the film's plot. Black and Momoa, in particular, received a lot of praise. Miller and Jordan Hoffman of Entertainment Weekly both felt that the story was not the main priority of the film and could be ignored in favor of the performance of the actors, the former believing that the film was mainly made with the intent of having fun. However, some viewed that the characters, despite the performances of their actors, were generally underdeveloped. The sub-plot involving Coolidge's character dating a villager, while viewed as generally unnecessary or relatively thin in terms of character development, was subject to a lot of praise.
Some reviewers questioned the purpose or value of the film, with some viewing it as nothing more than a product with the intent of promoting Minecraft. Both Kevin Maher of The Times and David Fear of Rolling Stone likened the film to a corporate cash-grab, viewing it as existing with the sole purpose of promoting the Minecraft brand and offering nothing else of value. Maher further viewed the film as lacking a level of versatility present in other video game adaptations, while Fear believed that the film was intentionally confusing so that it would stay in the minds of people longer, and therefore encourage them to purchase merchandise. While Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent believed that the idea behind a live-action Minecraft adaptation was fundamentally flawed and destroyed the spirit of the source material, she felt that the film had "genuine intent" and was not like other adaptations that she viewed as existing solely for the sake of profit.
Trivia
- The scene where Steve and Garrett face off against a chicken being ridden by a baby zombie in a boxing ring (known as a chicken jockey in the games) became an Internet meme. Audiences are reportedly shouting the line "Chicken jockey!" in unison during screenings, and some are even throwing popcorn in excitement. Such cases have been so extreme that police were called on several occasions and theaters warned audiences against this behavior specifically.[5][6]
- The popularity of the scene is likely due to it being a direct and humorous reference to a rare and recognizable element from the game.
- YouTuber Valkryie initially and originally had a cameo in this film as a fictionalized version of herself, most likely because she spoke off against Jason Momoa (the actor who plays Garrett "The Garbage Man" Garrison), and said that he was mistreating cast members during the production and filming for this film, although Warner Bros. and anyone else other than herself.[7]
- This film is the third movie video game adaption of a video game to feature Jack Black in it and also have a starring role in it, following The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Borderlands (of which he also did the voice Claptrap and also voiced Claptrap). This is the second live-action movie to feature him, following Borderlands. This is also the first movie where Jack Black plays a character, rather than providing his voice (also he still provides the voice of Steve whenever he is narrating something, including the beginning of the film, where you hear Steve's voice but don't see him, if you even want to count that).
Videos
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/jason-momoa-jack-black-minecraft-movie-jennifer-coolidge-1236175713/
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://deadline.com/2023/04/aquaman-2-minecraft-wise-guys-color-purple-release-dates-1235318958/
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ https://www.thegamer.com/minecraft-movie-minecraft-toys-plushes-jack-black-action-figure/
- ↑ https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/minecraft-movie-police-intervenes-viral-120000214.html
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/apr/09/cinemas-minecraft-movie-chicken-jockey-tiktok-trend
- ↑ [2]
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