A Minecraft Movie – REVIEW & COCKTAIL – The Martini Shot

We have talked a lot on this channel about video game movies, a little sub genre of film that hasn’t exactly been received the fondest. For some reason, Hollywood just hasn’t fully cracked the code on transferring pixels to the big screen. Just look at Pixels. To be fair, it’s not an easy task. Sure, you have games with pretty set in stone narratives like Uncharted, Assassin’s Creed and Borderlands, but even those struggled to really strike gold even though they seemed like layups. So what do you do with a game that’s a bit more on the abstract side? Back in the 90s we took a game about saving a princess from a turtle in a castle and turned it into a post-apocalyptic punk nightmare. It’s quite a challenge, but it does give a filmmaker room to get creative and unique with the source material. Or they can just jingle the ol’ keys.

That’s kind of what A Minecraft Movie seems like at first glance; a showcase of recognizable creatures, environments and elements from the world’s most beloved sandbox game for the sole purpose of nostalgia and feeling good about recognizing things. But what if I told you this movie actually isn’t all of that. What if I told you that this movie is often more than that and actually has a zany, off kilter creative voice behind it and some fun, goofy performances that end up being a lot better than I thought it could be. Well, I’d only be half-right.

Look, I was all ready to dunk on this movie since the first, second and every trailer dropped, and I am shocked that I like this more than I expected. While it’s not exactly a good film, A Minecraft Movie is at its best when it lets director Jared Hess deliver on the quirky weirdness he’s known for. This often comes through in the film’s occasionally bizarrely entertaining script and the lughead performance of one Jason Mamoa. But the problem with this movie is that those two things are not nearly enough of the focus. It soon delves into a series of winking and nodding, which isn’t always a bad thing, but it can be when the film decides to commit to a very bland plot and a half-assed theme about creativity. Then it just becomes a series of moments playing out on often rough-looking backgrounds with an overstuffed amount of characters that don’t have a ton of reasons to be there. I’m not exactly endorsing this movie, but at times it does show the building blocks of what these video game movies could be.

At some point in the past, an overtly creative man named Steve finds a glowing cube that transports him to the Overworld, a blocky world that thrives off of your creativity. But underneath the colorful and calm world is the Nether, a hellish landscape filled with creativity-hating monsters. Steve sends the cube back to the real world to protect the Overworld, but when four unlikely allies find it and transport themselves, they must team up with Steve if they want any hope of returning home.

Yeah, it’s a pretty basic and dumb plot, and the film is fairly aware of this. A lot of the humor derives from the film’s absurd world, to varying degrees of success. To the film’s credit, it doesn’t go too heavy on the irony to the point where it feels like that’s the only source of comedy to be had. I actually was shocked to find how much I laughed at some of the film’s earlier dialogue. It’s not going to be for everyone, but it occasionally hits that absurd, sometimes kind of adult line that really does it for me. No joke, there’s a moment where Jason Mamoa and Jack Black sixty-nine, and then Mamoa later asks why his beard smells like cheese. I am not even kidding you. There’s even some hilarity in how scenes are staged and presented, which the film loses once the backdrops become more computer generated. A lot of the film’s comedy is reliant on fan knowledge and poking fun at things from the game, which didn’t hit with me nearly as well. If I’m being honest, the film was at its best before it ever enters the Minecraft world.

And bringing a lot of that enjoyment is Jason Mamoa as Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison. A former gaming champion and soon to be former owner of a game store, Garrison is by the far the funniest character out of the bunch. He’s your typical oblivious and overconfident meathead, but Mamoa plays it so well, especially when he leans into the character’s more pathetic side. While he doesn’t exactly have a lot of depth to him, he still probably has the most character growth out of anyone in this film, and if I had my way, he wouldn’t have had to share the spotlight with so many other characters.

I guess because this is a film for kids, they didn’t want a forty-year-old washed up hasbeen to be the sole protagonist, so they inject some younger faces into the mix. Sebastian Henson plays Henry, a creative, inventive boy, while his responsible sister Natalie is played by Emma Myers. Additionally, Danielle Brooks plays a real estate agent slash petting zoo owner named Dawn because…why not. All of them do a fine enough job, but their characters range in importance. Henry probably has the most reason to be here, being a kid who’s been told that he dreams too big and finally finds a world that accepts his ideas. Natalie and Dawn don’t really feel all that necessary and are kind of just there because the film needed a very specific person to use later in the film. With five main characters, the film just can’t figure out how to make all of their inclusions meaningful. I feel it may have been better to combine some of these characters into one, not only to lessen the screen time juggling, but to make them a little less one note.

Then there’s Jack Black as Steve. If you’ve seen any of the trailers, you pretty much know exactly the kind of character he’s going to be: he’s the guy that has to name everything you see in the movie. With Jack Black, especially in the current era of his career, you pretty much know what to expect from him. High energy, heavy metal and a lot of dude bro talk. It’s what we’ve come to expect, but man, Steve really is nothing but a walking Wikipedia article. He’s at the focal point of the story, and yet his character is so flat and has nothing to it. He shares a lot with Henry, being creatures the world had rejected, and you could have done something cool with them being reflections of one another that leads the two to learning more about themselves. But nah, Jack is just gonna be Jack and he’ll make sure you’re never left wondering what a thing is called. Also, he gets a few songs here, and nearly all of them are pretty bad. Some of them on purpose, but they just kinda feel like they were made up on the spot and were just an excuse to have Jack sing.

But let’s talk about all the wonderful things you’ll see in the Overworld. To the film’s credit, everything is recreated faithfully from the game, from the environments to the monsters to the admittedly hard to look at villagers. For $150 million dollars, I actually think a lot of the designs look pretty good. Sure, they’re uncanny and weird to see in such high definition, but the bizarre vibe of the film actually compliments them. But, as to be expected, it was going to be a very hard task to make the environments these characters stand in look plausible, and the final product is a bit mixed. Occasionally there’s no problem, but other times it does look like the actors are just in front of a green screen. Which, no duh, how could this movie be anything but that. Though I think the film could have benefitted from more physical elements for the characters to interact with. This could have given these settings more believability and make them feel more concrete. Again, it’s fine for what it is and kids will still probably like it, I just think the film could have benefited from a bit more creativity in how it chose to present the world, or they could have at least committed to making the film as a whole weirder so I wouldn’t notice. Or you know, just make it an animated movie. Kinda seemed like a no brainer there.

And for a film that’s about a game that puts an emphasis on creativity above everything else, I wish the movie would have done something more with that idea. The idea of being expressive is such a precious thing for kids to learn, and yeah, this movie literally told you to turn your brain off, but I still think there was something to be done. The film just used Minecraft as a backdrop when it could have been utilized in a way that felt a bit more meaningful. It is possible to be a weird shitpost of a movie and have something meaningful to say, but it feels like the film didn’t even really try. Like I said, Steve has no real character, Henry doesn’t really gain anything from this adventure, and even the villains are against the idea of creativity purely because they need to be. It just felt really lazy, which is why it’s a shame that the best parts of this movie take place outside of the Minecraft world. Except for Jennifer Coolidge trying to pork a villager. That’s just…I don’t wanna think about it. 

I wouldn’t really call this video an endorsement for the movie, but there was definitely something there that I haven’t really seen in other video game movies. While occasionally suppressed, you can often tell that you’re watching a movie by the guy behind Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre. When his style manages to shine through in the performances and the writing is when the film is at its best. But in a cruelly ironic turn of events, the film starts to suffer when its sole focus is being a Minecraft movie. Like I said, the building blocks are there for something like this to work, and often it did for me, but the film often gets its priorities jumbled when it simply wants to jingle keys in front of you rather than create anything worthwhile. The film will probably live on through ironic memes and whatnot, but isn’t it a shame it couldn’t just be remembered as a good movie. Oh well, TikToks of Steve saying “chicken jockey” are probably gonna pull this thing to a billion dollars, so what do I know? An attempt was made with an IP that gave them nothing story wise, and for what it’s worth, it could have been a lot worse. Like, way worse. 

RATING

THE CREEPER

The Creeper is perhaps the most iconic thing to come out of the world’s most popular sandbox game. These tall, green, explosive creatures seemed like the perfect inspiration for a Minecraft cocktail, something I’ve been wanting to make for a hot minute. This drink mixes both fruity and spicy notes to create a well balanced cocktail brimming with flavor. It’s sweet, but not on the sugary side; it’s spicy, but only as spicy as you want to make it (though I do recommend the spicier the ginger beer the better). The combination of ginger and pineapple makes for a bright, effervescent drink that even has a little bit of a hiss to it. But don’t worry, the only explosion you’ll have to worry about here is the burst of flavor in your mouth!

INGREDIENTS

• 2oz spiced rum
• 1oz green apple liqueur
• 1/2oz vanilla syrup
• 1.5oz pineapple juice
• 3/4oz lime juice
• 1/2oz blue curacao
• Top: ginger beer

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Add ingredients to a shaker and shake with ice.
2. Strain into tall glass filled with ice.
3. Top with ginger beer.