If you couldn’t tell by the fact that I talk about this game both on and offline, Minecraft is my favorite game. Not one of my favorite games — but THE favorite game. The favorite game to rule all favorite games. I won’t dive into my own history regarding my relationship with Minecraft, but what I will tell you is that I’ve played this game consistently since 2018 and I have zero plans to stop. There is truly something to be said about creating structures out of cubes in a truly limitless world that you can shape literally however you want.

So when I caught wind that there was a Minecraft movie happening, I was interested. I mean, sure, the visuals look goofy (why live action??), the movie has a heckuva lot of inaccuracies, and what the hell do you mean Steve is a slightly overweight man played by JACK BLACK

When the trailers for the Minecraft Movie finally hit the Internet, people went ablaze with curiosity, and maybe a little bit of disgust at the fact that the movie was live-action, and not animated. When I watched the first videos I pretty much had the same reaction as everyone — that being some sort of uneasiness because…well. Why does the Pink Sheep look like that

Eventually though, more teasers & trailers released, and I eventually just kind of accepted that, yeah, I guess I’m fine with the visuals. And then — before I knew it, the movieit released.

The Minecraft movie made its theatrical debut on April 4, 2025 to lots of fanfare and hype (as well as curiosity, as most people were still somewhat skeptical of the movie’s whole concept and style). I was one of these people who were curious, and since I had a pretty big connection to Minecraft, I knew that I HAD to see the movie, no matter how bad it was, or how dumbed down it was to appeal to Minecraft’s younger playerbase. So here’s a sort of critical analysis of the entire movie, from yours truly, the LarisB!

The Minecraft Movie is a movie with themes of…creativity and problem-solving, I guess? It featured the main protagonist Steve as Jack Black, and the supporting protags Garrett The Garbage Man Garrison played by Jason Momoa, Natalie & Henry, a sister & brother duo, and Dawn, a woman who runs a petting zoo & real estate business or whatever.

The plot goes like this: Steve yearns to go to the mines for…some reason (this will be a reoccuring theme throughout the movie), but he is chased away by some grumpy man. He then works really boring uncreative jobs until he literally begins playing with food and attempting to use mashed potatoes as sculpting clay for some reason, then he eventually goes back to the mines, pickaxe in hand, and begins mining. He somehow finds 2 objects, a crystal and an orb, and combines them together, which causes him to be sucked into Jared Hess’ reinterpretation of Minecraft, where he meets a dog. He enjoys his time there until he then FLINT AND STEELS into THE NETHER where he is promptly caught by some grumpy old ass piglin woman. Both Ste— I mean Jack Black and his pet dog are jailed until Steve tells his dog to escape the Nether and put the orb & crystal thing underneath his bed in the real world. Steve remains trapped in the Nether while his dog roams the real world.

We are then introduced to Garrett, a guy with crazy hipster clothing who won a video game championship 40 years ago; but he refuses to let go of this memory, hence we are introduced to him massively obsessing over his old accomplishments. He eventually buys a storage unit containing stuff from Steve’s old real-life house, which contains the orb & crystal. We are then introduced to Natalie & Henry, two young people moving to an Idaho town after the death of their mother. Henry then meets Garrett, and discovers the orb & crystal, and puts them together, which causes him to be dragged into the Minecraft world, Garrett, Natalie, and their real estate agent Dawn are also forcefully dragged into the Overworld.

It is then shown that in the Nether the grumpy piglin lady wants the orb & crystal to take control of the Overworld; the bastion remnant she’s situated in suddenly bursts into light with a hologram of the orb & crystal…for some reason. The lady, named Malgosha, frees Steve from jail to get the orb back. In the Overworld, the supporting protags struggle against Overworld enemies like zombies & skeletons, as it has immediately turned night. Steve arrives just in time to kill the enemies while they begin to then burn in the sunrise. He immediately utters, “I, AM STEVE!” (This was the only time the audience in my theatre clapped; but more on that later.)

During the ensuing chaos, the crystal that holds the orb shattered, which caused the portal between the Overworld and the real world to stop working. Steve says that a replacement for it is available in a woodland mansion.

The quintet then goes to Steve’s village, where many insignificant plot points happen. Malgosha, however proceeds to then unleash an attack on the village, but the quintet are separated and flees. Henry and Garrett are given elytra to flee — despite Steve’s first and only experience in the Nether being imprisoned in the bastion remnants, therefore he couldn’t get the items necessary to enter the End dimension, where the elytra are located — and they fly through the mountains and landscapes. Steve, without an elytra, jumps. I thought he was going to jump into some water, but it’s then revealed that he somehow attached himself to Garrett. The three fly, avoiding ghast attacks and piglins.

They eventually crashland and I’M GONNA CUSHION OUR FALL WITH THIS WATER BUCKET! RELEASE!!! They then go through a mineshaft in a mountain, while barely avoiding stronger enemies sent by Malgosha and creepers. They eventually finally arrive at a woodland mansion, where Steve and Garrett distract the pillagers living there to let Henry grab a new crystal. Henry sneaks through the corridors but accidentally blows his cover and ends up running into a room full of chests, which, almost too plot-conveniently, contains the crystal that houses the orb. Steve warned Henry earlier that looking at endermen will “fry their brain” — and Henry accidentally looks at one, which causes him to see hallucinations of Steve and the rest insulting him(???), until he snaps out of his stupor and kills the enderman. The three get out until it is revealed that Malgosha has cornered them. Garrett seemingly sacrifices himself to save Steve and Henry, while the piglins steal their orb.

The two then experience a hard crashlanding, but then wake up in Steve’s mushroom village with Dawn and Natalie. Just then, Malgosha places the orb on her stick which gives her magical powers, and a giant-ass Nether Portal that was close to the mushroom village (which appeared out of nowhere, for some reason) activates. Piglins come crashing out and the sky becomes dark. The four then construct reinforcements for the ultimate battle against the Piglins to save the Overworld. Henry uses the ender pearl he got from killing the Enderman to teleport up to the top of the nether portal and remove the orb, but Malgosha knocks him off with her stick, until Garrett, revealed to have survived by doing a water bucket clutch (where did he even get a bucket of water in the first place??) saves Henry from his fall. They then destroy the portal (which causes the piglins to zombify and collapse), and they succeed in saving the Overworld. With the portal to Earth now reopened, they say their goodbyes, before Steve also decides to go back into the real world.

It’s now happy ever after. Steve and Garrett form a band and make a custom arcade cabinet, Dawn starts her petting zoo, Natalie leads a self-defense class, and Henry finishes his jetpack that he was working on at the start of movie. Steve goes back to his old house to retrieve some of his belongings, and he is greeted by a woman by the name of Alex.

...

Oh yeah, did I mention that one of the villagers in the Overworld somehow got into the real world and got hit by freakin’ Jennifer Coolidge, and then both of them fell in love with each other…somehow???????????????? And then at the end of the movie it’s revealed they’re getting MARRIED??????? But even then, how the hell did a nitwit villager stumble upon the Over-real-world portal, when the location of the portal itself is far away from Steve’s own villager settlement?? Did a Villager just aimlessly walk through the lands of Jared Hess Minecraft and then somehow walk into a portal? Villagers always stay within the bounds of their villages in real Minecraft, which makes this one confusing.

If you didn’t notice, much of the Minecraft Movie’s plotline has had holes in them. Garrett learns from Steve’s earlier crashlanding that you can water bucket clutch, so where did Garrett obtain another bucket to survive it? Did Steve give it to him somehow? This wasn’t directly stated in the plot, at all.

Another thing I’ve noticed was how this movie had no death scenes, at all. In Minecraft, unless you’re playing hardcore mode, you respawn at your bed (or world spawn) if you die. Not once did any of the protags die in the movie — you could say that they were playing hardcore mode, but it would’ve been extra fun if the director/producer/writer added a little sequence of what would happen if you died in Minecraft. Would you respawn at a bed in the Minecraft universe? Or would you wake up in your real-life bed, as if you were experiencing a nightmare?

One more major plot hole in this story was that Steve had obtained elytra — wings that let you fly. Did this imply that Steve went to the End and fought the Ender Dragon? It says nowhere in his story — in fact, to enter the End, you need to fight Blazes to get an ingredient to craft eyes of Ender, which are like keys to accessing the end. Blazes are found in the Nether, but based on Steve’s own retelling of his story, his only experience with the Nether was him coming into contact with Malgosha, then getting jailed, then immediately leaving to the Overworld. It wasn’t implied or stated anywhere in the story that Steve then proceeded to go to a Nether fortress, kill some blazes, go to the End, kill the Ender Dragon, and obtain not one, but two elytra. How Steve got the elytra, I do not know.

Elytra in Minecraft can be repaired by using phantom membranes, so maybe Steve just did 3 consecutive all-nighters (though, to be fair, 3 Minecraft days is just 60 minutes in the real world, and Steve is aware that days in Minecraft last 20 minutes, meaning that the time of day in Minecraft does not seem to affect his real-world sense of time) and killed enough phantoms to make some sort of pseudo-elytra. But in the movie, elytra looks metallic, while in-game, elytra looks biolo…

Look, this movie has a LOT of weird inconsistencies and plot holes. It might be because this is a kid’s movie and kids probably don’t know the entirety of Minecraft lore and progression (I unfortunately am a walking Minecraft encyclopedia), but even then, it should be at least accurate, even just a little bit. But also; compared to the real Minecraft game; you can craft literally anything, even those beyond the scope of MInecraft’s crafting system — Henry’s Tot Launcher and Garrett’s Buck-Chucket weapons don’t exist in Minecraft. Maybe Steve crafted elytra using a similar process.

There are a lot of other minor plot holes in the story — Steve mines into a random wall in the real-world mines and somehow finds the orb & crystal in a random wall — did he find it just then and there, or, through his massive yearning for mining, find them after months of laborious mining? The way that the story was paced made it seem like the instant Steve entered the mines, he found the orb & crystal and was immediately directed to the Minecraft world just 5 minutes later. Very strange.

These plot holes don't massively affect the story, but they do make it feel less coherent and more strung together haphazardly.

Broadly speaking, the Minecraft Movie deals with themes of creativity and problem-solving. Henry uses various real-world objects and Minecraft items to craft a brand new item — the [Tater] Tot Launcher — and Malgosha kills a piglin child for drawing an image on a piece of paper. Steve is shown building large, massive, varied structures in the beginning sequence. Despite this however I felt that the core themes of creativity and problem-solving weren’t given enough focus — which is ironic as, well, the Minecraft game itself is known as a massive sandbox that you can shape (which has helped it gain massive popularity over the years).

I just felt like the plot could use more creative elements related to the concept of creating and solving problems uniquely — what if Henry could use the items and weapons in Minecraft in new or interesting ways? What if the quintet engaged in a building session? The movie just felt like an exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution type affair with very few “creative” elements thrown in.

The climax of the movie was pretty good however, what with everyone cooperating to create varied fortifications against the Piglin forces, such as creating a whole lot of Iron Golems (one of which had boots of swiftness), taming a large amount of dogs to use to attack the piglins, yadda yadda yadda. Even Garrett managed to weaponize the Nether ghasts by prodding their undersides with a long stick to make them shoot fireballs.

I was kind of cautious to see how well Minecraft Movie x live action would turn out — and honestly, it’s not the worst. Sure, some mobs, like the Pink Sheep, look very weird, but otherwise, I personally think that the visuals looked neat. They were sort of in this weird valley of realistic but cartoony, but also not quite 3D animated like a Pixar movie. Some people lampooned the graphics because it either looked weird or it didn’t fit the aesthetic of Minecraft, but I rest my case. It was called A Minecraft Movie for a reason — it was Jared Hess’ interpretation of Minecraft, and therefore, he was free to interpret it however he and the producers wanted — which, in this case, was live-action meets realistic 3D animation. The producers actually justified this decision by saying that most Minecraft animations on the web were animated using drawings or 3D software — they wanted to do something different by making everything look live action and realistic. And honestly, I respect that. But also, it was kind of funny to see that the movie did look similar to those weird “MINECRAFT IN REAL LIFE” videos on YouTube

Personally, I’d say the visuals were pretty good! It did look pretty, and that’s all that matters. I especially liked the scene where the zombies got set on fire as the sun rose up — it did, actually, look pretty damn sick. The chicken however looked VERY freaky, and the creepers were a little weird — they were like these mossy hollow plant things that explode really hard, but their faces are…strangely, hollow? the villagers looked funny as well but the fact that they have human-like ears instead of cubes did make it look a little strange

It should go without saying that the Minecraft Movie was made for children, what with its very simplified narration and plot progression. I generally felt like the plot wasn’t too interesting and was just very simple and inoffensive. The plot being aggressively bland is actually a very common reocurring theme in many reviews

This is kind of a problem because…good plots, character development and kids movies aren’t mutually exclusive. There are many great kid’s/family movies out there that are legitimately engaging to watch because they gave lots of attention to making sure that not only kids appreciate a good story. I would say the Minecraft movie failed in giving a more engaging experience for older audiences (such as myself), but on the other hand…this is just a silly kid’s movie.

I’ve seen people online recommend not taking the film too seriously, and just “turning your brain off and enjoying the spectacle.” I did that, and I think it’s not too bad. I mean, I probably was the oldest non-kid in the theatre with a vested interest in Minecraft, so obviously I have more of an idea of what a good, bad or mediocre plot is.

What I’m saying is; the plot & development could have much more. This is Minecraft, after all, a simple game on the surface with lots of depth. A bit more of a complex plot or a bit more character development wouldn’t hurt. Speaking of which…

There are 6 main characters in this movie: Steve, Garrett, Henry, Natalie, Dawn, and broadly, the Piglins. They all have basic character development, maybe to keep it simple for younger audiences. Steve is, well, Steve — he is an adventurous, creative person and the steward of the Overworld. Garrett is a guy obsessed over times that have passed a long time ago. Henry is a person that’s sometimes too creative — when his school teachers tell him to draw a still life of a banana, he proceeds to draw a banana with a jetpack or somth—whatever that contraption he drew was. Natalie is…Henry’s de facto guardian. And Dawn…is a real estate agent turned petting zoo owner. The Piglins, broadly, are the antagonists.

The problem with the characters is, aside from the fact that their characters feel kind of shallow lore-wise; it’s that the women don’t nearly have enough contribution to the story. Natalie and Dawn are there only because they are “chained” to their male counterparts — at the risk of sounding misogynist, I’ve noticed that they have very little roles aside from assisting or helping with the male characters in the story. Every story element they do is chained to someone else in the story — Natalie tries to find Henry after they’re separated, while Dawn just helps Steve and the rest in making fortifications in the climax piglin battle. Dawn also helps in providing some sass and comic relief to the story, though.

This is sad! I absolutely would’ve loved to have the women in more “independent roles”. If Natalie and Dawn weren’t there, I’d wager very little would happen to the story. I think the only independent female character was the antagonist Malgosha; though instead of being changed by Steve’s ethos of creativity at the end of the movie (which would’ve served as a neat moral about creativity), she ends up dying forever with a vengeance against Steve, as she tries to stab him twice before finally succumbing to zombification.

EVEN THE SIDE CHARACTER, the vice principal of Henry’s school who fell in love with a nitwit villager, is still chained to a male counterpart, as her main role in the story is to fall in love with the villager and offer some comedic, semi-romantic relief. And before you say “aren’t villagers in Minecraft genderless?”, well, I think Marlene the vice-principal implied that she wanted to bang him after eating dinner together. Or maybe not who knows. Obviously you can’t have banging scenes in a kid’s movie but I rest my case

Despite these frankly glaring issues with the movie, I still did enjoy the movie. It isn’t a cultural or movie masterpiece, but for what it is, it really is just some silly fun. Some of the jokes were funny, and while the wordbuilding and character development is rather whack, it still remained pretty enjoyable from start to finish. While I yearn for what it could be more, I do understand that Minecraft is such a broad game that no one director or producer can feasibly create their own all-encompassing interpretation of Minecraft. Heck; the name of the movie is A Minecraft Movie, not The Minecraft Movie — according to the director Jared Hess; this was his interpretation of the Minecraft world.

Kids seem to love it, though, and audiences online do seem to love it in sort of an ironic, Morbius-like way. It is no way the best movie in the world or the best video game adaptation, but for what it is, it gets a pass. And speaking of audiences online…

When Warner released the teasers & trailers for the movie, a lot of it contained Steve saying words in dramatic or strange ways that ended up becoming massive memes on their own — if you use TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, or are generally within the online Minecraft community, you’ve probably heard Jack Black saying these terms in extremely dramatic ways:

- FLINT AND STEEL!
- THE NETHER!
- CHICKEN JOCKEY! (This one’s a fan favorite)
- AS A CHILD, I’VE YEARNED FOR THE MINES
- DON’T WORRY! I’M GONNA CUSHION OUR FALL WITH THIS WATER BUCKET! RELEASE!!!
- I. AM STEVE.
- THIS. IS A CRAFTING TABLE!
- ENDER PEARL.
- BLOCKS!
- MINECRAFT!
- THEY LOVE CRUSHIN' LOAF.
- WE MINE. WE CRAFT. LET'S MINECRAFT!
- LA-LA-LA-LAVA CH-CH-CH-CHICKEN
- BOOTS OF SWIFTNESS!

These “catchphrases”, if you will, set the Internet on fire, especially since these relatively normal Minecraft terms were said with very serious, very dramatic tones. In particular, the terms “Flint and Steel” and “Chicken Jockey” became part of TikTok brainrot memes, with the clip/soundbite of Steve saying them gradually being sped up then slowed down. And the rest of the soundbites were so incredibly bizarre (like, why is "First we mine, theb we craft, let's Minecraft" an actual line in the film!?)

This carried over to theatres as well - when the Minecraft movie hit theatres, people filmed audiences cheering, going into hysterics, performing standing ovations, clapping, and screaming whichever brainrot Steve term was said on screen in unison. There were a lot of clips on Twitter of people absolutely losing their mind when the Chicken Jockey scene, where Garrett fought a chicken jockey, happened, and once Steve said his now de facto signature term Chicken Jockey, the audience screamed it in unison and clapped, gave standing ovations, the whole ordeal. Even my American friends posted clips of their own POV in theatres where audiences went hysterical! Unfortunately, Warner copyright striked a very large part of the clips posted by audiences on Twitter; so I probably can’t post them here because they’ll get ripped down in hours anyway.

In fact, audiences' reactions to the Chicken Jockey scene got so damn intense (like throwing popcorn at the screen, screaming, or just causing a fuck ton of hysteria) that some theatres had to issue out warnings, adopt a zero-tolerance policy, or even call the authorities when the chicken got too jockey.

When I saw the Minecraft movie, I wasn’t sure if this brainrot phenomenon would happen in Philippine theatres — for one, most clips I’ve seen seemed to originate from the USA, which I think has a drastically different culture of moviegoing than the Philippines, for example. (I mean, people use their phones in the cinemas damn near constantly now, based on anecdotal evidence I've read; this was due to Covid and stay at home policies altering the way movies were consumed, apparently.)

Another thing I noticed when watching those clips was that it was mostly teens and young adults watching the movie — not children. I was excited for a brainrot event, but I also knew that this probably wasn’t going to happen in my country — maybe because movie etiquette is different here. Who knows.

When I went to the theatre to watch the movie, the first thing I immediately noticed was that a very significant amount of the audience was children — no one older than 15, methinks. The only people older than children were the children’s parents; and I actually think I might be the only oldest non-parent in the cinema that day — I mean, I AM a Minecraft fan; and I had to watch the Minecraft movie, because, well, it felt like a contractual obligation.

As I had correctly guessed — I am sad to announce that brainrot events did not happen in my theatres. Most of it was kids though which I’d wager had very little experience, if any, with brainrot on TikTok, and who just liked playing pirated Minecraft Pocket Edition on their mum’s Poco phones. There was one exception though - when Steve said “I. AM STEVE!”, a small amount of people did clap. To prevent the Warner copyright strike situation, I took a voice memo of the moment he said CHICKEN JOCKEY!. Unfortunately, no one chanted, cheered, or clapped.

Maybe it was the mall I went to? Maybe it was the time of day I went to the theatre? My friends mentioned that I should've went for a later screening after sunset, since kids tend to not go to movie theatres at, like, 9 PM.

But even then, these are only dependent variables I could control. One thing you can’t change is an independent variable — in this case, movie etiquette. I’m assuming movie etiquette is different in the USA where the brainrot clips came from and spread; as I saw many instances of rowdy behavior that’d be more bothersome than funny in the wrong cultural context. Maybe it’s because moviegoing culture is different in Western countries? Maybe it's just the time of day? Whatever man. I'm still kind of sad I didn't experience a brainrot event lmao. But ehh you make do with what you've got amirite

I don’t even want to buy another ticket because tickets are fukken Expensive and ain’t no way I’m spending 400 pesos for another ticket to the Minecraft Movie even if that means experiencing a brainrot event!

Since Minecraft is a freakin’ massive IP, there was a lot of hype surrounding the movie, and to cash in on that, Mojang, along with some of their company friends, they did brand collabs (like Minecraft Movie-themed McDonald’s happy meals), released FIVE books, invited Minecraft YouTubers like Mumbo Jumbo to the set & gave them cameo appearances, released a heck of a lot of DLC add-ons on the Minecraft Bedrock Edition Marketplace, released THREE capes (one of which I own and wear with ironic pride), all of which have a caricature of Jack Black on the elytra wingsuits, and…collaborated with ONE HUNDRED PERCENT NEW ZEALAND???????? Oh and also they made green "creeper milk" for some reason which people absolutely detested because WHY WOULD MILK BE GREEN

The Minecraft movie in particular even did a collab with McDonald's to release a set of Happy Meals vaguely themed around Minecraft. So...I guess theres Grimace now but he's like...cubey and stuff? I am fairly neutral towards McDonalds (I won't talk about the Palestinian boycotts here since that's very politically polarizing and is something I have little experience with) but the Minecraft Movie happy meals were in such high demand even my real life friends attempted to gain a hold of it but Nope they couldn't because all the little kids snatched it up. I don't really care about the Minecraft Movie happy meals though because it didn't have Jack Black figurines. Speaking of which:

The Minecraft Movie also sold a bunch of really funny and strange merch, including an action figure of Steve, which, if you think about it, is the most normal action figure that exists. You’ve got a character, right? A character like Steve, who really is just a man, with a beard, who’s a little overweight and chubby, wearing relatively normal clothing (that being a blue shirt, and dark blue pants). Compared to other action figures this particular Steve action figure was both praised and lampooned in the action figure community because of how freakin’ normal it is. Remove any context and it’s literally just a Normal Human Person that’s now an action figure for some reason! Yes, the Steve figurines come with little accessories like swords and armor but even then lmao

There were also a bunch of other figurines too; like creepers, skeletons, the piglin variant the Great Hog, ghasts, Steve’s dog Dennis, Malgosha, Henry, Garrett, and Natalie. Dawn never got her own action figure :broken_heart:

There was also a Pez dispenser containing Steve’s head on it for some reason — truly, an incredibly baffling merch decision. I. AM. PEZ DISPENSER oh and also there was books and hot sauce and whateverhfjshakhkahsjhwjsh

And this hype even extended to the very movie theatre I watched the movie in — I’ve noticed that there were stands containing photo ops with props, and the entire popcorn stand next to the theatre was stocked very full of Minecraft Movie-themed popcorn boxes. It was really funny, but it also served to show that this movie was VERY hotly anticipated, especially among the audience that the film was targeted towards. Speaking of which…

While Minecraft remains popular across a large cohort of people (seriously, how insane is it to make a game that appeals to kids, teens, AND adults?), this movie was mostly made with children in mind. The characters are simple, the plot is simple, everything is distilled down to the simplest thing for kids to understand. And, indeed, when I did go for the screening, 99% of the theatre was just kids and their parents; probably also why there wasn’t any brainrot events in the theatre. I mean; this sorta was to be expected — Minecraft is a global phenomenon, and indeed, even here, it remains popular. My friends play it! My friends from overseas play it! Several of my friends have bought it or pirated it. And despite the fact that the game is paid, it is also really easy to pirate; which I’m pretty sure some of the kids in the theatre did.

Likewise though, the trailers for the film went absolutely viral and became the subject of brainrot on Twitter and TikTok, and I’ve seen over the pond that most of the people who viewed the movie were teens or adults fully into the chicken jockey jokes. So it wasn’t just children who watched the movie — many teens & adults did, as well, though mostly to watch the film in an ironic way. There are short form videos floating online of a group of not children all dressed up in goofy Steve costumes wanting “150 tickets for the Minecraft Movie”!

In fact, it was probably due to the massive proliferation of Chicken Jockey brainrot that the Minecraft movie performed so well at the box office. As of writing it currently has 311 million US dollars globally; most of which can be chalked up to people's curiosity, little kids, and Chicken Jockey

When I came to the theatre, my mom accompanied me. Compared to me, who knows pretty much everything about Minecraft like the back of my hand, my mom...is not a gamer. She doesn't game, and has literally no idea about what Minecraft is. So taking her to the Minecraft movie was kind of weird but she did watch it anyway.

The movie has a bit of a context problem. I, along with all the kids in the theatre, knew not only what Minecraft was but also what it did, how it worked, and other sorts of paraphernalia about it. Kids recognized the Jeb cameo. Kids recognized the Technoblade cameo! But my mom was completely lost. The hell was an Elytra wing suit, she probably was thinking.

The lack of context in this movie is a problem that many reviewers noticed, and my mom was a prime example of that. When the movie ended, we got drinks & dessert, and my mom bombarded me with a litany of questions to understand how Minecraft worked. Thankfully I know the game like the back of my hand and I was able to explain to her the intricacies of Minecraft in terms that she could understand. I kind of feel a little embarrassed for all the other parents in the theatre though who have but the faintest idea of what a Piglin is, what the heck the Nether is, etc.

Some people have also noted that the Minecraft movie doesn't make very good use of the medium it's in — some people have described it as being a "marketing ploy to sell Minecraft to people." I don't strictly disagree with that statement; especially since when you look at other movies like the Lego Movie for example that don't try to excessively brandish the fact that it's based on an IP you can buy products of. It's just a normal story that just so happens to take place in a Lego world; the Minecraft movie meanwhile is much more different.

The Minecraft movie could really do with a context update...

Since the Minecraft community is very large, it has spawned large amounts of cultural paraphernalia — the late legend Technoblade, the redstone expert who thinks master-level Redstone systems are simple Mumbo Jumbo, the classic Minecraft horror creepypasta Herobrine … you get the point. And indeed; the film has a couple of neat easter eggs thrown in:

1. When Steve and the rest of the characters are walking through Steve’s Midport Village settlement, a pig with a crown can be seen casually walking by. One of the characters asks “are they the king [of Midport Village]?” Steve responds, “No, he’s a legend.” I think this easter egg reference was very touching. Technoblade, who the pig is a reference to, was a very beloved creator in the Minecraft space, and his death sent shockwaves around the entire Minecraft community. He was even commemorated on the Minecraft launcher and was added as a splash text in the base game. To see even the producers and directors of the movie give screen time to Technoblade was very touching!

2. When Henry looks into the Enderman’s eyes and gets his brain fried by seeing hallucinations of each of the characters insulting and saying mean things to him, one of the things that can be noticed was that all of the characters in this scene had purple glowing eyes — except Steve, who, supposedly, due to a rendering error, instead had his eyes turn WHITE. This unintentional rendering error made Steve into Herobrine; a popular and timeless creepypasta which involves the Steve skin, but with blank, white eyes.

3. Several cameos are present in the film: When Marlene and the villager are dating, Jeb, the CCO of Minecraft, is seen pouring water into their glasses.

4. When Garrett buys the storage unit in an auction, other people participating in the auction include YouTubers such as Mumbo Jumbo

5. In the ending scene, when Natalie is teaching people about self-defense, one of her pupils is Torfi Frans Olafsson, the Senior Creative Director for Minecraft. I didn’t know who Torfi was when I watched the movie and incorrectly assumed that they somehow got the rapper bbno$ as a cameo (I am, unfortunately, not the best at recognizing faces)

I can only imagine how difficult it must’ve been to get YouTubers for the Minecraft movie since some people have said that the amount of grooming allegations & general drama happening in the Minecraft community is very high. Can you imagine screening Dream? What about the new kid on the block, Gerg? Next thing you know the person you featured in your innocent Minecraft movie has been revealed to be sexting minors or creating very racist jokes and really shoddy rage bait to aggravate people

this is where it’s at, boys

the minecraft movie was pretty fine, I’d say! It’s not a cultural or critical masterpiece and in fact there are many things that could’ve been improved. the plot was kind of eh and very formulaic; the women characters could’ve used more independence and could’ve played larger roles in the story, maybe Malgosha could’ve died with a happy ending instead of harboring resentment against Steve until the very end. Some people have even described it as slop for 8-year old iPad kids.

in the end though, it’s just a very silly movie we’ll all forget about and move on after a month. it wasn’t the greatest movie, but it was pretty cool nonetheless! I mean, the actors did seem to have a lot of fun creating the movie, and it was evident from the way the actors acted that they were doing this as a bit of fun thing and not like you know being super serious about it. it was very silly! and that’s okay

but at the same time though, it’s completely valid to wish that the movie could be more — it could have a more developed, engaging plot, it could maybe use some extra character development, it could maybe be more faithful to the original game, maybe add some extra context for people unfamiliar to Minecraft, or maybe tweaking the story a little so it doesn't sound like a giant advertisement for Minecraft. accepting that the Minecraft Movie is just a silly fun movie for kids and wishing that it could be expanded upon aren’t mutually exclusive!

and the chicken jockey brainrot was also pretty hilarious as well not gonna lie

this movie was also incredibly surreal and hilarious in all the right—and wrong—ways. like, one of the Piglins unironically says the word "Unalive". Steve and Garrett are forced to do, for lack of a better word, a 69 position mid-air while saying insane stuff like "LET MY HIPS GUIDE YOU" (to all little kids out there who somehow got here — Do NOT search that up), the brainrot, it was just such an incredible ridiculous movie that absolutely did not take itself seriously. I don't think I've ever seen a movie weaponize cringe in the weirdest wildest way possible. Flint and steel.

I give the Minecraft Movie a Lariscore of 3/5. It’s okay! just okay. surprisingly, many other critics reviewed the Minecraft movie the same way — a rating of 5/10 seems to be a very common rating score among pretty much every review I’ve seen. It’s fine, it’s okay, it’s not the greatest thing in the world but it was certainly a movie with effort and characters and whatever.

Additional Notes: Due to the insane success of the movie, the director Jared and a bunch of the actors have all expressed a desire to make a sequel, focusing on more of what Minecraft has to offer, like biomes, mobs, and perhaps interestingly, mods. Jared, if you're reading this: You can go make a really fun goofy Minecraft movie with the next Chicken Jockey catchphrase, but I think it'd be better for everyone if more love and effort was put into the plot, story, and characters. I love the goofiness of the Minecraft movie, but the critics are right — it could do with more! Chicken Jockey brainrot and a good story aren"t mutually exclusive.