A lack of limitations can be the bastion of the most talented filmmakers and also an anchor that drags them down in a sea of endless opportunities. After all, we got an Academy Award winning billion-dollar film out of “Barbie.” So, it stands to reason that Any filmmaker would leap at the opportunity to make a movie with material as limitless as a game known for having zero limits. The other edge of that double edged sword is also likely the reason that development on a “Minecraft” movie started over a decade ago and passed through numerous writers, directors, and producers before arriving with Director Jared Hess (“Napoleon Dynamite,” “Nacho Libre”) and writers Allison Schroeder (“Hidden Figures,” “Christopher Robin”), Chris Bowman (“Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life,” “Masterminds”), Hubbel Palmer (“Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life,” “Masterminds”), Neil Widener, Gavin James, and Chris Galletta (“The Kings of Summer”). After years of waiting, we finally have “A Minecraft Movie.”
The film follows a quartet of misfits; Garrett "The Garbage Man" Garrison, a washed-up former video game champion played by Jason Momoa (“Aquaman,” “Fast X”), Henry and Natalia, two siblings moving to a new town after the death of their mother, played by Sebastian Hansen and Emma Myers (“Wednesday (2022),” “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder”) respectively, and Dawn, a real-estate agent/traveling zookeeper played by Danielle Brooks (“Orange is the New Black,” “Peacemaker”). After Henry discovers the Orb of Dominance, the four are teleported to the Overworld, a vast world made entirely of cubic landscapes and wildlife. The evil Malgosha, voiced by Rachel House (“Moana,” “Soul”), seeks the Orb of Dominance so she can rule the Overworld, and the group are helped by legendary crafter Steve, played by Jack Black (“School of Rock,” “Kung Fu Panda”), to return home and keep the orb from her.
First and foremost, “A Minecraft Movie” is a class clown. This is a film that exists almost entirely to entertain and to make you laugh. If you’ve seen any of Hess’s previous films and their sense of humor just didn’t gel with you, “Minecraft” is no different. While things are paired down a bit, there’s still a good amount of tater tots, weird animals, loud screams, and random short songs. It can make for a charming experience as it all just washes over you, and certainly doesn’t feel like the hyper-processed, focus-tested-to-death blockbusters we can get out of big studios nowadays. This is a film that certainly has its own identity, for better or worse.
Black and Momoa are the stars here and completely run away with Hess’s comedic sensibilities. Black is at his Jack-Black-iest, and cranks things up to eleven as the film progresses. Momoa likewise plays Garrett as an overgrown man-child and the two of them frequently feel like they’re simply there as vehicles for jokes. Hansen and Myers get the closest thing to an emotional arc that the film wants to build, and it's fine enough. Their sibling bond is typical family film fare, and they execute it well. Hansen actually impresses most from the entire cast, simply due to how new he is at leading this kind of a movie and fitting snuggly into the everyman (or everykid) role he’s presented with. Brooks, like Black and Momoa, is simply a vessel for jokes, but the film sidelines her and Myers for a significant chunk, further preventing them from leaving any kind of impression. House gives an inspired vocal performance as Malgosha, and the supporting voice/live action cast rounds consists of a lot of character actors who’re here for a few minutes of fun before disappearing. There’s barely any character development for anyone here, and while it can easily be argued that it’s completely unnecessary for a film like this, it does mean that none of the characters have any sort of staying power of memorability. You’re likely to remember plenty of the jokes and not the characters or circumstances that set them up.
Despite plenty of criticisms of early trailers and promotional material, the film’s visuals and production design are exceptionally impressive. It pops with color and light, with the physical props and sets making an excellent impression. Apart from a handful of bad green screen moments, it's a visually sumptuous film, without breaking out of its blocky constraints. It’s the kind of film that feels like you can just reach out and touch it and surprisingly doesn’t find itself bogged down in an overuse of digital backgrounds and sets. It really is impressive how many of these locations were physically built and how excellent they look. Given how iconic the game’s music is, the score from Mark Mothersbaugh (“The LEGO Movie,” “The Rugrats Movie”) does a great job of blending the game’s themes with a grander, more “blockbuster” movie score. It certainly won’t replace the game’s music but it's a worthy interpretation, nevertheless.
So, it's a big studio comedy with a weird sense of humor and a grand sense of visual panache. Where’s the rub? Well, it all comes back to the script and overall story from its six credited writers. In attempting to craft an original story to fit into the blocky constraints of the “Minecraft” world, they’ve instead crafted a tale that is anything but original. It’s a hodgepodge of everything from “Lord of the Rings” to “The LEGO Movie” to “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” to even “Napoleon Dynamite.” It’s the sort of film that celebrates creativity in its individual moments and overall message, but it’s constructed of the most conventional pieces and parts one could imagine. This then leads to the sense of humor being used as a crutch rather than as a supplement, which means that even those who are fans of Hess’s sense of wackiness and how much Black and Momoa are embracing the weird will just be numb by the end of things. If everything is weird and wacky, then eventually that becomes the norm, and nothing feels weird and wacky anymore.
“A Minecraft Movie” is a class clown of a film from start to finish. The biggest caveat is that it starts as a class clown in middle school, and ends as a class clown in college, without anything ever changing. Black and Momoa lead a pretty game cast and it's certainly a gorgeous movie in its own way. This is the sort of film that is easily embraceable if you just hop on its wavelength and sense of humor and go along for the ride. But it's hard to imagine anyone not being exhausted by the time that ride ends, especially when the stuff that’s supposed to supplement it is so woefully underwhelming. 2.5/5
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