GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★1/2
Rated: PG
Directed by: Jared Hess
Screenplay Written by: Chris Bowman & Hubbel Palmer and Neil Widener & Gavin James and Chris Galletta
Story Written by: Allison Schroeder and Chris Bowman & Hubbel Palmer
Based on: the Minecraft video game.
Produced by: Cale Boyter, Mary Parent, Torfi Frans Olafsson, Jason Momoa, Jared Hess
Starring: Jason Momoa, Jack Black, Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, Sebastian Hansen, Jennifer Coolidge.
‘Make the real world your Overworld.’
Opening on a fast-paced backstory of how, my-name-is-Steve (Jack Black) found himself creating a portal to another world (‘I yearned for the mines’), A Minecraft Movie plays on the idea that the world is a giant sandbox – you just need to get creative with it.
But first, Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Momoa), Henry (Hansen), Natalie (Myers) and Dawn (Brooks) must survive their time in a world, ‘that doesn’t make sense.’
That’s full of cubed sheep, zombies, llamas and killer pigs.
Where the overlord of Nether wants to destroy everything creative and where Steve revels in the Overworld because he can make anything he wants alongside his companion, Denis the wolf.
The way Steve says he knew they were to be fast friends when he heard, ‘the howl of companionship’, is hilarious and sets the tone of the movie.
I was also tickled by Henry starting a new school and how the teachers were brutally honest about their current life situations from financial difficulties to recently being divorced after holding on for too long, Vice Principal Marlene (Jennifer Coolidge) stating, ‘but we stuck it out for the dogs.’
Then there’s Garrett – when he’s served an eviction notice, he first believes it’s a fan because of his 80s fame as an arcade player – ‘No autographs.’
To then spend money on a storage unit (with cameo appearance of Jemaine Clement as the storage facility manager, Daryl – gold) that includes unisex turquoise blouses.
And I know I’m going on about all the funny bits, but there’s just so many this is just a taste of how funny the film is.
I didn’t really take to the Nether world so much. Not because it’s dark, but because it just didn’t have the same humour.
My nephew pointed out the giant pigs don’t exist in the game. Not that it really mattered because we had a blast and as creative director Torfi Frans Olafsson states, ‘The very individuality of each player’s experience made it obvious that the film had to be one take on the game. “We couldn’t say this is the Minecraft movie and make it the definitive movie that then acts as some sort of canon for Minecraft lore,” says Olafsson. “Rather it’s one Minecraft movie. A story set in the Minecraft universe, one of billions.”
Overall, A Minecraft Movie is silly and funny, has aggressive chickens, a pink leather jacket with fringe, ‘finished? No I think he’s Swedish’ moments that had me still laughing on the way home.
‘Flint and Steel!’
