“A Minecraft Movie” has revitalized the theaters for at least a week. With immense excitement in theaters, the experience felt similar to that of Barbenheimer. There was an air of anticipation that brought people to the theaters, but what proved different between these two movie events was the quality of the films themselves. “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” stood out as beloved films with high reviews, but Minecraft proved itself the opposite, a weak, confusing mess of a movie. This didn’t come as a shock though, the trailers looked terrible, and the film was stuck in production hell for 8 years. The $816 million box-office earnings of “A Minecraft Movie” have proved something to me, though: with sufficient hype, any movie, even this dumpster fire, can succeed. 

“A Minecraft Movie” misses a majority of the marks that make a film good. An important attribute of a decent movie is having any semblance of a plot. Not concepts of ideas strung together to push a film along, but a plot that has a story and points to be made. This movie starts with Steve (Jack Black) telling the story of how he came to live in the world of Minecraft, or as he calls it, “The Overworld,”  after mining in a cave and finding the Orb of Dominance (which, in reality, is a cube). Steve, free of his boring life, embraces his newfound ability to create and build whatever he could possibly desire. But years after his arrival, he is taken hostage by evil Piglins, the residents of a different dimension known as the Nether, which is basically the underworld. Steve sends his dog Dennis to hide the Orb, which the piglins are after so that they can control the overworld, to his house in the real world. Eventually the orb ends up in the hands of an old pro gamer Garrett “the Garbage Man” Garrison (Jason Momoa) who befriends Henry (Sebastian Hansen) and Natalie (Emma Myers), a brother and sister who have just moved into town. Henry is bullied for his overly creative mind at school, and feels comfort in Garrett, which eventually leads to the group and Dawn (Danielle Brooks), their real estate agent, to find the portal that the Orb of Dominance creates and get stuck in the world of Minecraft. If you had an outrageously hard time understanding any of what you just read, I promise it wouldn’t be any easier if you had watched it. 

There are a couple pros and cons to the Minecraft movie. The movie is fun, and you can tell everyone who helped create it had a good time making it, which always makes the watching experience a little better. The main character Henry who is around 14 years old, is young, likable and relatable to the audience who actually played the game Minecraft. With this being Hansen’s first real acting experience, it is impressive how well he does; he is funny, and a good spirit within the film. Furthermore, Jack Black and Jason Momoa, who are absolutely known for their over the top acting, are very enjoyable to watch. More than anything else, “A Minecraft Movie” focuses on their characters, Steve and Garrett, who develop a strong bromance that makes for hilarious scenes when paired with the CGI of the film. While many were not huge fans of the CGI the film took in direction, I personally didn’t mind it too much. If it was too similar to the game it would have been too dull to watch, while I think at portions of the film the live action character looks out of place and maybe a little poorly green screen, but overall it looks solid, it looks bright, and most importantly it looks like a super fun time. Watching the film made me wish I could enter the overworld, and build to my heart’s content. 

The cons of this film are large and varied. This is not to say I did not enjoy myself, because I most certainly did, but it was by purely letting my mind drift into a state of mostly emptiness that I enjoyed it. This film’s story is nothing new at all, they try to find a McGuffin, (a plot device purely to move the story forward) that being the Orb of Dominance. It’s boring, there is no real motivation, and no real explanation for how it works or why it exists. The same lack of development can be seen in characters Natalie and Dawn, the two significant women of the film. My complaint comes from the lack of significance they actually hold. Natalie and Dawn are almost completely cast aside, practically becoming part of the background, only around to drop one or two lines, something sassy or an exclamation about how confused or worried they are. It’s surprisingly misogynistic for a movie made in 2025, but likely not intentionally, and it’s quite disappointing to see. One of things I love most about Minecraft is its wide appeal; it’s a game boys and girls can both play and love, and the lack of strong female representation in the movie hurts its appeal as a whole. 

The film also struggles to create a world that feels like Minecraft. Yes, it is bright and colorful and fun, but what it isn’t is the vibe that I feel when playing Minecraft. The movie lacked peace, it lacked moments where C418’s music from the original game settled in the world, and let you experience your surroundings like the real game does. The movie wasn’t made for those in mid or post puberty, it was made for young children, and peaceful settings and tones, unfortunately, don’t entertain 11-year-olds. The music that the film ends up with is the “dulcet” tunes of Jack Black. The movie feels like it was written to work around Jack Black, not the other way around. In all honesty I liked Black’s songs, they were funny, but they weakened an already ridiculously weak plot. It made it pretty clear nobody in any part of the movie making process knew what the hell was supposed to happen. There were so many more cons for this film, but to list them all would make this the length of a novel.

There is a lot to say about “A Minecraft Movie” but if I had to sum it up into one word I’d use “Huh?” This movie was obviously meant to appeal to a far younger audience than me, which lent itself to be taken less seriously. I did find “A Minecraft Movie” funny, but my laughs came less than half from the intention of the movie, and primarily from how insane the film was overall. “A Minecraft Movie” failed to be a good movie, but it didn’t fail to entertain me. 2.5/5.