Minecraft is the biggest game of the 21st century. With 300 million downloads as of October 2023, it is no surprise that movie studio Warner Brothers wanted to cash in some of that Minecraft money.
Regardless, “A Minecraft Movie” premiered on Friday, April 4, with the movie making $313.2 million at a global premiere. The movie stars Jack Black as Steve, Jason Momoa as Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison, Emma Myers as Natalie, Sebastian Henson as Henry, and Danielle Brooks as Dawn.
The story follows Steve and a ragtag group of people from Earth trying to get home. In this movie, Steve was a normal man who “yearned for the mines,” who eventually found two items, the Orb of Domance and the Earth Crystal, and he used them to transport himself to Minecraft.
Some years later, he goes to the Nether and is captured by the Piglins who want the Orb of Dominance because they could control the overworld. Luckily, Steve had left it in his house on Earth.
Introducing the rest of the main characters, Garrett was famous for being the best at an 80s video game and is still chasing the glory of that to the modern day. He also owns a failing video game store. Natalie and Henry are siblings who move into town after their mother dies in a plane crash, with Natalie becoming Henry’s guardian. Dawn does real estate and also runs a portable zoo out of her car, and also sells the house to Natalie.
There is also a side plot of a romance with Jennifer Coolidge, who plays the principal of the school Henry goes to, and a villager, who comes to Earth after walking through the portal.
When the movie was announced in 2014, people didn’t think that the movie wasn’t actually real. With changing directors and constant adjusting of dates, many people were skeptical about whether or not the movie would be good. They were concerned that it was just a cash grab and wouldn’t hold true to the game.
People were also scared because contrary to what was expected, it was a live-action adaptation about a block game. People wanted a Minecraft Story mode-like game, instead of a Mario/Jumanji hybrid.
Opinions have changed slightly after the movie was released, with it receiving a Rotten Tomatoes score of 48%, which is bad, but is better than what people expected.
People who liked the movie said that it is just a fun movie for kids.
People complained about the awful CGI, with a pirated unfinished version of the movie having circulated, further giving poor opinions of the movie. But still, people expected worse. Senior Wyatt Lucero talked about the CGI.
“Surprisingly, it wasn’t that bad,” Lucero said. “It looked pretty good.”
The story is also lacking, relying mostly on the child audience to skate around an actual well-developed plot. People complained that the movie had a lot of items that weren’t actually in the game, with Henry creating weapons that don’t exist.
It is also important when talking about the Minecraft Movie about reception within movie theaters. In the movie, there is a joke about the ‘chicken jockey,’ a baby zombie riding a chicken, in which theatergoers throw popcorn up when the chicken jockey comes on screen.
This has been a point of controversy as workers have complained about having to pick up a sea of popcorn. In reaction to the contention, some theaters specifically have rooms in which to throw popcorn.
