The studio releasing A Minecraft Movie decided to screen for critics on a Sunday morning only. You might think, “Who cares? You are seeing a movie for free; some of us actually work for a living.” And that’s totally fair — plus, a weekend option is good for family films if you want to bring kids. But know that this threw an obstacle the size of an Iron Golem into my schedule, so when I got to the theater, I sat in the very back row, as close as possible to the exit, and kept my windbreaker zipped up and my arms crossed. Then, about 15 minutes later, I found myself cracking up and cheering on the dopey ragtag team of adventurers trapped in the Overworld. 

So if that ain’t proof that the Jack Black and Jason Momoa-led film based on the colossally popular video game franchise has some charm, I don’t know what is.

The set-up blazes by during a prologue. A fella named Steve (Black) is bored with his life in a small town in Idaho. (Yes, their primary industry is potato-related.) He yearns to go “to the mines” and build things, but when he does, he somehow finds himself in a magical realm that ought to look familiar to anyone who plays Minecraft. Soon, he has possession of a magic orb (but it looks like a cube, because everything here is a squared-off, making for a nice recurring gag) and is prisoner of the creativity-hating pig creature Malgosha, voiced by Rachel House. 

Jack Black, Jason Momoa, and Sebastian Hansen in ‘A Minecraft Movie’. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

A series of shenanigans sends the orb back to the real world, where it is found by Garrett “the Garbage Man” Garrison, a down-on-his-luck former video game champ played by Momoa in full Danny McBride mode. With him is an awkward, curly-haired pre-teen with a slight speech impairment, Henry (Sebastian Hansen); his new-to-adulthood guardian/older sister Natalie (Emma Myers); and the fun real estate agent/travelling zookeeper Dawn (Danielle Brooks). Everyone ends up in the land of the lost, where the sheep are square, and if you throw bricks, you can build bridges and even fly if you know what you are doing. The plot is absolutely secondary to the zingy dialogue, action beats, creative look of the film, and the good-natured shouting.    

Much like Barbie, this is a cart-before-the-horse type of movie, driven initially by market forces, not creative impulses. Minecraft, more so than most games, really doesn’t lend itself to a narrative story — its whole purpose is that it is a freeform system of play. But it’s also one of the last major intellectual properties not yet mined (ha!) for a feature film, so there’s a kind of cynical inevitably to this. Knowing there are five credited screenwriters adds to the understandable skepticism, but just as Minecraft players can build the unexpected out of disparate elements, bringing in an unexpected director helped craft this thing the right way.

Jared Hess, co-creator of Napoleon Dynamite and a string of other small oddball pictures, brings a fresh perspective to what could have been a lumbering IP-pallooza movie. He’s never worked in a budget range like this, and, quite frankly, a lot of his other films (did you see Gentleman Broncos or Don Verdean?) are extremely annoying. But by some force of alchemy, his cockeyed look at things—a mix of deadpan delivery, garish colors, and exaggerated interactions—is weirdly perfect for this adaptation. 

Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, Sebastian Hansen, and Jason Momoa in ‘A Minecraft Movie’. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

There’s an “anything goes” attitude here, but within the basic borders of “a group of people zip off to Oz and need to get home” framework. This loosey-goosey attitude, an “open sandbox” if you will, is a breath of fresh air after so many family films that seem preordained by lore. (It may have been a financial success, but the most recent Sonic the Hedgehog picture is particularly lifeless.) 

Minecraft might be the most played video game out there, but good luck trying to determine what it is with a simple search. (As a non-player myself, I can attest to this.) The message of the movie is, I suppose, that it is important to be creative and that the world needs dreamers. That’s nice. But the real fun is watching Momoa do the “tough guy who is actually a big lunkhead” routine — and while this isn’t anything too new (see several notches in the resumes of Dave Bautista or Dwayne Johnson or even the mighty Arnold Schwarzenegger himself) Momoa’s comic timing is particularly sterling in A Minecraft Movie. He’s doing extremely good work here, seriously. Broad comedy is not easy.

The rest of the cast is also quite good. Young Sebastian Hansen nails the Wes Anderson-esque “hip to be square” vibe, Danielle Brooks is a fountain of sass and while it took me a good long while to clock it, Emma Myers has a daffy energy that reminded me of Beth Howland from TV’s Alice, which is a compliment (Yes, that’s an extremely Gen X reference, but I just watched a Minecraft movie, please cut me some slack.)

‘A Minecraft Movie’. Warner Bros. Pictures

The weak link, oddly, is Jack Black, whose high fructose delivery can get a little irritating after a while. His opening voiceover has some of the audible panic of someone asked to watch after someone else’s kids, laying on the excitement really thick in the hopes they don’t notice Mommy and Daddy have stepped away for a few minutes. Director Hess gives Black carte blanche to stomp around the frame, and unless you are a card-carrying member of his fan club, you might wish for a little more restraint. 

But the look of the picture is a lot of fun. None of the villains in this PG-rated picture are anything but cute, and that includes the zombie creatures that attack at night. As far as Minecraft in-jokes, I’m sure there are many. My audience of kids got very excited (some even shouted “Uh-oh!!”) when a walking cactus tree appeared. (Research tells me that this is a Creeper.) Maybe seeing it on a Sunday morning was the best idea after all. Grade: B