The Minecraft Movie, at its core, was nothing to ride home about. No real plot or lesson to be taken away. Did it need to have these things? Obviously not. It had a more profitable opening weekend than The Mario Movie and more free advertising from fans than it knew what to do with.
I sadly did not attend a rowdy showing with teenagers chucking popcorn buckets. My 3:45 matinee was calm, with only two or three families in attendance. I loved the movie. I laughed at all the recognizable lines from the trailers. When Jack Black’s Steve finally said “Minecraft” I shot my hands up in joy so fast I caught my glasses, threw them off my face, and had to pick them up from the aisle.
I took a few notes during the movie to help me with my review in the April edition of the Swinging Bridge Magazine. I wrote down how I wished they had committed harder to game accuracy and that I loved Jennifer Coolidge’s romance subplot. One note said “the movie hinted at exploring our relationships with video games.” Driving home I kept on thinking about it; what if the story had focused on why we play video games? The more I thought about it, the more pieces fell into place. I fully believe that’s what the movie was supposed to be about, and throughout the development process that direction was slowly stripped away.
Be warned: there are heavy spoilers ahead.
There are five main characters in this film: Steve, Natalie, Henry, Garrett and Dawn.
Steve has been living in Minecraft for a few decades now. He hated his boring job in the real world and relishes the creative freedom of this new world he’s found.
Natalie’s mom recently passed away, leaving her without any parents. She’s constantly worried about finances and is trying her best to take care of her little brother Henry.
Henry is a creative kid who gets bullied at school. A rocket he created flew into the chip factory where Natalie works, putting her job at risk.
Garrett “The Garbageman” Garrison was a video game champion in the 90’s, and is now the owner of a failing retro game store. Since he’s the only adult Henry knows in the area, Garrett pretends to be Henry’s uncle to get him out of trouble at school.
Dawn is a real estate agent and travelling zoo owner. She isn’t very important to the story. Sorry Danielle Brooks.
All of these characters (minus Dawn; again I am sorry Danielle) add an interesting layer of conflict to the story. Natalie has her financial struggles and constant worry for Henry, Henry feels punished for his creativity, and Garrett has an ego problem that’s holding him back from growing up. When they find themselves in Minecraft, a lot of those fears disappear.
Can’t pay your mortgage? It takes two minutes to get enough wood for a house twice as big as the one you’re in. Are you a creative person? That’s the number one most useful trait in this world. Have an ego issue? That’ll get solved real quick when you try to use karate on a creeper. The only issue is they don’t know how the mechanics of the game work, which goes away when they run into Steve.
These characters do a good job mirroring the reasons why people play Minecraft. Whether that’s to escape real-world struggles, foster a sense of creativity, or challenge themselves to do something new. Playing video games can help achieve these goals, but there comes a point where the games are no longer helpful.
I think Jack Black was cast as Steve because of his playful obnoxiousness and slightly off-putting line deliveries. His role in the story is to show the other characters what happens when you spend too much time inside a game and neglect personal growth.
Yes, Natalie, Henry and Garrett could spend the rest of their lives in Minecraft. Should they, though? Would their talents be better used in the real world? This question isn’t just pulled out of nowhere; it’s pulled straight from the source material.
There’s only one piece of narrative that’s been in Minecraft since the first release. It’s The End Poem by Julian Gough. You can access it by beating the Ender Dragon in survival mode.
The End Poem follows two divine beings, one who talks in green and one who talks in cyan. They insinuate you can only read their thoughts because you beat the game and reached a new level. You have not reached the highest level though, for that is achieved “in the long dream of life, not the short dream of a game.”
Here is the most important section of the poem as it relates to the movie:
“Once upon a time, there was a player…
Sometimes it thought itself human, on the thin crust of a spinning globe of molten rock…
Sometimes the player dreamed it was a miner, on the surface of a world that was flat, and infinite… the days were short; there was much to do; and death was a temporary inconvenience…
and sometimes the player believed the universe had spoken to it through the zeros and ones, through the electricity of the world, through the scrolling words on a screen at the end of a dream…
And the game was over and the player woke up from the dream. And the player began a new dream. And the player dreamed again, dreamed better.”
The entirety of the End Poem is a message to the players telling them to get up, go out into the world, and be a better person for what you’ve learned from this game.
The Minecraft Movie attempted to tell a similar story. It fell short for two main reasons:
- The real world didn’t feel real
This movie is a kids’ comedy, and that definitely hinders how much backstory they can set up for the characters. I believe taking it a bit slower at the beginning and fleshing out the characters more could’ve gone a long way. Every scene in this movie hinges on us caring about Henry, Natalie, and Garrett, and without that, the movie feels empty. Once you add in the cartoonish teachers at Henry’s school, the absurdity of Garrett’s life, and the nebulous time period, the real world can start to feel just as fake as the game.
2. The game didn’t feel like Minecraft
All the sheep are pink instead of white just so a pink wool house is easier to explain. Steve brags about his full set of diamond armor that’s missing the pants. Characters regularly craft items that don’t exist in the game. These small discrepancies wouldn’t be a big deal in a normal adaptation. Minecraft, though, isn’t a normal game. Minecraft has no story, and almost everyone has played it. By bending the rules, you deflate a lot of the tension of placing real people in a video game world. After noticing a few of these intentional mistakes, I suddenly did not care what creative solution they’d find to defeat the antagonist. I knew they’d just make up something that’s not in the game, which is what happens. I would be more okay with it if every time they bent the rules it was to move the plot forward, but nine times out of ten it was just for a cheap joke.
In conclusion, this movie could’ve taken itself a little more seriously and gotten a lot out of it. I really enjoyed it for what it was, and it is a kids movie, and I do feel a little silly writing this much about it, but it’s not hard to imagine what it could’ve been. They have a chance to right their wrongs in the already-being-discussed sequel, so we’ll see if they up their game there.