In 2016, the first glimpses of “A Minecraft Movie” were hinted at being worked on. Now, almost 10 years later, on April 4th, Mojang and Universal Pictures worked together to release it into theaters. People all over social media had mixed opinions on how this movie was going to play out. Tons of Minecraft fans were hyping up the movie online and since I used to play Minecraft as a kid, I was excited to see this movie. I went to see the movie on opening night with very high expectations. 

   The movie opened up with the original PC loading screen and game soundtrack, followed by a montage with Steve, played by Jack Black, as a narrator, explaining why he left the real world in favor of an alternate dimension he accidentally stumbled upon. Afterward, the main characters are established. The first part of the movie is set in the real world, where a boy named Henry, played by Sebastian Hansen, and his sister, Natalie, move to a new town. Henry does not really fit in with his peers, but he is much more creative and artistic compared to them. Also, his sister, played by Emma Myers, must deal with the new responsibility of taking care of her younger brother, with her only help being her real estate agent, Dawn, played by Danielle Brooks. Simultaneously, Garret “The Garbage Man” Garrison, played by Jason Mamoa, struggles to fund his vintage video games store, which is all that’s left over from his burnt-out fame. In this movie, they can get to the Minecraft world by going through a portal leading to the Overworld, which mimics the aesthetics of the Nether Portal, only blue instead of the traditional purple. After entering the Overworld, these characters run into Steve and fall into a complex plot to save the Overworld from Malgosha (Rachel House), the leader of the Piglins. About halfway in, I started having my doubts about this movie. It was very obvious that the target demographic was for little kids and not teenagers who grew up playing the game. The jokes were very childish and silly, bringing a fun atmosphere to the theater. But most of the jokes did not really appeal to people over the age of 13. 

   The thing I did enjoy about this movie was getting to see some of my favorite childhood YouTube gamers appear in the movie. The most popular ones were LDShadowlady and DanTDM, including a tribute to Technoblade. In the weeks leading up to the movie, TikTok memes were popping up all over my For You page. If you have been on TikTok recently, it’s hard to miss those videos. I think they added to the movie’s fun atmosphere, especially since it was mainly teenagers participating in these jokes. 

   The plotline of the movie was kind of all over the place at first. I was not really sure what theme people were supposed to take away from this movie, but it became clearer at the end when everyone was reunited, and it ended in a happy manner. I think this movie would be super fun to take children to see. However, if you are a teenager wanting to see this movie for nostalgic reasons, I would just keep in mind that the storyline is built to entertain kids rather than young adults. Overall, this movie was cute and funny, but I probably would not go see it again. I would rate it a 6/10