A Minecraft Movie (2025) is directed by Jared Hess and written by a team of six people (Yikes). It stars Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Emma Myers, Sebastian Hansen, Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Collidge, Rachel House, Jemaine Clement, and Hiram Garcia. Based on Minecraft, the best-selling video game of all time, the film follows Henry (Hansen) and his older sister, Natalie (Myers), as they relocate to a new town after their mother’s passing. When they meet Garrett (Momoa), a local, washed-up, former video game champion who’s in possession of a mysterious glowing cube, they find themselves transported to a bizarre land of limitless creation known as The Overworld. They soon meet Steve (Black), the Overworld’s only human inhabitant, who has resided there since he was a child. Together, the group embarks on a perilous journey to not only find their way home but also save Overworld from an evil sorceress pig known as Malgosha (House). 

The script doesn’t do its characters any favors. They’re mostly either basic archetypes we’ve seen countless times before, or their characterizations are so silly that they feel akin to cartoons. Black and Momoa are clearly having a bawl and provide the film with some strong improvisational comedy, but their antics fail to achieve anything beyond “stupidly entertaining.” Kids are sure to eat it up, but for adults, the rampant stupidity gets old fast. It’ll help the experience tremendously if you enjoy either or both of these actors. This is easily one of Jack Blacks most Jack Black-y performances, so if you hate the guy, this movie will be a torturous experience. On the other hand, if you like him, his iconic energy will be the film’s saving grace.

Myers is a naturally sincere presence who, along with Hansen, helps to ground the film’s pervasive silliness. Both Henry and Natalie are frustratingly unoriginal, but at the very least, they achieve their most basic functions as characters. Danielle Brooks, as a local animal expert who accompanies the group, took me by surprise and actually feels like a welcome addition despite the fact that she could have easily been cut from the story. At the end of the day, she’s funny and likable – two things that mostly make up for the fact that she’s not essential to the plot. The same thing goes for Jennifer Coolidge as Henry’s ditzy school principal. Her subplot is completely disconnected from the main story, but it’s ultimately forgivable because of how funny it is. Director Jared Hess, the man behind stupidly funny cult classics such as Napoleon Dynamite (2004) and Nacho Libre (2006), seems aware that in a comedy, everything comes secondary to a good laugh. 

The movie will undoubtedly appeal most to fans of the video game, but even then, I expect anyone over the age of 15 to roll their eyes at how consistently dumb it is. Jared Hess feels like the perfect director for this particular brand of humor, but unlike his more successful efforts where only the characters were stupid, A Minecraft Movie’s entire script feels low-IQ. The dialogue is silly, character motivations are inconsistent, and the humor is often so random that it feels like it was written by AI. Like every movie aimed at children nowadays, this film also feels the need to randomly have its characters break into song as if it’s the funniest thing that could ever be conceived. Granted, Jack Black’s musical background helps to make these asides more compelling than usual, but I struggle to understand what exactly about Minecraft inspires this kind of thing. 

Overall, fans of Minecraft, especially adolescents, are sure to have a great time with all the numerous references to the game. The only other demographic I could see the film appealing to is diehard Jack Black fans. If you don’t fall into either category, you’ll most likely find this to be a goofy disaster. It has the lowest IQ of any movie I’ve seen in the past couple of years, which in itself holds a unique charm, but it also scares me that this is one of the highest-grossing films in recent memory. Has the collective IQ of audiences really dropped this low? It’s based on the most popular video game of all time, so maybe its success was inevitable. Either way, I can’t imagine the box office numbers accurately reflect how much people actually enjoyed the film. That being said, there’s something about the stupidity that feels oddly pure and thus easy to watch. It’s not a saving grace, but it does strangely prevent me from categorizing the film as outright “bad.” I actually just feel neutral about the entire experience. C