When people think of Minecraft, they think of squares — this, however, was anything but.
Combining the realities of the cube-shaped Overworld and the real world, this nearly scintillating movie almost excited my very being.
Jack Black, who was not a cube, starred as Steve, the iconic Minecraft guy! Also in “A Minecraft Movie” were Sebastian Hansen as Henry, Emma Myers as Natalie, Henry’s older sister, Danielle Brooks as Dawn, a real estate agent who wants to open a petting zoo and Jason Momoa as Garrett, also known as “the Garbage Man.”
This surprisingly good $150 million-dollar movie was directed by Jared Hess, who was also the director of “Nacho Libre.”
During the beginning, the introduction will give audiences a quick laugh. Black’s character wears a blue shirt and blue jeans, just like in the video game. When Henry, Garbage Man, Dawn and Natalie enter a place called the Overworld from a magical portal in the minefield, there will be a colorful backdrop behind the four characters, signifying that they have entered an imaginary world and must stop an evil piglin queen of the Nether.
The lighting around Black’s character in the village scene seems to make him look like he has more gray hair than his natural hair color when he has brown hair due to intense brightness, and the atmosphere is very colorful, bringing to mind the video game. Production designer Grant Major perfectly designed the background to make sure it was nearly identical to the actual video game by keeping everything cubed.
The background characters in this movie are the zombies, skeletons, creepers, villagers and the Nether pigs. This film combines live-action with animation, making villagers and animals look like what cartoon characters would be if they were in real life.
The movie had a 1980s aesthetic with some ‘80s songs, such as 1989 classic Skid Row’s “I Remember You,” and “Private Idaho” by the B-52s, which matched the movie’s setting in Idaho.
Black’s singing was a big failure as the songs “Steve’s Lava Chicken” and “Ode to Dennis” sounded corny but were met with laughs along with a bit of cringing. The movie would have been better without the songs, or composer Mark Mothersbaugh should have written better songs for the scene.
Some people might think Momoa would play either the anti-villain or anti-hero due to his roles as Dante Reyes in Fast X and Keegan in Bullet to the Head, but he was actually a hero, helping Black’s character.
Momoa’s character relates to some people as people sometimes struggle to make friends along with dealing with deep financial issues that lead to eviction, but things work out in the end.
The antagonist is the piglin queen of the Nether called Malgosha, played by Rachel House. Malgosha has a general named General Chungus but the acting for that character was not great. The character is aggressive and scary but talks like a stereotypical surfer. Malgosha’s accent in the movie was quite confusing as it sounded like a cockney, but further in the film, it started to sound like an accent from New Zealand.
Malgosha is against creativity and art due to her being bullied by her father when she was a child. When Steve leaves the Overworld for the real world, it shows how brave a character is to create their dreams, combatting the constrictions and responsibilities the characters have in the real world.
While there are minor themes that involve friendship, the overall theme in the movie is creativity. The film shows a world in which people can create what they envision from their dreams.
