Warning: there are SPOILERS for all of “A Minecraft Movie” within the following review!
After years of waiting, “A Minecraft Movie” has had its hotly anticipated release. The initial teaser earned 43 million views on YouTube as of May 14 and garnered massive attention in all corners of the internet. The fantasy-adventure-comedy released in theaters on April 4 after being in development for over 10 years. “A Minecraft Movie” earned $150.7 million, beating “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” as the highest-grossing opening weekend for a video game movie. Audience members’ ratings on Rotten Tomatoes averaged to 86 percent, whereas critics’ reviews averaged to 47 percent.
This is the Charger Account reporters Andrew Cooper (10) and Jayden Garcia’s (11) review of the individual elements of the movie as well as overall ratings.
Plot (Story Arc and Plausibility):
Cooper: This movie’s plot feels like a very formulaic, paint-by-numbers hero’s journey, which isn’t by any means a fault. It’s a format that’s popular for a reason. Our heroes enter an unfamiliar world and are shocked by the new rules and norms. They have a guide that leads them to claim the important Orb of Dominance, but they fail. The bad guys get the Orb of Dominance and it looks like there’s no hope left. But our heroes rally together, come up with a plan, and save the day. There are a ton of great movies that follow that exact same format, so as long as there isn’t the expectation of something groundbreaking, there will be little disappointment. I will say, I think Malgosha as a villain was pretty unimpressive. She’s not that funny most of the time and seems pretty out of place with the rest of the antagonists, which makes sense seeing as she is an original character and not a pre-existing mob from the game. I understand that the movie needed a villain with an actual personality for the sake of the story, I just would have liked a little more from her.
Garcia: The story arc is pretty consistent with what we might assume to be the hero’s journey. The heroes essentially just enter a new world and are weirded out by it. I do find that the way they actually get to the “Minecraft” world is sort of displeasing, and leaves a lot to be desired. Additionally, these characters sort of adjust to the new world incredibly quickly. I find it kind of hard to believe that they are so easily able to just move into this sort of rhythm of actually living in the “Minecraft” world. At least from personal experience of playing the game, I would not have managed to actually progress and adjust like they did. I’d also like to add how they managed to actually find the tool to get to the world was pretty unbelievable — it was just really random.
Theme (Identity and Depth):
Cooper: This movie is one of those fake-deep kids movies where the theme is something so vague and loose that it can make audience members wonder why the writers even bothered to try and include it. In this case, the theme is something along the lines of “creativity is good,” which is a very weak message for a movie to have because it doesn’t actually say anything about creativity. It doesn’t even feel like the main character Henry’s (played by Sebastian Hansen) creativity is that controversial. We never see him get bullied for it at school — the bullying is just implied. Henry says his sister Natalie, portrayed by Emma Myers, will get mad at him for blowing up the factory, but it’s unclear if that’s because he was being “creative,” or if it’s because he blew up her workplace. They never actually confront each other about this in the movie, which feels like a decision that goes beyond a missed opportunity and starts to feel like incompetence on the writer’s part.
Garcia: It’s pretty clear that the movie is meant to be a cash grab. I mean, it’s using two huge actor names, and an even larger brand name. Jason Mamoa, Jack Black, and the “Minecraft” brand are some of the biggest names in the industry, all for their own reasons, and they all appeal to the main target of 10 to 20 year olds. That’s kind of it for the story and its depth. The movie is just supposed to be something fun that you can watch once and probably never watch again. There isn’t anything that makes the movie particularly special or unique, it feels like a basic script defined by simply having big names.
Acting (Characters and Performance):
Cooper: Black is awesome in this film. He’s in an insane, over-the-top, campy adventure movie and he knows it. Every line delivery is more over the top and ridiculous than the last and it absolutely works. Momoa, on the other hand, feels like he doesn’t really know what role he’s supposed to play. He simply doesn’t match Black’s freak, and also doesn’t commit hard enough to being the straight man for him, making their duo feel slightly less dynamic. They still bounce off each other well, but it definitely could be better. Every other actor besides Black and Momoa is taking themselves far too seriously. Hansen is not a good enough actor to carry the emotional side of the movie. Myers delivers a fine performance but isn’t taken seriously by the plot. Danielle Brooks has absolutely nothing to do in this movie, and it kind of makes me feel like she might have had some kind of B-plot that was cut for time. Overall, Black gives an outstanding performance and Momoa is a fine second.
Garcia: I think the only actor to have a real major effect on the film was Black. The character was perfect for him, and with everyone in the audience knowing what kind of actor he is, he fit into this role perfectly — especially since we already know of him as this fun and goofy actor from “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” Other than him, however, I find the rest of the actors to be sort of just add-ins, maybe with the exception of Henry, who is sort of vital to actually stopping the main villain. I found the role of Myers and Brooks to be lackluster. I don’t mean that their acting was lower quality — I found them to be an enjoyable duo. But it sort of seemed like they were only there to have women in the film without actually giving much thought to making them meaningful characters. The only character I find that has any real character development was Momoa’s, and even that is questionable, as by the end, he still lives in the same area, with the same views of himself — the only difference is he’s a hero.
Editing (Pace, CGI, and Effects):
Cooper: I remember seeing a lot of behind-the-scenes promotional material talking about how many practical effects were used, which is cool. However, the movie still definitely looked like a big CGI fest. Most of the practical stuff seemed to be in the backgrounds, whereas all of the scenes involving fighting mobs and building were definitely CGI. The actors didn’t do a good job at reacting to the CGI naturally, even though the effects themselves didn’t look that bad.
Garcia: The pacing of the movie was extremely fast. Beyond the start of the movie, where we see the build up for Black’s character, and the introduction of everyone else. The entire story itself literally only takes place over essentially a singular day. It’s hard to believe. Additionally, the actual speed at which things moved was kind of fast. We didn’t really get time to enjoy the characters actually learning about the Minecraft world, it was essentially always just them trying to run away and avoid the antagonists armies. I also note that there was no real character development until the very end, which occurs in short bursts. No build up, it just happens. As for CGI and effects, I find that the lack of CGI is impressive, much of the sets and such were practical. However, a lot of the designs for the characters honestly kind of sucked, but to some extent, that made the film. For example, the sheep and bees in the movie were just unimaginably bad.
Soundtrack (Sound Design and Film Score):
Cooper: Most of the original songs in this movie were a 5/10 for me. “Steve’s Lava Chicken” is pretty good, but a lot of the songs are just kind of boring, and not funny beyond the initial reaction of, “oh my god, they’re singing!” Black’s singing honestly feels underutilized, just give him a big rock ballad to really showcase his chops.
Garcia: To put it frankly, the film score of the movie was pretty unmemorable except for Black’s “Steve’s Lava Chicken” song, which was the only song that I can actually remember well. Many movies make use of songs, and a lot are very recognizable, like “Ride of the Valkyries” in really any war movie helps convey the intentions of the characters and the build up. Other times, they can be used to simply convey what’s happening in the scene. And really, Black’s “Steve’s Lava Chicken” song is the only one that does that to any real effect. The rest of the songs are sort of just there to add basic ambiance. Additionally, I find the sound design very lackluster. Some of the sounds that sort of make “Minecraft” are just not there. Beyond maybe the Villagers, many of the mobs had huge sound changes, like the sheep. It made up extra sounds not really found in the game, and to some extent this could’ve worked. But I personally would’ve found it nicer to include mainly sounds that we are used to.
Overall Rating:
Cooper: As a whole, I expected to walk into the cinema and watch a terrible movie; however, I ended up watching a pretty fun one! I think the film succeeds in the areas it needs to. The movie itself doesn’t need to succeed in being a good film, it needs to be fun, and it succeeds in that. Fans of the game will have a great time catching all the references. However, I don’t know how approachable this movie is for people who aren’t fans of the game, because most of the movie relies on people kind of already understanding what the game is so they don’t question anything. The movie succeeds in making me have a good time, which to me makes it a good movie, even though I’ve spent a majority of the article trashing on it. 7/10.
Garcia: Overall, I’d say it was much better than I was expecting, and while it was very lackluster in many areas, it made up for it by the fact that it was a fun movie to laugh at. It was so bad and it was filled with very fun actors, and that made it a fun movie to watch. Maybe not a movie I would watch in my free time, or alone, but definitely a movie I would watch with friends as a way to just make fun of it. Additionally, the atmosphere in the movie theater, at least on the first/second day, was electric and very fun. Solid 3/10 on an actual movie scale, maybe a 6-7/10 in fun.
