By Moriah Schranz

Walking into “A Minecraft Movie”, my expectations were optimistic. I expected a bad movie, but in a funny way.

Instead, the movie was mostly just bad.

“A Minecraft Movie” is a one hour and 41 minute film directed by Jared Hess. This movie was released by Warner Brothers on April 4, 2025. The process for producing this film was quite long, its development journey starting in 2014, with Warner Brothers acquiring the rights to develop an official movie adaptation, following the success of The LEGO Movie.

The movie is based on a 2011 Sandbox game released by Mojang. In the game, players use materials to build equipment and structures like houses to stay safe from monsters, or mobs. There is no clear way to win the game, and the way the game is played is up to the player.

While I didn’t love the movie, the marketing strategies used to promote the movie have been very successful, and “A Minecraft Movie” became increasingly popular on social media for its absurdity. Clips on platforms such as Tiktok grew viral after teenagers posted their excitement to hearing funny phrases such as “chicken jockey.” In these videos, the movie theaters are filled with claps and cheers from the crowd. In some cases, people have been kicked out for throwing popcorn and disrupting the film. Aside from the actual movie, Mojang partnered with McDonald’s to create a Minecraft Movie Meal. Beside this meal’s catchy alliteration, it consists of either a Big Mac or McNuggets along with a special Minecraft toy and drink.

The movie itself starts off with an overview of how one of the main characters, Steve, ends up in the Minecraft world. It also displays the lore of the Orb of Dominance and the Earth Crystal, which later become the key requirement to return to the overworld. While this initial stream of events is necessary to understand the plot, it feels too long to be a summary and is too broad to contribute to the overall movie. The quick pace for a lot of information led me and my friends confused about what the main plot. The exposition almost feels like the review of the last season you watched before starting a new season of a show, and the main characters are not introduced until much later in the movie.

My favorite part of the movie has to be the quality of the animations. Designing animals, houses, landscape, villagers and more in a Minecraft style must be immensely difficult. The animators did a very good job of making the Minecraft world the notable boxy structure while incorporating realism. This may be an indicator of why the movie took so long to produce since there is a lot of detail placed within the film scene.

In my life, I have played quite a bit of Minecraft. The accuracy of the movie to the game is not spot on, but I think the filmmakers did this on purpose to appeal to watchers who haven’t played the game. There are niche references to the game that players familiar with the game may understand more than those who haven’t, but  even someone who has never played Minecraft can pick up on what is going on. For example, there is a scene where a character has to diffuse bombs, which is an illusion to the Minesweeper game within Minecraft.

In June 2022, a popular Minecraft streamer passed away from cancer. He was known as Technoblade, and characterized by his Minecraft skin, a pig with a crown. A Minecraft Movie included a brief segment featuring a pig with a crown, in honor of Technoblade and all he did for the Minecraft community. This incorporation is very thoughtful of the producers, and earned the movie a higher score in my mind.

My main criticism with the movie is not a specific scene but instead just the overall lack of depth and the weak plot. The movie felt like a boring, cringey attempt at being quirky that left the viewers lacking. Most of the cast is adults, yet they are immature and willingly hanging out with kids in their free time. The movie feels like a rip off of “Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle” with its cast of famous actors and interdimensional search for escape. “Jumaji” does a much better job than “A Minecraft Movie” of adding depth to the characters and providing realism within the overworld.

Overall, I give the movie a 3.8/10. It is not necessarily a waste of time to watch, but I would not recommend it other than to contribute to the pop culture references and check a movie off Letterboxd.