This is not something new, but I am not a fan of video games. Not because I don’t like them, but I just don’t have the time to play them at all. That being said, some recent video game adaptations, The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, The Last Of Us, Fallout and The Mario Brothers animated movie, have given me hope that this genre can be one that filmmakers and production companies can mine for gold. No pun intended,  but the latest video game to get the big or small screen treatment is “A Minecraft Movie”. One played mostly on handheld devices like phones or tablets, and maybe it should have stayed there.

The premise of A Minecraft Movie is this. Steve (Jack Black) is a man who ends up in another detention where he can create things using an orb shaped like a cube. He was at home creating things and making this realm his own. Until he was kidnapped by an evil swine witch, he lost the orb shaped like a cube. It lands in the hands of a washed-up video game player who gained some fame in the 80s Garrett  “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Jason Momoa). When a  young man Henry (Sébastien Eugene) comes into his store, he finds the orb shaped like a cube, and together, they follow it to the source that it leads them to, which is a portal into the other dimension. Where they get wrapped up in an adventure with Steve and a couple of others.

This game was a kids’ game, and so the movie was geared for kids because of that fact.  There is quite a bit of amateurish comedy where Black and Momoa, it seemed, were trying to one up each other to see which of them could be the most annoying or obnoxious. I honestly can describe which was worse in the film. They were both bad. If it wasn’t Black’s bad singing,  Chicken Lava was one of the songs, or Momoa’s dumb over the top machismo, thinking he could do or say anything, and it’ll happen. I’m sure the studio heads who greenlit this movie wanted the duo who have been good in The Mario Brothers Movie or Slumberland, but they got two very bad versions of these funny guys instead.

I actually laughed a few times at the obsurd ridiculous behavior that was going on here. One character played by Jennifer Coolidge had me in Stitches when she first came on scene as an assistant principal at the school the boy goes to. She’s involved in a subplot that has nothing to do with the overall plot of the movie. I have no idea why this was included in the film. It made no sense at all except to add Coolidge to the cast, I guess.  That seemed like a bad idea, though, as well.

My friend who was sitting next to me was shaking his head, had head in his hands, and had the back of his head against his seat at some of the more crazy moments that went on in the movie. His reactions to all the zany over the top elements made me laugh. I was reacting to all of his reactions to the film. That was part of what made me like the movie more than I should have, but I still didn’t like it that much anyway. This movie was trying too hard to be funny, and when you’re laughing at the film, instead of laughing with the movie, you’ve got a problem. That’s not a good thing.

The rest of the cast besides the ones I’ve mentioned are good additions to a bad film. Danielle Brooks is coming off of an Oscar nomination for her role in the remake of The Color Purple. I’m surprised by this character. She was trying to have fun in this role, but like Lil Rel Howery in Get Out, she seemed to play the conscience of the film. She was the only one who was like, “What is going on in this crazy world I’m in. Which is the right attitude to have. Emma Myers played the main kids’ sister and caregiver, and it seemed like she was forgotten in all the craziness at times. She was like the straight character to all the slapstick comedy going on with the rest of the cast. Throw in a few New Zealand/ British comedic actors chopping it up, and you have an ensemble doing what they do best in a bad film.

There is quite a bit of CGI in this production. The visual effects are added in while the characters are on a soundstage.The CGI and live action sequences don’t always match up on screen. With a production of this size from Warner Brothers and Legendary, you’d think they could get the green screen and CGI to match up. Maybe it would have been better if this were an animated movie instead of a live action one. There was a Jumanji vibe to the film with a lack of enjoyment on my part. I laughed extensively at the Jumanji movies starring Kevin Hart, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Awkwafina, and yes, Jack Black. This seemed like a less than version of those films in all respects.

A Minecraft Movie is one that is made for a specific subsection of America and the world. That is children under the age of ten, I would say. They can enjoy the slapstick humor while also knowing the ins and outs of the game play aspects of the movie. I feel if you didn’t grow up playing this game or are familiar with it, you’re not going to understand the film. I didn’t. I was lost most of the time while watching it even though I laughed at a few things here or there. For the most part, I didn’t enjoy this film except for watching my buddy agonize over how bad it was and the occasional funny moment. Such as Coolidge. This is another subpar film based on a video game, unfortunately. 

1 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen