One of April’s biggest box office releases is based on a video game with no plot, dialogue or defined characters. “A Minecraft Movie,” released worldwide on April 4, builds a chaotic story from the game’s blank slate. It is hard to make a movie out of something that was never meant to be one, but the challenge is exactly what makes the film work. Like the game itself, it creates something out of nothing.
Controversy has followed the film since the first official trailer release on Sept. 4, when fans quickly flooded social media with criticism, calling the tone off, the pacing chaotic and the characters disconnected from the spirit of the game. Jack Black, who plays the game’s default protagonist Steve, addressed the backlash in an interview with GamesRadar+.
“I mean I was surprised because I loved the trailer,” Black said. “There are always so many people that are sensitive to everything you put out there. I love the movie, but now I don’t know, let’s see what everyone else thinks because I don’t trust myself anymore.”
When the film was officially released, early reviews were just as skeptical as the online buzz had hinted. The Telegraph gave the film two stars and The Guardian gave it one star due to its lack of depth. Despite the uproar, the film has since become the highest grossing video game adaption of all time.
With a production budget of $150 million, “A Minecraft Movie” had a lot to prove. Just like the game it’s based on, it exceeded expectations by building something massive from very little. The film brought in over $300 million globally in its opening weekend alone, making it not only a commercial success but a creative one.
The film includes a few musical numbers, which was not surprising with Jack Black in the lead role. These sporadic segments honestly work better than they should. They come out of nowhere, almost completely unprompted, but the timing is so sharp that they end up being some of the funniest moments in the film.
The songs are not necessarily trying to be serious, as they’re placed within the plot to be entertaining, but they really do deliver. It’s these unexpected moments that keep the film from ever feeling boring.
The film throws around Minecraft lingo fast and often, while Black delivers his lines with so much exaggerated enthusiasm that it feels like he’s in on a joke no one else is fully in on. At times, it plays like sketch comedy, and that self-awareness surprisingly works in its favor. It doesn’t try to be something it’s not. Instead, it leans into the weirdness of adapting a game with no set story and has fun with it.
There are definitely plot holes throughout the film, some biomes don’t line up, a few things happen for no clear reason — the ‘man sandwich’ segment — and the pacing bounces around. But if you lower your game-centered expectations and stop looking for pixel-perfect logic, it works.
As a family movie, it’s creative, self-aware and surprisingly entertaining. Like its source material, the film is more about the experience than the structure. You have to let it be what it is.
Industry analysts did not expect the film to pull in such high numbers. Steve Buck, chief strategy officer at EntTelligence — a company that tracks box office data and audience behavior — noted the turnout was beyond what anyone predicted.
“It has definitely overperformed all industry projections,” Buck said, adding that the film “hit with all audiences.”
The film closes with a short end-credits scene that introduces Alex, another main character from the game. The moment is quick but deliberate, hinting that this may be just the beginning for the Minecraft universe on screen. It is a subtle setup that suggests more movies could be on the way.
“A Minecraft Movie” is now playing in theaters.
