Everyone’s favorite video game and book series is getting its very own live-action movie. Created by Mojang studio, A Minecraft Movie was released on April 4, 2025. The trailer has received mixed opinions from critics and fans alike. However, there is some speculation as to why that is the case.
Casting Choice:
When it comes to movies and television series, casting a list of characters can be very difficult as it takes a lot of time and effort to gather the right people to play the roles. The Minecraft movie has two prominent actors that many fans recognize. Jack Black plays the main character of the Minecraft game Steve, and Jason Momoa plays a character known as “The Garbage Man,” aka Garret Garrison. Some fans question why Jack Black is even in the new Minecraft movie. In the game, he is a non-talking character, exploring the vast world of blocks, and Black is a very energetic and comedic person. Not saying that the film can’t have a comedic side, but what will they do with his character?
Within the trailer, Black seems to have a prominent role in the film, while Momoa’s character looks out of place in the Minecraft world. Characters like Emma Myers lead roles in the hit 2022 Netflix series Wednesday. She is also playing one of the misfits who gets spawned in the overworld. Danielle Brooks, an American actress and singer known for her role as Tasha Jefferson in the Netflix series Orange is the New Black, and Sebastian Eugene Hansen, whose first role was in the Thriller and Drama movie Just Mercy, will also be in the film. The cast isn’t bad, but some may disagree. Their performance is what’s gonna matter in the film. Something to keep in mind is that Eugene Hansen is a 14-year-old actor who has only been in two movies. It would be good to see how he performs in the film.
Direction and Vision:
Behind every film, there is a director. A director who makes cuts, changes, and even gambles. All of these are to make the film ready for presentation to the public. That is exactly what Jared Hess did for the Minecraft movie. A quick summary: Jared Hess is a famous director whose most notable film was Nacho Libre, starring Jack Black and Hector Jiménez. His first-ever film was the cult classic Napoleon Dynamite starring Jon Heder. From a personal opinion, I’m kinda curious about how Jared Hess will handle the Minecraft movie. The film has gone through multiple scripts, directors, and a lot of cast changes. The film was originally given to Shawn Levy, a Canadian filmmaker and actor who was best known for the popular films Real Steel, Deadpool, and Wolverine.
The production of the film began in 2014, and from there, the film has gone through a lot of directors and delays. A couple of versions of the script involve defeating the ender dragon, a Minecraft final boss. Although, by the looks of the trailer, that won’t be the case. Some of the scripts written before the production of the film were made for live-action. Yet, the CGI looks like a bad green screen.
Fans say that Hess doesn’t understand what a Minecraft movie is supposed to be. However, Hess took the challenge, and he wanted to keep the humor and the engagement from his Nacho Libre and Napoleon Dynamites but also make it feel like a Minecraft film that older and newer fans could enjoy.
In a recent interview with the director, Huss, and the cast of a Minecraft movie with Thenerdofcolor. Jared Huss stated his idea of what the Minecraft movie should be: “But you just want to tell the story that engages people. To do a movie like Minecraft, an already beloved game, and translating that into a heightened cinematic experience [by] sending a group of unlikely heroes on this epic adventure, and having it be ridiculous like the game was a challenge but also fun.”
Plot Speculations:
If you go up to someone and ask them this question. Does Minecraft have a story? Some will say yes, and others will say no, but that’s the thing. The whole point of Minecraft is a guy named Steve who gets spawned in the overworld and explores the massive world around him—going to different dimensions to find materials and crafting and slaying the final boss. That’s the whole point of the video game. For the film, they took a different approach by stepping away from the “story” of Minecraft. The story for the Minecraft movie is four misfits are pulled into a portal and transported to a cubic world called the Overworld, and they have to find a way out with the help of an expert crafter. On paper, the story doesn’t sound terrible, but in reality, it’s trying to be a different movie but with a popular name.
Movies like Sonic or Mario had live-action/animated movies. The Sonic film was so beloved that they received 3 more movies, and the Mario film so far has not been announced for a sequel. Those films were beloved by fans and critics alike. The story was simple, but it was eye-catching to the fans. The third Sonic film introduced Super Sonic and Super Shadow, two popular forms of the beloved characters. The Mario movie has a twist with how the characters are portrayed, like Princess Peach is a relevant character in the film and not being captured by Bowser for the 200th time, or Luigi isn’t in Mario’s shadow in the games, he’s his character, with his role. Things like this are what make those movies popular and loved by fans.
The Minecraft movie is going to have to capture that essence with its story. One thing that was noticed in the trailer is that it’s also paying tribute to a beloved Minecraft YouTuber who goes by the name Technoblade, who passed away from cancer in June 2022. That tribute may bring Minecraft fans alike to see the movie.
Another popular video game-based movie, Five Nights at Freddy’s, a film released in October 2023 and received a fair rating from the audience. The film is about a guy who gets hired as a security guard at a pizzeria called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria. He thinks he’s working a regular late-night shift, but there’s a dark secret about the restaurant. That is the FNAF movie, a story that was simple but not bland or Complex. These games are known for having the most complex lore known to man, but having a movie that understands the original plot while having their little twist works. To sum everything up, the Minecraft movie is gonna have to do something to make the film an eye-catcher and not a cash-grab film. For that to happen, the plot needs to be striking to the audience.
While writing this article from a filmmaker’s pov and a fan of the franchises, the expectation for this film can go one of two ways. The film can either do exceptionally well and possibly receive a sequel, or this film can be an embarrassment to the Minecraft community as a whole, fan or not. With all that said, let’s see what the Minecraft movie has to offer us.
