The latest IP to be mined into a Hollywood blockbuster is appropriately a video game that celebrates digging: âA Minecraft Movie.â
Like and before it, âA Minecraft Movieâ centers on four misfits who enter a mysterious portal that pulls them into a strange land, this time cubic, like Lego only on shrooms.
The Jared Hess-directed action-adventure artfully straddles the line between delighting preteen gamers and keeping their parents awake. It's an often-bananas adaptation, with bizarre digressions into turquoise blouses and tater tot pizzas. It has being very Jennifer Coolidge. Need we say more?
If youâve never heard of âMinecraftâ â or its denizens like Creepers, Piglins, Villagers and Endermen â you are in big trouble. Consult with the closest 10-year-old immediately. (I have one and he noticed a sweet nod to the late YouTuber Technoblade, an Easter egg of sorts.)
The movie is faithful to the world of the game, while adding some things â orbs and crystals â to aid the plot. But if you come in cold and spot pandas and folks punching through earth, you'll likely side with one human character who says: âThis place makes no sense.â
Our travelers â a sweet brother and sister (Emma Myers and Sebastian Eugene Hansen), their nutty real estate agent and a deeply dumb, washed-up pro video game player â are guided by playing an expert crafter named Steve stranded in the world.
If it does anything, âA Minecraft Movieâ marks the comedic coming of age of Momoa, who has shown glimpses of his chops in the and movies. But when heâs not on screen in this one, it leaves the movie slack, which is saying a lot when you have Black being his full-force, over-the-top Black.
âThereâs no âiâ in âteamâ but there are two âiâs in âwinning,ââ Momoa says as Garrett âThe Garbage Manâ Garrison, who is fond of fingerless gloves and a leather jacket with a fringe. In another scene, he notes: âPaper doesnât grow on trees.â
The screenplay written by Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer, Neil Widener, Gavin James and Chris Galletta is as loosey-goosey as you'd expect from five different voices, with a traditional Marvel-style battle at the end fueled by plenty of âLet's do this!â declarations but with a surprisingly goofball first half.
Like countless films before it, âA Minecraft Movieâ is all about the quest to go home, which in this case means navigating zombies, skeletons shooting fire-tipped arrows and a place called The Nether, a perpetually dark hell where horrible creatures mine for gold. For some reason, the ruler there, a piglike witch, has glowing eyes and a British accent.
The writers make some âAmericaâs Got Talentâ jokes, Black has a few songs â including a bizarre âSteveâs Lava Chickenâ â and we spend an inordinate of time focused on Momoaâs butt, but it all ends in a dance party. The movie has a âDark Crystalâ-meets-âTransformersâ vibe, a too-subtle message about financial failure and something about friendship.
The filmmakers do have characters throw eggs â is that smart? â but they don't lean enough into the celebration of creativity this movie seemed to promise when it started.
Hollywoodâs embrace of gaming has been yielding hits such as HBOâs and Amazon Prime Videoâs series adaptation of the Microsoft-owned âFallout.â More adaptations are on the horizon this year: âUntil Dawn,â âMortal Kombat 2â and âFive Nights at Freddyâs 2.â
As for âA Minecraft Movie,â the advice is this: Come for the Piglins, stay for Momoa, whom you will see spectacularly failing at being bilingual and jujutsu-ing opponents dressed like a member of Skid Row. It's everything you ever needed.
âA Minecraft Movie,â a Warner Bros. Pictures release that's in theaters Friday, is rated PG for âviolence/action, language, suggestive/rude humor and some scary images.â Running time: 101 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.