A MINECRAFT MOVIE: A Die Hard's Perspective

A MINECRAFT MOVIE (Blu-ray)

2025 / 101 min

Warner Bros

#InPartnershipwithWB

Review by Lucy A. (who grew up on the game)

Like a lot of kids of my generation, I grew up obsessed with Minecraft. For a long time, I didn’t have a way to play it myself, so I’d watch YouTube videos of other people playing. Until one day, I finally convinced my dad to download the mobile version on his iPad. From that point on. I was obsessed with the game for years. I would spend hours building and creating my own stories. Minecraft was sort of the gateway into my gaming hobby. Now that I’m an adult, I play it a lot less than I used to, but the game still holds a special place in my heart. Which is why when I saw trailers for A Minecraft Movie, I knew I needed to see it. 

If you’ve seen any of the trailers or other clips from the movie, whatever your first impressions are, they’re probably right. The movie seemed a bit cringey and was ‘lip/meme farming’ (meaning that the movie is actively trying to get popular going viral with funny clips, rather than being an entertaining movie as a whole). Surprise! The trailers didn’t lie. 

While watching the movie, it felt like the film was really leaning into random/unexpected humor. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, since that sort of humor is popular among kids and that’s ultimately the target audience. However, a lot of the jokes or bits seemed to be kinda forced. Still, the movie was funny. Was it funny in how the directors intended? That’s debatable. To me and the group of friends I saw the film with, it was funny because we were all constantly thinking, “I can’t believe they thought this was a good idea.” 

The plot is also lacking. Some might argue that a movie targeted towards children can’t be expected to have a good or meaningful plot that’s entertaining to both kids and adults. But there are tons of kids movies that I’ve enjoyed as an adult that genuinely have good plots and messages that are appreciated by all audiences. Unfortunately, A Minecraft Movie is not one of them. 

Not every movie needs to have a message. It could be purely just for shits and giggles. However, it’s clear that the film wanted to send some sort of message, but just couldn’t decide what. There are loose themes of “being different is okay” and “creativity is good,” but they aren’t touched upon throughout the entire movie until the end. Any messages they were trying to convey seemed very (for lack of a better term) half-assed. 

Square Pigs

I’ll give it this…making a story based on a game with no story is very hard. If you didn’t know, Minecraft is a sandbox game, meaning that it’s open-world, and there isn’t a path or a set of goals for the player to follow. There isn’t any story in the base game, which is why it’s seen more as a starting point for people to create their own. Whether people make their own worlds, create their own narratives, or simply just survive, Minecraft is seen as a creative base for its players. Maybe that’s what the film itself may have been trying to do. 

This might come as a surprise given what was previously written, but I did enjoy the movie. The movie was objectively bad - not just as a video game movie either - but I found myself enjoying every second of it. Sure, a lot of it was eye-rolling and a little painful to watch at times, but I still had a lot of fun. Maybe it’s because I’m biased and I love Minecraft. Maybe it’s because I saw it with close friends with a similar attachment to the game. Or maybe it’s because I know, deep down, 10-year-old Lucy would have been thrilled that a game she loved so much was on the big screen. 

If you grew up with the game, you might get a kick out of it. If you have kids who did, they will definitely like it. If you have no attachment to the game whatsoever, don't bother. 

EXTRA KIBBLES:

FEATURETTES -  Building the World of Minecraft: Block Party; Creepers, Zombies and Endermen Oh My!;  A Minecraft Movie: Pixel Pals; A Minecraft Movie: Block Beats; Marlene + Nitwit.