By Philip Berkwit and Foster Keebaugh
Back in 2009, the masses were introduced to the world-wide phenomenon; “Minecraft.” This video game took over the culture. The game has sold over 300 million copies, making it the second best-selling video game of all time behind “Tetris.” Despite “Minecraft” being over 15 years old, the game continues to thrive with a popular and passionate fanbase. The game has also brought forth the careers of hundreds and thousands of social media influences. The games accessibility to all ages, creative opportunities, and the diverse ways to play it have made it one of the biggest pieces of culture in the 21st century. It was just a matter of time before the game made its way onto the big screen. On April 4, “A Minecraft Movie” was finally released in US theaters.
The game’s journey onto the big screen wasn’t exactly an easy one. Video game movies in recent times have started to gain much more critical and financial success with movies like “The Super Mario Bros Movie” and “Sonic the Hedgehog” being financial and critical smashes. However, for many years video game film adaptations were ridiculed, being hated by both fans and critics alike. The greatest example of this was the 1993 “Super Mario Bros.” film. The film had more in common with the R-rated sci-fi film “Blade-Runner” than it did with the Mario video games. However, the 2023 Mario adaptation was an incredibly success, making over $1 billion in theaters. However, the uncertainty of video game films never seemed to be a major issue for making Minecraft into a movie. In fact, the film was stuck in ‘development hell’ for nearly a decade. This a term given to entertainment projects with troubled and overly long productions. According to The Straits Times, “The film was stuck in “development hell” for almost a decade, with numerous actors, directors, writers and film executives cycling through, including Steve Carell and Shawn Levy.” Multiple filmmakers were in talks to direct the film. The most notable being Shawn Levy who has directed multiple acclaimed films and shows like “Night at The Museum,” “Real Steel,” “Stranger Things,” and “Deadpool & Wolverine.” Levy seemed like a perfect fit for “A Minecraft Movie.” His filmography includes multiple loved family films, along with many blockbusters that have heavy budgets and visual effects. However, back in 2014 Levy left the project. According to Slash Film, Levy stated, “What happened simply is, Warners asked me to develop kind of how might this ever be a story for a movie, because it’s not a narrative game. We came up with an approach that felt good to us and I discussed it with Mojang, the game makers who make Minecraft, and they were like, that doesn’t sound like what we want if we’re gonna see a movie get made. We don’t know what we want, but that doesn’t feel right. And I said okay, well that feels like — that’s a movie I can envision.”
After Levy left the project, the film continued to go through many different stages of development Hell. However, in more recent years, the film finally started to make progress. “Napoleon Dynamite” Director; Jared Hess was hired as the director and “Aquaman” actor; Jason Momoa was in talks to star in the film. Hess seemed like a rather odd choice to direct a Minecraft film. His filmography is mainly built off of low to mid budget cult classic comedy films like “Napoleon Dynamite and “Nacho Libre.” Hess has made more films than just comedies like his Oscar nominated animated short film “Ninety-Five Senses,” but Hess still never made a film that had even got close to the anticipation of a “Minecraft” adaptation. However, just like “Minecraft,” Hess has shown himself to have the ability to make cultural phenomena. His 2004 film “Napoleon Dynamite” has become one of the most iconic comedies of the 21st century.
However, when the first trailer was released for “A Minecraft Movie,” the reception was less than ideal. Audiences were bamboozled by what the trailer showcased. The film merged together real actors with an animated Minecraft world which at first glance, looked rather bad. The creepy designs of some of the beloved Minecraft animals in the film also confused audiences. The trailer ended with Jack Black showing up with a blue shirt, and dramatically proclaiming, “I am Steve.” Steve is the default avatar in the game, the fans did not imagine Jack Black as Steve.
However, as more trailers released, the fans became mildly more positive, and many fans started to create memes from the trailers that have made the film become an even bigger event with audiences losing their minds. in the theaters when Steve says funny things like “Chicken Jockey!”
According to The Economic Times, “Videos across social media show young fans leaping from their seats, hurling popcorn, and screaming in delight when the chicken jockey makes its grand entrance. In some cases, the scenes have been so disruptive that cinema staff had to call in law enforcement.”
One Ponte Vedra High School sophomore who wanted to stay anonymous had an experience in the cinema in which when the “chicken Jockey” scene showed up, somebody threw a burger at his face and a mild food fight emerged for a few seconds.
This sensation is in many ways Generation Z’s version of the 1975 film, “Rocky Horror Picture Show.” It became a cult classic where audiences would lose their mind in theaters and throw popcorn, toast, water, toilet paper, and hot dogs at certain parts of the movie.
The film critics have not been overly positive on the film, with its Rotten Tomatoes critic score being a 48 percent. However, the critical reception could not stop “A Minecraft Movie” from being one of the biggest film sensations in years. The film made over $300 million in three days. Audiences have also been much more positive on the film with it scoring an 88 percent for audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. This juxtaposition continues the growing divide between critics and audiences on films.
The divisive reception of “A Minecraft Movie” is not a surprise. The film has a quirky sense of humor that is very much an acquired taste. However, since Director Hess is so experienced in comedy, nearly every joke is hard not to laugh at. The performances from Jack Black and Jason Momoa also contribute to making the films comedy feel so jubilant. The two are given a type of “bromance” in the film that will make even the most cynical of men smile. The films visual effects are also surprisingly great. In the context of the trailers, the film looked very poor. But when watching the actual film, every character, animal, and landscape looks very good. For the most part, it expertly combines the blocky world of the game with a more realistic and almost puppetry design style. The film also has one of the most delightfully weird subplots in any movie. One of the Minecraft creatures known as a Villager accidentally goes into the real world and is immediately run over by a car.
The woman driving the car is Vice Principal Marlene (played by Jennifer Coolidge). Out of fear of the villager suing her, she brings him out to dinner and soon falls in love with the blocky characters whose vocabulary is confined to saying, “hmmm.” However, at the end of the film, we are given a post-credit scene where the Villager can now talk, and Marlene is now speaking as the villager did. The villager explains in his British accent that their love has transcended language barriers and that they got married.
This humor is as weird and goofy as it gets, yet the film always has a tone of genuine positivity throughout it all. Hess stated in an interview with Deadline, “Our approach to the characters and the type of comedy in this: We never wanted it to be cynical in any way, just a ridiculous celebration of this world, creativity and friendship. Those are things that are key things of the game, too. But there was also physics and rules of the gameplay we applied to the movie, so anything that we built in the film that you fans could go back and create in the game. “
Beyond the humor, Hess was also able to succeed in making this film both a fun adventure film along with a worthy tribute to the “Minecraft” game and it’s creative world. Throughout the film, the characters go on quests to find diamonds, to battle evil pigs, and of course, to build new things. Hess stated with Deadline, “There is no story. It’s an open-world game, and everybody that plays it brings their own story to the characters, to the worlds that they build and explore. We knew it was going to be a challenge, that people really are passionate about this and it’s something very personal to them. Our approach always is like, look, we can never fit everything about the game into a movie, so we just have to go with our gut about what we love about it. This is one adventure of many, because people have made live-action videos, animation, all kinds of things for over a decade. And we were just like, look, we’re going to celebrate what we love. We’re going to pick the creatures that we love and build an epic adventure comic around us.”
However, the film is not perfect. Although the film captures the adventorus and creative spirit of the game, it only scratches the surface of whats actually possible in the game. Fan favorite lands and mobs like the Ender-Dragon, Snow Golems, desert pyramids are all missing from the film. However, with the box office success of the film, Hess has already begun to entertain the idea of a sequel. The film has an end-credit scene that teases more, and Hess stated with Deadline, “We had so much fun making this movie, and it’s such an expansive world in the game, and there were so many things that we didn’t tap into that we wanted to. I would have a blast doing the sequel, and it seems like there’s already talk about it happening, so I’m super excited. It’ll be so much fun to go back into the world. The fans are just having such a good time. We teased it in the end credits, and the fans seem to be going wild for it.”
However, one film that a sequel can’t fix is the main villain of the film. Malgosha the piglin stars as the main villain. Although the characters design is cool, she’s an oddly generic villain for such a quirky and zaney film. She hates creativity and finds it easier to destroy than create. Her henchman, General Chungus had more charisma than she did.
The final battle of the film is also somewhat disappointing. Most of the action set-pieces in the film were exhilarating, but the final battle just falls flat of the creativity that the film tries to highlight.
“A Minecraft Movie” is still a great time. The film brings forth an adventurous and comedic film that all ages can enjoy. The film showcases the power and joy of creativity and has left its audiences cheering with joy.
Graphic done by Ryder Navarra
