HHJ Movies: A Minecraft Movie

2/5

A Minecraft Movie has taken the internet and the world by storm. The movie is based on the building and survival video game Minecraft. Released in 2011, this massive sandbox has given many kids and young adults hours of joy, creating whatever their hearts desire. 

In the world of Minecraft, everything is block-shaped. You have to gather resources and materials by mining, then craft weapons to fight the enemies at night, or craft things to make your village thrive. You can build pretty much anything your heart desires.   

I have never really played Minecraft, but my brother and many of my friends have, so I knew what it was. I have tried to play it, but it just wasn’t for me. When I heard it was getting a movie, I was kinda hesitant but somewhat curious, as I thought “how are they going to adapt this game to the big screen?”

The Minecraft Movie stars Jack Black as Steve, Jason Momoa as Garrett, Emma Myers as Natalie, Jennifer Coolidge as Vice Principal Marlene, Danielle Brooks as Dawn and Sebastian Eugene Hansen as Henry. 

It seems like people are somewhat mixed on Jack Black as an actor and performer, but I’m of the mindset that I rather enjoy him in most of the media he has been in. From time to time, I still go back to his performances in School of Rock, one of my favorite movies from him that I watched as a kid. 

Jason Momoa is also an actor who I’ve come to enjoy watching recently. I liked him in the first Aquaman movie and he was a very funny villain in Fast X. I also loved him as Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones. Fun fact, my first R-rated movie I ever saw was the reboot of Conan the Barbarian, starring Momoa as Conan. 

Black and Momoa were the main reasons I decided to see this movie; a few of my good friends to tag along with me was a plus, too. We were ready to see what a Minecraft movie was all about, and we all had low expectations. I think those low expectations were most definitely met. 

I thought the first 25 to 30 minutes were great. Director Jared Hess is formerly known for directing the cult classic Napoleon Dynamite. After the movie, one of my friends said, “It kinda felt like Napoleon Dynamite when they were in the real world.” Whenever they stepped into the Minecraft world, or “overworld” as they called it, the movie kinda went downhill. 

The visuals of the Minecraft world were fantastic, in my opinion. The enemies — the piglins, zombies, skeletons, and creepers — looked great and the action was quite good too.  

I must preface this, the Minecraft movie is a kids’ movie and Jack Black’s performance may have been catered towards that. I love him, but his performance of Steve has to be the most phoned-in performance I have ever seen. 

You’re getting what you usually get out of Jack Black but take that time a thousand. Every line he gave out was just taken to the limit. 

The other characters were just there. Dawn and Natalie were barely there and were not that fleshed out at all. 

The main antagonist was anti-creativity which I thought was kinda lazy, but it was a very straightforward villain motivation, perfect for a kids’ movie. 

Also, the movie has a few songs in it but was not considered a musical, so that kinda caught me off guard. 

If you have kids, regardless if they play Minecraft, I think they would enjoy this film. The movie may inspire them to play it and let their creativity run wild. In this case, I think the game it was based on is a lot better than the movie.

I probably wouldn’t recommend this movie to anyone other than that demographic. For those who have played Minecraft when it first came out and are as old as I am, I would probably skip this one. This certainly isn’t the worst movie in the world, but probably the worst one that I have seen in 2025.