A Minecraft Movie Review (2025)

Based on a video game, A Minecraft Movie works hard to create an adventure for adults and kids alike, but it lacks consistent humor and charm. Not a movie that you need to see.

I want to be completely candid here – I am not super familiar with Minecraft. My kids played, but they were old enough that they didn’t need my help, so I knew it in passing. I could tell you what the world looked like (kind of), but if they told me that something plus diamonds made a sword, I quickly forgot. So, going into watching the movie, I was fully aware that I was not the target audience.

A Minecraft Movie is about a man named Steve who has always wanted to be a miner. Being shut out as a child, he returns to the mine as an adult, breaks in, and discovers two glowing cubes – one of which can be inserted into the other (these turn out to be the Orb of Dominance and the Earth Crystal). These lead him to enter the Minecraft world where he builds to his heart’s content, collects stuff in chests, and encounters the evil Malgosha, the ruler of the nether who imprisons him.

Steve sends his trusty dog, Dennis, to hide the glowing cubes in the real realm, under his bed. Over time, his stuff goes into a storage unit and to auction, where a faded video game star, Garrett “The Garbage Man,” buys it hoping to make some money. He meets up with siblings, Natalie and Henry, and their friend Dawn, and they all enter the Minecraft realm by accident.

The first 20 minutes of this film were very funny and engaging in a super silly way. It played to all ages, with the occasional joke for adults and lots of humor for kids. I was hoping that it would stay that way, but it didn’t.

Over the course of the movie, I lost more and more interest. The visuals were beautiful and they did a very nice job combining the humans with all of the elements of the Minecraft realm, but each new issue or adventure started to feel the same (although there was a funny bit about cooked chicken being made by combining lava and a live chicken). As time went on, there were very few jokes that worked and it began feeling like lots of schtick to draw out the movie runtime.

A Minecraft Movie had a very similar vibe to Jumanji, but far less charm. Jack Black’s Steve even had some flavors of his professor character in Jumanji and Dewey Finn in School of Rock, they just didn’t seem to play the same way here. The other characters were enjoyable (including a small storyline with Jennifer Coolidge romancing a Minecraft villager) and Jason Momoa had a funny beginning playing up his loserness, but no one was particularly interesting to watch by the middle of the movie.

You do not need to know Minecraft before seeing this movie, it is easy enough to follow. If you are a Minecraft fan, there will be Easter eggs for you to find. Either way, it’s an okay movie that I would only recommend seeing if someone else really wants to see it. It won’t hurt you, but it’s not great.

Runtime: 101 minutes

Motion Picture Rating: PG

Languages Spoken In The Film: English

Should You Watch It? If someone else wants to watch it, yes, but otherwise, no

Did I Cry? Nope

My Rating: 2/5 Stars

Available: Currently in theaters and soon to be on Amazon Prime