“A Minecraft Movie” is a 2025 fantasy adventure movie based on the 2011 game “Minecraft” by Mojang Studios. As of April 9, the film has brought in $323,380,122 at the global box office since its release on April 4 (Box Office Mojo), more than doubling its 150 million dollar budget. “A Minecraft Movie” surpassed “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” as the highest-grossing opening weekend for a movie based on a video game.
The movie follows Steve (Jack Black), a struggling salesman, who finds a magical orb and crystal in an abandoned mine. He discovers that when combined, the orb and crystal open a portal to the Minecraft universe, the “Overworld”. In this world, the terrain is blocklike and easily manipulated. Steve is happy to leave behind his life in the real world and build himself a paradise in the Overworld.
In the Overworld, Steve discovers a portal to another universe called the “Nether”. There, he discovers a society of gold-hoarding, humanoid, pig-like creatures called piglins. The leader piglin, Malgosha, wants the magical orb from Steve in order to control the Overworld. Before being captured by the piglins, Steve sends his dog Dennis to hide the orb and crystal in the real world.
The orb and crystal are eventually rediscovered by Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Jason Momoa), a 1980s video game champion who owns a failing video game store in Chuglass, Idaho. At the same time, siblings Natalie (Emma Meyers) and Henry (Sebastian Hansen) move to Chuglass after their mother’s death. There, they meet Dawn (Danielle Brooks), the real estate agent who sold them their house.
In his first week in Chuglass, Henry finds Garrett’s store and, subsequently, the orb and crystal. He reopens the portal to the Overworld and enters it, with Garrett, Natalie, and Dawn following after. Garrett accidentally breaks the crystal, rendering them unable to return to the real world. They meet Steve, who promises to help guide them to a new crystal in exchange for the orb after they leave. Malgosha gets news of the orb’s return to the Overworld and continues her pursuit of the orb. The group must traverse the Overworld to find the crystal while defending the orb from Malgosha and her piglins.
The movie includes several original songs written and performed by Black, featuring many big names in music. Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl, Troy Van Leeuwen from Queens of the Stone Age, Jellyfish’s Roger Joseph Manning Jr., and Mark Ronson are all featured on the track “I Feel Alive”. The score also features original music from Benee, Dayglow, and Dirty Honey.
In terms of storytelling, this movie left much to be desired. The first part of the movie was a lot of exposition and explaining the logistics of the Minecraft world. Because so much time is spent on world-building, we don’t really learn much about the characters beyond what is necessary for the plot. The characters remain pretty one-dimensional without any real development over the course of the movie.
In terms of entertainment value, however, this movie was very enjoyable. The humor was solid, despite being a little cheesy at some points. It was clear that the cast was having fun with the script and their roles, and I thought the acting was pretty well done. The movie leaves viewers with a clear message on the importance of creativity, which resonates well with audiences of all ages.
Visually, I thought the producers did a good job of adapting the game to the screen. For the most part, the CGI and visual effects are pretty good. However, there are a few moments in the movie where these effects look a little off, mainly when the computer-generated characters and the human characters are on screen at the same time.
Overall, “A Minecraft Movie” is decently entertaining for gamers and non-gamers alike. While it’s clear that it is mainly intended for younger audiences, I think older audiences can still find enjoyable aspects.