Movie Review: A Minecraft Movie (2025)

A Minecraft Movie (2025) directed by Jared Hess

Steve (Jack Black) is a hapless drone selling doorknobs who has always dreamed of working as a miner. Rejected from the local mine as a child, he returns one day after realizing he does not like his job. He sneaks around the old miner, goes inside, and discovers two artifacts. When he combines them, he opens a portal into the Overworld. Everything is cube-like and also magical (it's the world of Minecraft as we know it, except rendered in detailed CGI rather than 8-bit graphics). He is able to build things and befriends a wolf that becomes his pet dog Dennis. The Overworld is threatened by Malgosha (voiced by Rachel House) from the Nether (a sort of underworld). Steve and Dennis are kidnapped by her so she can get the portal items. Steve sends them off with Dennis back to the real world to hide it in his home. This all happens before the opening titles.

The story then shifts to Henry (Sebastian Hansen) and Natalie (Emma Myers), a brother and sister moving to Steve's hometown in Idaho after their mother died (no mention or sign of their father). Natalie takes a job at the local potato chip factory as a social media developer while Henry goes to school, where he is bullied for his creativity and genius. He runs into Garrett (Jason Momoa), a has-been video game ace who runs a run-down video game store in town. Garrett tries to buy the storage unit that has Steve's stuff and winds up with the teleporting items. Henry spots the items in the store and intuits that they go together. Once combined, they are drawn to the mine with the portal. Natalie is worried since Henry hasn't come home from school and calls up the real estate lady ((Danielle Brooks). They team up and find Henry and Garrett at the mine. They all get sucked into the Overworld, where Henry's creativity thrives while safety is threatened once again by the return of the teleporting materials.

After all that set-up, the movie goes in full Minecraft mode, having some crafting and some village visits and battles with monsters and a quest or two. Many creatures from the game are lovingly recreated, as are scenic areas, locations, and other actions. 

The plot is a very standard quest/adventure with predictable story-arcs for the characters. I was never surprised by any twists and saw things coming far ahead of time. Black and Momoa's performances are both very over-the-top, too much so even for this movie. Black's accent drifts around too, probably for comic effect but it was not very funny. I think I only laughed four or five times, so the film didn't pass the six-laugh test from Mark Kermode. I've played a bit of Minecraft, but only a bit, so I was familiar with most of the elements. My kids say it was mostly accurate but we agreed Creepers did not blow up like they do in the game. And the filmmakers add an annoying subplot where a Minecraft villager escapes from the Overworld into the real world and winds up dating the vice principal (Jennifer Coolidge) from Henry's school. It was cringe-inducing and was probably meant as comedy for adults, but I was cringing as much as my kids were.

Overall, I did not enjoy this movie. It had some funny moments but they were few and far between. A lot of plot holes and uneven pacing felt very unsatisfying. I think this is really for die-hard fans of the game, of which there are plenty.

Not recommended by me. But my kids gave it 7 and 8 out of 10. If you have Minecraft-playing children who have watched some of the YouTube videos and know those players, they will probably like it. So be a dutiful parent and take them to the movie.