A Minecraft Movie Review
The latest video game adaptation, ‘A Minecraft Movie’ has hit cinemas, and on the whole, it’s a disappointment. Dialogue, acting, the script, and more were punched down to appeal only to a younger audience, forgetting the older fans of ‘Minecraft’ in the process. Jack Black, an actor known for comedy and humour, goes all out on a ridiculous performance, something that Jason Mamoa joins him on. It’s something that won’t work for the majority of people, which ultimately is a shame because ‘Minecraft’ is a property that spans multiple generations, and that film only caters to one.
The film stars an ensemble cast and, to their credit, none of them are in any kind of doubt about what this kind of movie is. Its goal is to go viral through memes instead of being good. Jack Black, who plays ‘Minecraft’ character Steve, and Jason Mamoa, who plays Garrett the Gamer in particular make sure to go as over the top and then some more for good luck, with extreme over acting. Emphasis is put on the most mundane of sentences, such that no line escapes. The two characters in particular have an intense bromance with each other, channeling masculine energy that no doubt many youths will delight in. Certain characters will hit the spot too, like General Chungus. For older audiences, they’ll have to prevent their eyes from rolling so hard they fall onto the cinema floor.
Dialogue in this film is absolutely atrocious. Most of it consists of Jack Black pointing to things and announcing its name, and the others around him reacting. It has an expectation that audiences will simply be charmed by the ‘member berries, as there’s nothing else on offer. Either that or long and expository monologues. There are at least three times where Jack Black sings to the audience, unfortunately the songs aren’t funny or character driven like in ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’, they merely exist to drive clicks on social media. If they were more tolerable to listen to, that would be fine. Instead, like the rest of dialogue, it’s full of cringe and no humour. It only appeals to a younger audience, and lacks the ability lacks the ability to resonate with those older than 20.
Not much better can be said about the script. Creativity and expression are core pillars of the ‘Minecraft’ world, and while there are moments where that shines through – such as the redstone contraptions many players have themselves likely developed – ‘A Minecraft Movie’ is perfectly content to tell a generic story about a made up dohicky necessary for evil world domination, complete with a third act CGI fight like many other blockbuster films. It’s surprising this film doesn’t opt to tell the story of fighting the Ender Dragon or the Wither. In a game that prizes itself on its ability for players to be wildly creative, it’s a shame its film adaptation is so rote and safe.
The one thing that should be said for ‘A Minecraft Movie’ is that it actually looks alright. The villagers do look like nightmare fuel, and one or two scenes have rough CGI, but, surprising, the artists over at Warner Bros. Discovery have managed to translate the world of ‘Minecraft’ surprisingly well into live-action, which given the game’s intentionally low graphics is quite a feat. The textures of the different blocks look compelling, and the film is pleasant to look at.
‘A Minecraft Movie’ unfortunately joins several video game adaptations that miss the mark on their source material. The cast over act every moment they’re on screen, refusing to let up. Dialogue between all of them is some of the worst recently, with the film being insistent that audiences have every single little detail be pointed out to them, for fear that a subtle reference might be missed. At least the film isn’t unpleasant to look at, which is an achievement given the low resolution of the source material.
