“A Minecraft Movie” was ugly, stupid, nonsensical and I loved every second of it.
Half of the punchlines were Jack Black naming things from the video game. From a purely artistic standpoint, the movie was hot garbage. But what made it so lovable was just that “A Minecraft Movie” knew what it was. It wasn’t an art piece, it wasn’t a tribute to the game and it wasn’t a story meant to move the audience. It was a silly kid’s movie made to sell merchandise. But I had so much fun watching this movie.
Despite what the trailers show you, the movie doesn’t actually have a protagonist. The closest they have to one is probably the teenage boy Henry (Sebastian Eugene Hansen), whose main motivation is his creativity and the scrutiny that it brings. While an attempt at a moving lesson for young audiences, it made no sense at all. The bullying he faces is nonsensical, but it includes probably my favorite line in the film, “My dad says math was debunked.”
But Henry still doesn’t contribute much to the story, and two other characters are also competing to be protagonists. . This, along with the fact that each character gets their own mentor figure, makes for a movie with very little room for the characters to grow. What growth we do see is either obvious, forced or both, with one character saying something mildly mean and apologizing later. With the lack of any real stakes, I ended up not caring what happened to any of the characters.
Another major problem with the movie was that there was just way too much happening at any moment. “A Minecraft Movie” starts with a long exposition about Steve and his discovery of the Overworld, and his time there. This drags on for much longer than necessary, and the narration is all tell and no show. After too much time, they finally get into the story. The main plotline followed Henry and his older sister moving to a new town where, upon getting himself in trouble trying to disprove his bullies, Henry seeks out Garret Garrison (Jason Momoa) as a mentor.
This then leads to the four main characters stumbling into the Overworld, and the world of Minecraft at large in a sequence that is way more complicated than necessary. In addition to the main siblings and Steve, we also have the adult mentors, whose main conflict is their own failing businesses. If that weren’t enough, there’s an additional plot in which Jennifer Coolidge’s character of the school vice principal and recent divorcèe falls in love with an escaped villager. Despite its lack of impact on the overall story, this was the best part of the movie.
The movie would’ve worked so much better as a fully animated, fully fantastical story. The plot was nonsensical, and half of the characters were either flat or unlikeable. Jack Black played himself, and Jennifer Coolidge played a Jennifer Coolidge-esque character.
If you’re able to ignore it as art and invest yourself in its ridiculousness, “A Minecraft Movie” can be an incredibly fun experience. Something about the earnest performances from the actors makes you want to enjoy it just as earnestly. The way Jack Black simply names things from the game is more entertaining than I would like to admit, and the overall writing was funnier than I had been expecting. “A Minecraft Movie” isn’t going to win any awards, but it won my heart.
