In 2011, the world was introduced to Minecraft, a sandbox game developed and published by Mojang Studios. The game is best known for its simple low poly and pixelated graphics, which was by design, and the franchise became a huge success, winning various awards and is still being played today. Now, in 2025, the world-building game receives a film adaptation directed by Jared Hess and starring Jack Black, Jason Mamoa, Emma Myers, Sebastian Hansen, and Danielle Brooks in A Minecraft Movie, now ready to rock the block in cinemas worldwide.

A mysterious portal pulls four misfits into the Overworld, a bizarre, cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination. To get back home, they’ll have to master the terrain while embarking on a magical and blocky quest with an unexpected crafter named Steve. They must all work together, confront imaginative obstacles, and find a way to return home.

Jack Black stars as Steve, a character loosely based on the actual Minecraft character of the same name. His likeness to the game character is just by wearing the same coloured clothes, but he makes the character his own by, well, being himself, but in a fun way. He brings a lot of slapstick comedy to the film while also showing his experience in the Overworld, which helps aid the other characters. He and Jason Momoa become an entertaining comedy duo with many hilarious moments.

Jason Momoa portrays Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison, a champion gamer in his younger years, but now washed up as an adult and struggling to run a retro games store while still holding onto the past. Mamoa is usually typecast in tough guy roles, but he plays someone more vulnerable and down on his luck here.

Surprisingly, he does a good job at it, allowing audiences to sympathise with him, even with his ego getting the best of him, which adds to the comedic value. Despite always showing his masculinity, he’s also able to apply his gamer mindset in the Overworld and in a way, the character also reflects Momoa’s real-life personality.

Sebastian Hansen and Wednesday star, Emma Myers play siblings, Henry and Natalie respectively. They recently moved to Chuglass, Idaho, after losing their parents. Natalie is the young adult left to raise Henry, a smart kid who gets in trouble on his first day of school in their new hometown.

Myers is the more entertaining of the two, while Henry is the youngest of the main cast, which would make people assume he’s the main character, but he struggles to shine amongst the other big personalities on screen. He’d be the character that younger audiences could relate to, but his performance doesn’t have many moments worth remembering. This isn’t bad, but you’d expect a little more from the youngest character.

Orange Is the New Black star Danielle Brooks plays Dawn, a real estate agent who helps Henry and Natalie settle into their new home, but her dream job is to open a petting zoo. She gets some fun moments throughout the film, but like Sebastian Hansen and Emma Myers, her performance is easily overshadowed by Jack Black and Jason Momoa. Jennifer Coolidge also stars as Vice Principal Marlene, and despite her small role, she gets some interesting moments that audiences may find humorous or unnecessary.

Minecraft as a game is best known for allowing players to build their own imaginative worlds and not for its stories because there wasn’t any aside from some spinoff games. The film adaptation isn’t based on any of those games’ stories but creates its own while still referencing the game in many ways. Even if it’s never clear who the main character is meant to be, the story itself keeps things simple and, for the most part, is easy to follow.

One issue is that it uses a common story trope: having the main characters get pulled from their world into a mysterious world. Other films that have used this trope include Sonic the Hedgehog, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Barbie, The Smurfs, and more. At this point, it’s starting to feel overused, and it would be nice to just have the characters stay in their own world and let the story unfold from there.

Design-wise, the film feels like an adaptation of a full HD remake of the original game, if there was one. Everything and everyone in the Minecraft world retains blocky shapes, like in the game, but has more realistic textures instead of pixelated graphics. Everything in the Overworld is block-shaped, including all the people, animals, trees, food, and clouds in the sky. Strangely, though, one thing in that world that isn’t block-shaped is fire, which looks like real-world fire instead of pixelated fire from the games.

Many people were sceptical after seeing the trailers and previews. At first, it may be hard to accept the liberties the film has taken, but it quickly becomes part of its charm thanks to its bright and colourful atmosphere, entertaining cast, and how they react to everything.

The human characters in the Overworld aren’t exactly pleasing to the eyes with their cube-shaped heads and realistic human skin, but not to the point that they become unbearable to look at; they’re still cursed to look through. It’s also odd that the ones who stumble into the real world, no one there ever makes a big deal about their ungodly appearances. Jack Black as Steve keeps his real-world human look, and that is probably for the better.

Everything else, however, is fun to look at and suits their blocky designs better. There are plenty of references to the game that fans will enjoy seeing from the various items, weapons and other characters who appear later in the film.

There are plenty of fun, exciting, and hilarious action scenes in which Jack Black and Jason Momoa become a natural comedy duo and steal the show. One particular scene that sees them in an awkward position during a dire situation wouldn’t have been on anyone’s bingo cards, but they did it, and people won’t forget it for a long time.

The soundtrack features various licensed music, which may feel out of place at first, but they fit well with their scenes. The film also features an original song, “I Feel Alive”, written by Jack Black and performed by Dave Grohl from Foo Fighters, Troy Van Leeuwen from Queens of the Stone Age, Roger Joseph Manning Jr. from Jellyfish, and Mark Ronson. The Minecraft games have their music, so it would’ve been nice to hear covers or remixes of those in the film, but the music it does have is still fun to hear.

A film adaptation of the beloved Minecraft games is something no one would have ever expected, so it’s understandable why expectations were low. Somehow, A Minecraft Movie is better than we expected, bringing a lot of comedy, charm, and fan service. Minecraft purists may not like that the film’s overall design leans heavily into realism, but no one can deny that this game-to-movie adaptation is incredibly funny and highly entertaining. Whether you’re a dedicated Minecraft player or never touched the game, A Minecraft Movie is a fun and wild ride from start to finish.

Written by: Sammy Hanson