A Minecraft Movie

 

Emma crash lands into the Overworld.

 

Minecraft is a sandbox game that debuted in 2011. With its bare-bones graphics, lack of story and dialogue, and rudimentary controls, no one would have thought that this indie game would have amounted to anything at all. However, none of those elements mattered because the game had one important thing: an endless world you could build anything in. This is what led to it becoming the best-selling game of all time, and for film companies to jump at the chance to make the film. That chance came this year after a long development process. A Minecraft Movie stars Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Sebastian Hansen, Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, Rachel House, Jemaine Clement, Jared Hess, Matt Berry, and Jennifer Coolidge. It was released on April 4th, 2025, and went on to gross nearly $1 billion.

 

Step into our (Over)World

 

Steve (Black) is a struggling doorknob salesman, unfulfilled by the life he has led. One day, he decides to leave the life he knows behind and breaks into a mine. There, he discovers the Orb of Dominance and the Earth Crystal, which create a mystical portal when combined. Steve steps through and is transported to the Overworld, a world made of easily manipulated cubes. He builds his own paradise there, even befriending a wolf he names Dennis. However, he later stumbles across a portal to a hellish dimension called the Nether, and things take a turn for the worse. There, he is imprisoned by Malgosha (House), the gold-obsessed piglin ruler of the Nether who gravely discourages creativity. She wants to control the Overworld, and she needs the Orb to do it. To keep that from happening, Steve has Dennis take the Orb and Crystal to the real world and hide them under his old bed.

 

YEET!

 

Sometime later, 1980s video game champion Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Momoa) operates a failing video game store in Chuglass, Idaho. His glory days are behind him, and he is flat broke. Needing new inventory for the store, he heads to a storage auction, ultimately winning the contents of Steve’s old house. He searches through his haul, hoping to find an Atari Cosmos. Instead, he finds Steve’s old belongings, including the Orb and Crystal. Meanwhile, siblings Henry (Hansen) and Natalie (Myers) move to Chuglass following the death of their mom. They meet Dawn (Brooks), their real estate agent, who introduces them to their new home. Henry is a creative kid, but his creativity gets him into trouble at his new school when his experimental jet pack damages the nearby potato chip factory. To avoid expulsion, he pays Garrett to pretend to be his uncle, who takes him to the video game store. There, Henry discovers the Orb and Crystal and combines them, leading the two to Steve’s mine. Natalie finds Henry missing and calls Dawn, and they track him using his phone. As the four reunite in the mine, they are sucked into the portal and arrive in the Overworld, where they are soon introduced to Steve and his world of creativity and wonder.

What an image in the rich history of cinema.

 

This film was directed by Jared Hess, the same director of Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre, and you can tell by the humor and “wacky” characters. Jason Momoa is particularly well suited for this style of humor, and he has some of the funniest moments and lines in the film. Jack Black, however, is too busy telling the audience everything he is doing right before he does it to ever really shine as comedy. Yes, this film suffers greatly from explaining everything. Backstories, actions, plot devices, props, you name it, it is all explicitly told to the audience as if the people who would go see A Minecraft Movie have never heard of Minecraft before or know how the game works. This is likely due to studio executives giving notes because they didn’t understand anything about the game, but it is always frustrating when movies about video games treat their audience like idiots. The rest of the film is pretty standard, with bland characters going through all the “fish-out-of-water” narrative tropes. The world of Minecraft has been a launchpad for creativity for over a decade, and it’s such a shame that the first film in the franchise is so by the numbers.

 

Welcome to Chuglass.

 

Best Chucks Scene

 

 

Natalie steps into the battle in her black high top chucks.

 

Natalie wears chucks for the majority of the movie, but for most of her screen time, she doesn’t have much in terms of character traits. She cares about her brother, and that’s basically all she has. Eventually, we learn that she can fight really well, which is pretty much fueled by protecting her brother, so it’s not really a new trait per se. However, this development does lead to her best scene and the best chucks scene in the film, which is the final battle. Here, Natalie leads the charge in taking on Malgosha’s dark forces. With her diamond sword and black high top chucks, she is able to take control, help Henry, and in the end, save the day.

 

Avengers Assemble!

 

A Minecraft Movie. (2025) Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Sebastian Hansen, Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, Rachel House, Jemaine Clement, Jared Hess, Matt Berry, and Jennifer Coolidge. Directed by Jared Hess.
Categories: Action/Adventure, Comedy, Family.
ChucksConnection Rating:  MPAA Rating: PG

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