In depicting a video game that fosters creativity, A Minecraft Movie completely flips the script, creating a film that is blindingly flat and unimaginative. Aimee Rice comments on just how muddled and dull this video game adaptation can get.
What should a kids’ movie be? Playful and fun, certainly—but also imaginative, thoughtful, and emotionally sincere. The best ones often speak to children without speaking down to them, and occasionally, they even manage to reach the adults in the room, too. A Minecraft Movie (2025), directed by Jared Hess, reaches for this goal but ultimately falls short, landing vaguely between a frantic adventure and an oddly unfinished idea.
At first glance, it seems like the perfect pairing: a movie set in the sandbox world of Minecraft, a game that has inspired millions of children (and adults alike) to explore their creativity. Instead of leaning into creative storytelling, the film relies on name recognition, culminating in a disappointingly generic story, wrapped in a chaotic visual style that never fully gels.
Despite its potential and a few enjoyable moments, A Minecraft Movie ends up feeling like a missed opportunity: a film that plays in the sandbox but forgets to build anything meaningful.
Jack Black, leading as Steve, finds himself thrust into the cubic landscape of Minecraft after accidentally triggering a magical glitch, which sets the adventure in motion. In recent years, Black has leaned into roles that embrace larger-than-life goofiness, often playing characters who are caught between absurdist confidence and reluctant heroism. This familiar persona is present in his portrayal of Steve, yet while Black commits to the part, the film gives him very little to do beyond reacting to the absurdity around him. Like much of the cast, he's doing his best with ironically limited creative material, serving a full-energy performance in a stale landscape of poorly rendered animation and CGI.
The supporting characters never quite get the time or depth they need, but there are brief moments that stand out, chief among them being Jennifer Coolidge as the Vice Principal. In a relatively disconnected role from the film’s central conflict, Coolidge offers a welcome spark of charm and absurdity during a surreal date scene. Her performance is brief but memorable, offering a glimpse of the eccentric humour that the rest of the movie could have used more of. It’s one of the few sequences where the film seems to relax into its silliness, rather than rushing toward the next plot beat.
The central conflict comes in the form of Malgosha, a piglin villain who resents creativity and seeks to impose rigid control over the Minecraft world. It’s an odd contradiction in a universe inspired and built on imagination and self-expression. While the idea of a character who sees creativity as a threat has potential, it’s never developed in a meaningful way. Malgosha’s threat seems more symbolic than compelling, with motivations that feel like broad strokes rather than a fully realised arc. The final confrontation between Steve and Malgosha wraps up quickly and undermines her overall threat, with little emotional payoff. Any sense of threat evaporates as the story races to the finish line, leaving behind a resolution that feels as thin as the rest of the plot.
Thin and incomplete storylines and a lack of character exploration are unfortunate recurring themes throughout the film. Big ideas are floated, but rarely land. Character growth is told rather than shown, emotional turns feel unearned, and most scenes rely on exposition over genuine storytelling. It’s as if the filmmakers didn’t trust the audience, young or old, to follow a more layered narrative.
The messaging about growing up is especially muddled. The line “being a grown-up sucks” is said outright more than once with little subtlety, but the film doesn’t investigate why. Instead, it offers a vague nostalgia for childhood wonder without addressing what growing up means or what it can mean. The film could have explored the poignant plotline of Henry (Sebastian Eugene Hansen) and Natalie (Emma Myers), who are recently orphaned, and how their childhoods slip away with the burden of grief, loss and the increasing responsibility of adulthood. The film could have done its characters and the audience some justice in this regard, yet what was delivered feels insincere and bland, lacking any emotional investment.
Visually, the film also struggles. While emulating the blocky style of Minecraft is a noble idea in theory, the execution lacks polish. The CGI doesn’t blend smoothly with the actors, and interactions between the two often feel flat or awkward. Rather than immersing the viewer in a world come-to-life, the visuals feel unfinished and overly synthetic.
Perhaps most disappointing is how little the film embraces the very spirit of its source material. Minecraft is all about creativity, collaboration, and exploration. The movie nods at these values but never embodies them. Despite its potential and a few enjoyable moments, A Minecraft Movie ends up feeling like a missed opportunity: a film that plays in the sandbox but forgets to build anything meaningful.