A Minecraft Movie (2025)
Directed by: Jared Hess
Premise: Based on the videogame. A magical cube transports a group of strangers into a fantasy world in which they can build anything they can imagine. The evil leader of another world wants to use the cube to dominate the universe.
What Works: A Minecraft Movie is based on a popular videogame and this film was made with the fans in mind. The moviemakers include plenty of nods to the game that the players ought to recognize and enjoy. However, A Minecraft Movie ought to play for viewers who are unfamiliar with the game as well. This is a familiar quest narrative and it has a clear path forward. One of the most successful aspects of A Minecraft Movie is its look. The visual style of the fantasy world marries digital videogame elements with the weight and tangibility of the physical world. This gives the movie a lot of visual credibility. The film also benefits from its cast. Jack Black plays a longtime resident of the Minecraft world and he’s in typical high energy form. Black’s acting style is suited to these kinds of goofy fantasy movies. He’s joined by a gifted teenager played by Sebastian Hansen and a has-been gamer played by Jason Momoa. The three of them are a likable trio that bounce off one another. Momoa is unafraid to make himself look ridiculous and he gets many of the movie’s funniest moments.
What Doesn’t: The principal cast of Minecraft includes two women played by Emma Myers and Danielle Brooks. The film is noticeably disinterested in the female characters. The men have character arcs and they get considerably more screentime. For a large portion of the movie the heroes are split into gendered groups and the women are treated as an afterthought. They could be cut from the film without changing the story. The casting is indicative of the way Minecraft feels artificial and calculated. The storytelling is inefficient especially with its characters. Despite only having five principal roles the cast feels crowded. Jack Black and Jason Momoa’s characters are redundant. The female actors are not here to play characters but to satisfy corporate mandated representation. Diversity is good but the shallow use of these characters, denying them internal lives and the story space to grow, makes their presence feel less like an artistic choice and more like a corporate mandate. The narrative also feels cliché and obligatory. The story is a familiar quest narrative with the four strangers in search of a MacGuffin that will get them home. Like so many fantasy pictures of the last decade and a half, Minecraft climaxes with a battle around a tower shooting a beam of light into the sky. For a brand that supposedly endorses creativity, the content of the movie is very canned.
Bottom Line: A Minecraft Movie has been made for the fans and they ought to enjoy it. It’s entertaining enough to reach non-gamers as well. But this is a Happy Meal toy of a movie; A Minecraft Movie is a corporate widget that exists as part of a marketing portfolio and its commercial calculations show through.
Episode: #1043 (April 13, 2025)