A Minecraft Movie (2025) Review
I’m a couple of weeks late but I was finally able to check out A Minecraft Movie. A movie that I wasn’t really looking forward to. But with the record shattering box office and crazy audience reactions I grew curiouser about this movie. It seemed like all of my friends had seen it before I did. What did I think about it? Was it any good? Let’s talk about it!
The Good
The best thing about this movie is that it’s just a lot of fun. The movie knows that it’s a lot of fun so it leans into that. I was never bored by watching this movie. It was entertaining from beginning to end. The movie always has a joke happening, a funny sight, or an action scene taking place to keep the audience entertained. I watched the movie with my mom and both of us were laughing out loud at multiple points in the movie. I think part of the reason why it’s printing money and people are connecting with it is because it knows its target audience. For better or for worse, this movie isn’t trying to be a four quadrant blockbuster. It’s not trying to appeal to everybody, it’s trying to appeal to kids. Despite being 20 (and turning 21 in October) I thought the entertainment worked. I think this movie is an example that not all movies need to appeal to everybody. This movie is appealing to kids and that’s refreshing. We don’t get a lot of blockbusters these days that are appealing to one range but rather every age range. I hope studios learn from the success of this movie and start making more movies that are targeting one age range.
Part of the reason why the movie is so much fun is because of the cast. The cast is clearly having a lot of fun in this movie and they’re leaning into the goofiness of the movie. One of the fun standouts would be Jennifer Coolidge. She’s playing a supporting character that’s only a few scenes but she was hilarious. They give her this whole subplot with a villager that doesn’t connect to the main story but it’s hilarious. As far as our main characters, Jason Momoa was the stand out. He’s playing a typical tough guy that you’d expect from him. But he’s playing the stereotype of himself. A whole lot of his bits I thought were really funny. When the first trailer dropped everybody was thrown off by his wig and his look. In the context of the movie it works a lot better and fits with who his character is. I’ve heard some people say that Jack Black was a bit much in the movie. And how he was overcooking it throughout the movie. I can see why other people would find him annoying or too much. Personally I didn’t feel that way and thought his vibe fit the tone of the movie nicely.
Another thing that I think works better in context than from the trailers is the look of the movie. When the first trailer dropped I thought the look of the movie was bad. I was confused as to why this wasn’t animated. I feel the video game, Minecraft works better in animation then in live action. In the context of the movie and characters from the real world going into Minecraft I think it works a lot better. The way that The Creepers looks or the zombies or the way that everything is cubed fits better in the context. Especially when you have a very goofy movie that knows it’s goofy the goofy look works. Despite originally thinking this movie would work better in animation, I think the live action works better. It contrasts nicely with the real world that is real and you go into a fictional land. When you go to a fictional place it should look different, it should be weird.
Finally, the humor really worked for me. I touched on this earlier about the movie being very entertaining and the humor is a large reason for that. I think this is why some people are very polarized with the film. The movie currently has a 47% on Rotten Tomatoes, but the audience score for it is much higher. I think the reason for that is because the movie is dependent on the humor. Where if the humor doesn’t land for you, if the jokes aren't funny then the movie doesn’t work. I heard some people call this one of the worst movies of the year and even of the decade. That feels like somebody who didn’t find the movie funny. I found the movie funny so it works well enough for me. Every one of our characters gets their moment to shine and be really funny. Like I said, Jennifer Coolidge being one of the standouts. The whole bit with her at the restaurant is really funny. I don’t remember the last time I laughed out loud watching a movie in the theater.
The Bad
While the movie is very entertaining and high energy I think it works a lot better in those regards then on a story level. I didn’t go into this movie expecting a great story that’s layered and complex. No, I went into this movie expecting to be entertained. But I felt like the movie was trying to have a better story than it did. It touches on all of the elements that you’d expect from a movie like this. You get the heart and you get the hero’s journey. The character arc checks all of the boxes but doesn’t deliver any of the depth that I think it feels like it’s going to. The two siblings in the movie set up that they’re living by themselves because their mother died. They try to have the sibling heart of them having to look out for each other. But the movie touches on that but doesn’t really do anything with it because it needs to move onto the next joke. They try to give Jason Momoa’s character a character arc, but it doesn’t really work. Thematically there’s ideas similar to The LEGO Movie about creativity and imagination. The LEGO Movie ties that into the plot of the movie and the character arcs. This movie touches on that, but doesn’t explore it. The big problem with the movie is that they check the boxes on what’s expected from a big blockbuster but it’s all superficial. When it slightly touches on, throws that idea out there but doesn’t do anything with it it feels pointless and like a waste of screen time.
Also, I felt like the older sister and Danielle Brooks’ character were kind of pointless. As I just mentioned they set up the siblings as being loners. The movie isn’t really about their relationship. If the movie had the siblings as the stars and you had Jack Black and Jason Momoa as the fun side characters, maybe I’d care about their journeys more. But they try to give the heartfelt arc to the side characters and I don’t think that worked as well. With Brooks’ character they set her up to be a zoologist that has a side hustle of a zoo on wheels. You think that’s going to tie into the plot with the different creatures in Minecraft and it never really does. This isn’t really a spoiler but it talks specifics about the movie. There’s an action sequence and the brother, Black, and Momoa get separated from the sister and Brooks. The sister and Brooks have their own subplot to get to the other characters. It felt very awkward the way that it was done. The movie itself was trying to distance the sister and Brooks from the rest of the characters. I feel like you could have cut those two characters out and the movie wouldn’t change at all.
Finally, there’s some adult humor in this movie that I found funny but it felt out of place. I’m 20 years old, I don’t mind adult humor or humor that would go over kids’ heads. But there’s this one sequence where Black and Momoa get into an interesting position and they make jokes about it. The rest of the movie is pretty family friendly but there’s one sequence that makes these jokes and it just moves on. I don’t mind those jokes, they’re funny jokes in the movie. But when that’s the only adult jokes and the rest are kids jokes, it felt out of place and just one more joke to be in there that probably didn’t need to be in there.
Final Thoughts: As somebody who wasn’t really excited for this movie it was better than I thought it would be. It was a pleasant surprise and entertained me from beginning to end. Is this going to be one of the best movies of the year? Of course not. (If it is then 2025 is going to be a bad year for movies.) But it’s probably going to be one of the most entertaining and funniest movies of the year. On a story and structure level, it doesn’t really work. On a pure entertainment level it worked a lot.
The Score: 8.1/10 (B-)
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