“A Minecraft Movie” offers a great surprise in Jason Momoa’s Garrett Garrison, the aging gamer for whom time has stood still.
More than a hair-metal Gen X boomer stereotype, Momoa’s “1989 gamer of the year” delights as a soft reboot of Uncle Rico, the pitiful, lovable character from director Jared Hess’s 2004 indie darling “Napoleon Dynamite.” Co-star Sebastian Hansen as Henry is desperate for an adult guardian, so he calls up Garrett to “come to school and pretend to be my uncle.” Garrett’s response is a hilarious acknowledgment of the uncomfortable age gap and a sharp reminder that he’s basically a “Dazed and Confused” character who stumbled into the film adaptation of the most successful video game of all time.
With more than 300 million copies sold, “Minecraft” (2011) is not just a hit game; it’s a cultural phenomenon that’s embedded itself across generations. As a games journalist, I’ve traditionally cringed while reading film critics try to grasp the logic of video game adaptations. This time, I walked into the theater as a novice of the culture, having dedicated only a dozen or so hours to a game that’s a lifelong hobby for most of its fans.
I know enough about its appeal. “Minecraft” is a game with no narrative, just a blocky world with limitless resources for players to discover and create. Lego bricks are about architecture and construction, but “Minecraft” uses the magic of video games by introducing a wide spectrum of function to the bricks. These bricks can conduct electricity; some of them are flammable. It’s how players can create anything from simple houses to a working computer inside “Minecraft.”
“Minecraft” is also often meditative and serene. Any parent in the past decade has seen how the game can be a sedative. It’s why Hess’s choice to direct this film (written by Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer, Neil Widener, Gavin James and Chris Galletta from a story by Allison Schroeder, Bowman and Palmer) as a louder, more explosive reboot of the “Jumanji” formula feels misguided and exhausting. Jack Black leads the cast as Steve, a child with an active imagination who ends up warping to the Minecraft world, existing in this film as a throwaway alternate dimension. Henry and his big sister Natalie (Emma Myers) just moved into a sleepy Idaho town, orphaned through tragedy.
They’re pulled into the Minecraft world with Garrett and Dawn (Danielle Brooks), a real estate agent with 14 side hustles. Everyone except Steve and Garrett is basically a side character, with Dawn barely justifying her existence in the narrative other than as a foil for all the nonsense. The pig creatures of a hellish other realm are bitterly opposed to creativity and want only money, an obvious and limp metaphor against the kind of people who would make a “Minecraft” movie as a cash grab.
The movie offers few surprises, including a pretty grotesque aesthetic that applies texture and realism to the iconic voxel game avatars. It never grows on you, but fuzzy, four-legged creatures like Steve’s dog Dennis are sure to delight children of all ages. Otherwise, it’s an onslaught of Black/Steve yelling terms from the “Minecraft” glossary, screaming “pink house!” and “chicken jockey!” to the excited squeals of the children in my screening.
The fan service can feel overbearing, but then there’s an understated, lovely tribute to Technoblade, a YouTube content creator who focused on the game and died of cancer in 2022. It’s a knowing and earnest love for the source material buried deep under a rote devotion to breathless “family film” pacing, complete with slapstick gags involving butt cheeks, talking animals and haphazard pop culture references.
Like the expected Jack Black rock power ballad, “A Minecraft Movie” feels ritualistic and outdated even as it introduces itself. But then one of Henry’s bullying classmates taunts him, “My dad says math has been debunked!” Maybe this movie is smarter than it seems.
The film also centers on the core “Minecraft” theme of inciting boundless human creativity and underscoring the hard work and sacrifices required to create. The biggest surprise is that “A Minecraft Movie” ends up feeling more necessary in an era of depreciating art appreciation. Like Garrett, this movie may be tacky and loud, but it also makes a great point.
PG. At area theaters. Contains violence, action, language, suggestive and rude humor, and some scary images. 101 minutes.
