You’re probably aware that A Minecraft Movie is out, considering the absolute juggernaut of publicity behind it. And seeing as our nine-year-old is obsessed with Minecraft, we inevitably went to see it yesterday.
My verdict: it’s basically fine. Three stars out of five.
Our nine-year-old loved it. They have played some Minecraft at home, and watched many hours of other people playing Minecraft on YouTube. I guess you would get more out of this film if you are familiar with the game, judging by the cheers from fellow members of the audience every time some kind of iconic item from the game was featured in the film. We went to see it at our local Vue in Halifax, and the screen was pretty much full. I guess that’s something to do with it only having opened on Friday in the UK.
There’s a series of scenes before the opening credits where we’re introduced to Jack Black‘s character, Steve, and the ‘Overworld’ which is the blocky Minecraft world. Then we return to the real world to be introduced to Jason Momoa‘s character during the opening credits. Indeed, the first part of the film spends quite a bit of time in the ‘real world’ before we’re back into the blockiness. It’s probably a good thing that the Overworld is featured so early, as it doesn’t come up again for a little while.
The plot is, well, a bit meh. Jack Black is peak Jack Black in this, and Jason Mamoa (also a producer of the film) does well, but the rest of the characters could do with more depth. It’s perhaps ironic that a film about a world-building game, doesn’t itself have enough world-building, in my opinion.
Ultimately though, this film will do well because it’s about Minecraft, and there’s just enough fan service to get players of the game on board. If you’re not familiar with the game, and don’t have kids, then maybe wait for it to come out on streaming.
