A Minecraft Movie, directed by Jared Hess, brings the popular video game Minecraft to life with the magic of both live action and CGI.
The story follows four main characters: Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison played by Jason Momoa, Henry played by Sebastian Euguen Hanson, Natalie played by Emma Myers, and Dawn played by Danielle Brooks– who are transported into the minecraft universe and have to team up with Steve (Jack Black) to not only find their way back home, but to also save the overworld of Minecraft.
The movie has had mixed reviews, with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 47%, however we really enjoyed it.
Having played the game when we were younger, a big part of why we liked it was because of the various references. These include Youtube appearances/tributes like DanTDM, Technoblade, LDShadowLady, Mumbo Jumbo, and Aphmau.
They weren’t formally introduced in the movie, so you had to have both watched their channels and paid attention to the details. Other references include the woodland mansion, day to night cycles, elytra, breeding/domesticating animals, and water to break any fall damage.
Just because we enjoyed the movie, doesn’t mean we couldn’t see a few flaws. One of the main issues was how fast paced the movie felt. Steve’s background story felt rushed, and we would have liked to see Emma and Henry’s characters develop more before they were thrown into adventure.
Once they got transported into the overworld, there was constant action that at times could be hard to follow. Many people found the jokes cringy, however the movie is a kids movie so we didn’t mind it.
Another criticism we have is the choice of villain. In the movie the villain is Malgosha, who was a piglin, and she ruled the nether hoping to take over the overworld and take away all creativity (which is what Minecraft is all about). And while her plot wasn’t necessarily bad, we wished there would have been a villain that existed in the minecraft community. For example, Herobrine or the Ender Dragon.
The film did well in the box office, making 163 million dollars opening weekend. This even outperformed Barbie on its opening weekend. The audience was expected to be mostly younger kids, however, many teenagers and even adults showed up to pay tribute to the game that shaped their childhood.
The movie has made many online memes, the most notable being “chicken jockey”. When the scene played in theatres, it had audiences yelling the phrase “chicken jockey” and throwing popcorn. Other scenes like “flint and steel,” “lava chicken”, “Whoa isn’t that a king? No, it’s a legend”, and “Release!” have also been turned into jokes on various social media platforms.
All in all, we really enjoyed getting to see the movie and laugh about different references we remember from our time playing. It felt nostalgic watching something that younger us would have been so excited for. If you haven’t watched the movie yet, we definitely recommend seeing it with your family or friends.
