Mojang Studios released their new adventure/action movie for their game, “Minecraft.” The movie is focused on the game but is centered on Earth. It opens with starts with the audience meeting Steve (Jack Black), summarizing his story and his adventures within the Minecraft world. The normal Minecraft world is referred to as, “The Overworld” and the hellscape world, “The Nether,” which introduces the movie’s main villain, Malgosha (Rachel House). The intro ends with the key to go to the Minecraft world being sent back to Earth for the rest of the main characters to find.
The film then cuts the two main characters, brother and sister, Henry and Natalie played by Sebastian Eugene Hansen and Emma Myers. In the final acts of the exposition, the audience is introduced to the last two main characters, “The Garbage Man” Garrett Garrison (Jason Momoa) and Dawn (Danielle Brooks). The movie then begins its rising actions with having the main characters all meeting up inside the “Overworld.”
The pacing of the film is solid once the plot begins to pick up, though the movie feels short even with the hour and 40 minute run time. The storyline is fairly enjoyable, with the plot being easy to follow. The main characters fighting against the “big bad” villain so they can return home to Earth.
This film leans heavily into the fantasy aspect of Minecraft with the Overworld and Nether seeming never-ending. The actual settings in this blockbuster are breathtaking to see, using extremely advanced CGI, to the point where it was nearly unnoticeable. The color grading within the scenes were wonderful–having strong, bright and vibrant colors, making every scene pop out to viewers eyes.
This movie does have some weaknesses like being extremely cliche, with the script having characters saying lines such as, “Let’s Minecraft.” However, this movie leans into the childish aspect of its concept–having characters being ironic with “Garbage Man,” a clear parody of the “tough, macho guy,” stereotype often found in action movie characters. This picture is aware of clear inconsistencies in the Minecraft universe, full days only lasting 20 Earth minutes, or biomes clearly changing from one to another when reaching a certain point and the film isn’t afraid to embrace that.
The story of this film is cheesy and silly, but that’s one of its strengths. For a kids movie, it excels at the comedy aspect, with jokes for all ages to appreciate. Going into this project, expectations were fairly low, but it easily exceeded assumptions. This motion picture is an all around fun time and an 8 out of 10.
