A Minecraft Movie (2025) Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE2YZhcC4NY

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

There have been video game adaptations that can be a hit like Sonic the Hedgehog or miss like Assassin’s Creed and then there’s A Minecraft Movie that has had the unpredictable movement of popularity.


PLOT


Based on the sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios, the 2025 film shows a young boy named Steve who desired to be a miner and got to fulfill that dream when stumbling into the Overworld, a world where the terrain is made of manipulated cubes. He would enjoy his time for the most part until encountering the hellish world of the Nether. Ran by the piglin ruler Malgosha, he would have his dog Dennis hide the Orb of Dominance form her in the real world, as it is an artifact so powerful that it could destroy Overworld if in her hands. Years later, former video game champion Garrett ‘The Garbage Man’ Garrison acquires items that once belonged to Steve’s childhood home and he ends up acquiring both the Orb and an Earth crystal that can teleport him to Overworld. He buys Steve’s belongings hoping to save his video game store from closing and is disappointed to not find a valuable Atari Cosmos. The sibling pair of Natalie & Henry move into the city of Chuglass after the recent loss of their mother. The eldest sister scores a job as an advertising director, but it’s almost put at risk when her young brother crafts a jetpack that gets sabotaged and destroys the mascot of the potato chip company she works for. He avoids explosions however when he convinces Garrett to pose as his uncle in front of Vice Principal Marlene. When the boy hangs out with Garrison, he sees the orb and crystal, unintentionally opening the portal that takes them to Overworld. With the help of real estate agent & petting zoo owner Dawn, Natalie tracks them down and they get sucked into the same portal. The four encounter a series of zombies, creepers, skeletons and spider jockeys until being saved by a now adult Steve. He had been freed by Malgosha who promises to reunite him with Dennis if he gets her the orb, making him believe he has his dog hostage when in actuality the dog is free and is following the others. With the crystal destroyed in the commotion, Steve teaches them to craft in order to seek a replacement at Woodland Mansion. He teaches them at Midport Village where they meet peaceful villagers that keep to themselves and iron golems that are local security force. Malgosha soon launches a piglin attack on the village since Garrison still has the orb, but the boys separate from the girls who end up meeting Dennis. Steve tells Garrison and Henry the best way to get to the mansion would be through Redstone Mines where he has a stash of treasure. He takes them there in exchange for the Orb that the former still has. This does upset Henry since they left the girls behind, but no one is able to take enough treasure when being chased away by a Great Hog and some creepers. Since they still got past the mines, they’re closer to the mansion and both Steve & Garrison distract evil endermen, vindicators & evolves for Henry to get the crystal and and an ender pearl that can facilitate one’s transportation. Malgosha would catch up to attack the mansion, resulting in the group to lose the orb which she retrieves. Steve & Henry are able to get away while Garrett tends to sacrifice himself in time for them to do so. When reuniting with Dennis and the girls, they gear up and form an army of iron golems to fight off all the piglins. Steve would face off against Maglosha long enough for Henry to get the orb back and prevent her invasion from having any further effect. Just when he almost falls, Garrett returns to save him from falling. With the sunlight restored, Maglosha and her army zombify in defeat. After saving the Overworld, Steve and Dennis return to Earth with the others. He would help Garrett develop a new video game and revitalize his store; The dog would be an attraction for Dawn’s new zoo. Natalie would open a dojo, while Henry completes his jetpack. The film ends in a post credit scene where Marlene falls for a villager named Nitwit (Matt Berry) who went through the portal around the same time the protagonists entered Overworld for the first time.


THOUGHTS


It was hard to review this sooner because the hype around it came from the wrong reasons. At the time of its opening weekend, younger audiences would hijack screenings to the point of throwing popcorn on purpose and one point someone snuck in an actual chicken. I had an actual chuckle over the chicken jockey facing Garrett, but I would not go this crazy the way others did. It was clearly a decision meant for clout and that is such disrespect to theater etiquette that I chose to avoid the theater on this one for this very reason. Putting aside this high jinks that led to the movie scoring $961.2 million at the box office worldwide, I genuinely had a fun time suiting through this. I never played the game in advance so a lot of this was new for me, but since I had a cousin who had played it and explained many aspects of it to me when the game first came out, I was able to enjoy it better. I did think the overall VFX on every creature were just great because I was just smiling with how well detailed they made the likes of creepers and villagers. That helps make the various action sequences look just as fun as you’re hoping from past blockbusters, especially in the climax. Even Dennis and the pandas were so cute. And it’s not everyday to see cube shaped bees and lambs. I think what didn’t work out for me was the background shots of Overworld because it made the live action characters feel misplaced and not in a good way. With all the Easter eggs that are scattered, it was cool to see how a crafting table is displayed, as well as how fast the day to night cycle flows every 20 minutes. The icing on the cake however goes to having a pig wearing a crown as a nod to popular YouTuber named Alexander aka Technoblade who passed away from cancer, which made him unable to cameo alongside other YouTubers (DanTPM, Mumbo Jumbo, Aphmau & LDShadowLady) that appeared as auction attendees. It’s even a bonus to spot the game’s designer Jens Bergenstein appear as a waiter for Marlene & Nitwit. Some people would say there is Jack Black overexposure since this would be the third straight video game adaptation IP within the same decade he stars in. I never really saw it that way because it’s clear this role was written for him. Black is great as Steve because he is that inner child you can relate to for wanting to enjoy life 24/7 by expressing unlimited imagination. Things did work out for him staying in the Overworld as long as he did and also being able to save it with the help he can get. I mean you know you’re in paradise if you’re singing about lava chicken. I don’t blame him for wanting to keep staying because he knows the burden of adult responsibilities can lead to boredom and nostalgia of youth that he doesn’t want to let go. His decision to come around in returning home does teach the point that it’s never too late to grow up because your imagination will remain the greatest tool for real world challenges. His song ‘I Feel Alive’ does a great job expressing all the empowerment he’s learned over the years and he’ll do his best placing that perspective in the real world until the sequel brings him back to his second home. Most obviously, he doesn’t get inspired to come home without making new friends. Jason Momoa really was his equal as Garrison because he’s very clumsy compared to everyone else and has to learn how to be brave the way he pretends to be. I mean you know he had a big ladder to climb when eating lava chicken unphased before facing a chicken jockey. Once he actually got criticism of his greed, it was enough for him to genuinely have Henry’s back the way Steve would for him. Speaking of which, Henry truly was Steve’s younger counterpart due to how Sebastian Hansen shows off he’s a fast learner and just wants to place his intelligence in a place where he’ll belong. He definitely saw how fun the Overworld is overall, but even he knew running from your problems doesn’t solve all of them. If he didn’t leave, Steve wouldn’t either. Looking back, I did feel like the majority of female characters were underdeveloped since there is not much going on with Jennifer Coolidge being so prone to wild that she finds herself attracted to Nitwit and it doesn’t seem like you wouldn’t miss much Danielle Brooks wasn’t pleasant as the eccentric yet caring Dawn. The only one who truly seems to have most to do is Natalie because Emma Meyers has to portray her as the big sister who has to be most pragmatic in order to protect Henry as much as she can. She’s got the right to be the voice of reason since he was reckless with the jetpack prototype, but even she came around to know her brother needed the space to be himself otherwise he wouldn’t grow up happy. Because of this, she is able to find a different calling by the end of it. Last but not least, I do think Rachel House does a great job voicing the tyrannical Maglosha. With a flashback revealing she was rejected for her creativity, her anger was the wrong approach of motivation to disband imagination as a whole, becoming a true polar opposite to Steve who would rather keep trying to express his mind the way he pleases without harming anybody. Had she understood that, she wouldn't have needed to be such a threat. Having said all the pros I can find, I did come across many cons where I understand why some would have genuine dislike. Like for starters, I can go on pointing out that the orb and crystal should’ve been found much sooner if the mine has been around for years, but who left them there anyway? If there was someone before Steve that left the artifacts on Earth, there’s gotta be a better implication. I mean you could’ve said the old miner that never approved of Steve’s mining aspirations was the one who left them there and it would've made a lot of sense. It’s already problematic no one ever questions Dennis’ presence on earth to the point where it feels like no one even notices him, but how did the cubed dog know where to leave the artifacts in Steve’s home? If he knows where, then we should’ve gotten a scene where Steve has actually brought him home multiple times in the prologue. While I can scratch my head on how Marlene didn’t already have Natalie’s number to call her about Henry’s jetpack incident and not have a meeting about it when Garrett shows up, I don’t understand why their mom would want them to go to Chuglass as a dying wish. I get that it means it was her childhood home, but it just sounds off since we don’t know where their dad is. I don’t even believe Natalie when she says she called the school a few times because either one of those calls could’ve said he was picked up by his ‘uncle’ and she would’ve put the pieces together before tracking his phone. Then again, how did Dawn know it was Henry that destroyed Chuggy the Chip? She doesn’t whip out a social media post or say that's how she found out let alone say who told her. And if I’m gonna respect continuity, Henry says Steve took out 20 zombies when he actually took out only the five on the rooftop. Numbers are definitely a factor when there are misplaced frames on when the piglins are chasing the guys away when it looks like they randomly appear post ambush. Then no one bothers explaining how Dennis get a new collar when he lost his original after escaping Malgosha. What is worse than that is placing TNT next to open flames in your stash room. And where are the spies per se Malgosha is talking about? Most of the piglins don’t last long in the sunlight, so we should’ve seen a vindicator in the background to imply where the spies were. It’s then totally on Natalie to not see Henry coming when she’s telling Steve how reckless he was on the first day in school. It’s even dumb she and Dawn don’t try swimming to get to the map villager. It was the only plan they had and they basically gave up before meeting Dennis. And I know Dawn had a petting zoo going on before entering Overworld, but relying on a bone to calm down Dennis was too easy of a decision. Just because this is a kids movie does not guarantee it would’ve worked on an actual wolf. Also, i do not believe Steve saying he doesn’t have enough time to make a proper model of Woodland Mansion. If Henry can make a tower in a minute, Steve can make a better model with the same amount of time. That was actually dumber than him not noticing Henry got the new crystal when he was holding it in his hands in front of him. Lastly, I think Henry should’ve thrown in some extra blocks of steps if he wanted to get closer to reach the orb because I don’t think there was enough of an implication that he ran out. If you can ignore these problems, then you are far more tolerable than I am. To wrap up, director Jared Hess succeeds in making A Minecraft Movie an example of chaotic entertainment worthwhile as long as you know what you’re in for. Whether or not you’re a fan of the original game, it would not be the worst thing to check this out.