Did A Minecraft Movie Craft a Hit with Critics?
A Minecraft Movie has entered the chat— or at least a movie theater near you. A film adaptation based on the most popular video game in the world, the film directed by Napoleon Dynamite’s Jared Hess follows… a lot of people. It’s a little confusing at first: Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Jason Momoa) is a has-been video game player trying to save his store from eviction and eventually meets Henry (Sebastian Hansen), an orphaned kid who loves inventing, and his sister Natalie (Emma Myers). Those three, alongside real estate agent/petting zoo dreamer Dawn (Danielle Brooks) get sucked into the world of Minecraft, where they meet Steve (Jack Black). Oh, and Jennifer Coolidge is there, too. It’s a lot to take in, and critics have split themselves into two camps: the spectators (people on board for the silly ride) and the survivalists (those stuck in the real world). See which critics are game.
Critics on Spectator mode
“The particular charm of A Minecraft Movie lies in the way that it combines Black’s deranged vitality with those of his co-stars, particularly Jason Momoa as a has-been gamer and ’80s refugee still living off his past arcade triumphs… It feels like a small miracle that the resulting film is so funny, lively, and light on its feet.” — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture
“A Minecraft Movie is just a flaky, spirited, low-hijinks quest comedy that plops a crew of actors down into the Overworld, the epicenter of the Minecraft universe, where they’ve arrived by coming through a portal that looks like it’s made of pulsating blue slime. It’s very 1980s, that portal, and the whole movie has a retro cheeseball flavor, even though Minecraft wasn’t created until 2011.” — Owen Gleiberman, Variety
“The silliness of A Minecraft Movie will appeal to kids who love the game, to adults who think fondly of this comedy era, and perhaps to few else. But the movie could have gone a more polished and predictable route, like another of Black’s game-related movies, Jumanji. In a world of such factory-line adaptations, there’s more of an identity here, even if it’s a mindless one.” — Brandon Yu, The New York Times
“For a big-studio adaptation of a massively popular video-game, A Minecraft Movie lets a surprising amount of its director’s personality shine through. Napoleon Dynamite’s Jared Hess manages to fit some laugh-out-loud silliness into his Overworld saga before surrendering to the obligations of CG-driven fantasy adventure. Thematically, A Minecraft Movie offers a pat world-is-what-you-make-it lesson, but Jack Black and Jason Momoa in particular sell it with a lot of comic enthusiasm.” — Jesse Hassenger, IGN
Critics on Survival mode
“A Minecraft Movie implies that this cynical intellectual property-rinsing exercise is one of numerous film adaptations of the enduringly popular sandbox video game. Perhaps there’s an alternative out there, a sharper, smarter, funnier version of a Minecraft movie. One with actual jokes. Or, God forbid, there may even be a worse iteration, although that’s hard to imagine. What becomes clear is that one of the key elements in the game’s popularity – the latitude it affords gamers to create their own experience – is a big stumbling block for any film adaptation of Minecraft.” — Wendy Ide, The Guardian
“The most disappointing aspect of A Minecraft Movie, directed by Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre), isn’t that it’s born out of an existing IP. We live in a world of low-effort reboots, unnecessary remakes and movies operating as extensions of corporate brands. Another one of these gluttonous projects is hardly surprising. What makes A Minecraft Movie so dispiriting is how it fails to spark the imagination, betraying a core tenet of the game on which it’s based.” — Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter
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