Remaking a beloved video game franchise into a movie or TV show is always going to be a gamble. It’s playing with people’s nostalgia, and if it’s done wrong, it could cause an uproar. 

Take, for instance, the “Sonic the Hedgehog” movie. The original design for the beloved blue hedgehog was so bad that fans quite literally bullied the production into changing what he looked like. 

Fandom fans are cruel, and the “Minecraft” community is no exception. 

Released in theaters last week, “A Minecraft Movie” was highly anticipated, at least in my friend group, but not exactly for the best reasons. My friends and I were convinced the movie was going to be so awful that it would, in turn, become one of the best movies ever made. 

And this sentiment wasn’t exactly far off.

The movie follows Henry and Natalie, two kids who have just lost their mom and moved to the fictional town of Chuglass, Idaho. Natalie, maybe a child, maybe a young adult (I could never tell), gives up being a kid for a little bit longer to take care of her younger brother, who has an imagination that runs wild. 

Henry meets Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison, a man once renowned for his talent at a street arcade game but who has hit a losing streak in finances and friends. After Garrett purchases a mysterious storage unit, the three of them, plus a realtor named Dawn, are transported to the Overworld, a land where anyone can build anything as long as they can imagine it. 

The plot is, honestly, better than I expected. It’s more or less cohesive and has a clear beginning and end. There were random bits thrown in of Jennifer Coolidge’s character getting with a villager after she hit him with her Jeep Grand Cherokee, but overall, it kept itself together. 

Unfortunately, in keeping this cohesive plot and maintaining a run time of one hour and 40 minutes with no promise of a sequel, it left no room for the crumbs of nostalgia they attempted to give to their fans. Every well-known “Minecraft” item was thrown into the film, giving it a chaotic and, overall, messy feel at the end. 

Items not from “Minecraft,” like the tot launcher that Henry creates, were also added in. While this is a cool concept, the writers give no explanation of how real-world items can create these new, powerful items that aren’t included in the original game. While I’m not caught up on the full lore of “Minecraft,” it felt like a weird addition for hardcore fans. There were plenty of powerful items Henry could have created that still would have showcased his ingenuity. 

There’s also the issue of the smaller moments within the movie. There were plenty of moments where they started a discussion about a serious topic, that honestly would have benefitted the character arcs of the cast, like when Natalie discusses the pains of growing up too quickly or Garrett talks about how his life has fallen apart, but it was quickly overshadowed by what can only be described as stupid humor. 

I will fully admit: I was laughing during these jokes. Some of them were genuinely funny, while others were so absurd I couldn’t help but chortle. The writers seemed to be trying to appeal to their original fans, Gen Z and millennials, while also keeping it funny enough that the newer generations of “Minecraft” would still laugh. It ended up being an amalgamation of buttcheek jokes, hidden adult humor and the most extreme bromance known to the theater screen between Jason Momoa and Jack Black’s characters. 

Like a lot of people, I am a fan of Black. I’ve loved him since his role in “Goosebumps,” and he as Bowser in “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” was gold. I respect his dedication to the craft of the game by playing several hours of “Minecraft” to prepare for the role, but his line delivery was slightly off-putting. 

I mean, he yelled almost every line in his script. And while it probably wasn’t fully his decision, it was unfortunately his voice. It was funny, but it made my vocal cords strain at the thought, and after a while, especially during the more serious scenes, it grew old. 

Also, he sang. A lot. Black sang a total of four songs, and it was definitely unexpected, making the movie a musical. 

My biggest problem with this movie, though, was the design.

I will never understand why they chose a realistic style for a game completely made of cubes. Nearly every animal was terrifying to look at, and don’t even get me started on the piglin’s design. It was a fleshy nightmare that will haunt my dreams for decades. This movie could have easily, and should have been, made into a cartoon style. I think a style similar to the 2023 Mario movie would have benefited this production greatly. 

It was just weird for me. I mean, the “Minecraft” fandom has proven for years that it’s possible to animate creatures and characters while making it look decent with their multiple music videos and short stories. 

I appreciate what the designers were trying to do with the style, and I can’t even imagine how much time went into rendering, but it unfortunately fell straight into a pool of lava while searching for diamonds. 

Overall though, with all of my complaints, the movie was a fun watch. I did appreciate seeing the sheer wildness of the game be embraced while encouraging kids to continue to be creative, especially in the time of artificial intelligence art, where creativity can easily be killed off. 

It was sweet; it was cute; and it was a good laugh, especially in a movie theater where every reference to the game was met with a clap and cheer. It also paid tribute to those on YouTube who helped the game rise to the height of its popularity. 

“A Minecraft Movie” is definitely worth a first watch, but probably not much more than that.