On April 4, “The Minecraft movie” finally released and I got to see it in all its glory opening night. My friend group and I initially went as a joke to celebrate one of their birthdays, and we were all expecting it to be dumb and substandard. However, when I sat down in that theater there were a good 100 people around me started yelling out quotes from the trailers. The Minecraft movie, in my opinion, was a great movie, not a fantastic life changing one by any means but still a very amusing and interesting movie
For some background, in 2011, a new open world survival game was released, by the name of Minecraft. The game was an instant success, becoming the best selling game of all time according to IGN, a website dedicated to reviewing and giving overviews about video games. For many people, Minecraft was a pivotal aspect of their childhood. With the game selling over 300 million copies sold, it was inevitable that there was something bigger to come.
In 2014, rumors of a Minecraft movie were floating around with Markus “Notch” Persson, the creator of Minecraft, who is no longer associated with Mojang, talking to Warner Bros. Pictures about developing a film. In 2024, the film was finally announced to some admittedly lukewarm reception. Myself and others thought that it looked really bad from just the trailers alone and were dreading its release. The artstyle of the world and especially its creatures looked uncanny and strangely realistic but gross. With the casting of big figures such as Jack Black and Jason Mamoa. A lot of people including myself thought the movie would be reduced to a movie filled with painfully modern jokes and Marvel-esque quips. The movie, through trailers, started gaining some traction through irony. Much like the failed film of Morbius, the target audience started ironically claiming that the Minecraft movie would be the best ever. Several people started taking clips from the trailers and making bizarre memes with them resulting in widespread awareness and ironic hope for the Minecraft movie to be good, and it turned out fairly decent, I say even pretty great.
I will say the plot of the movie did feel extremely rushed. Some shots in the movie were beautiful and well shot. With tons of cameos from famous Minecraft Youtubers, and a tribute to the late, great, Technoblade, a famous Minecraft Youtuber who sadly passed away from cancer, this movie felt like a love letter to the game that I grew up with. The movie included several queer themes which spoke to me and my friends.
Overall, this movie tapped into my nostalgia and just general enjoyment of fun movies. It definitely was a dumb-fun movie, nothing spectacular or to analyze but still a darn good film, the characters were written well and had good back and forth with each other along with generally enjoyable acting. Several of the action scenes were fun, well-paced and watching the characters explore the Minecraft world was super entertaining but with a good sense of irony to it.
It was an enjoyable watch and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It tapped into my childhood nostalgia of playing Minecraft at 7 AM on my PS3. The Minecraft movie is still being shown in theaters, albeit with very chaotic audiences that will no doubt make it a noteworthy experience.
