Chuglass, Idaho. Steve loves mines, so he goes into one, finds Orb of Dominance and Earth Crystal, which combined create a portal that leads him to a cube-shaped world, Overworld. There, he is captured by Malgosha's evil piglins in Netherworld, so he sends his dog Dennis to hide the Orb and Crystal in Idaho, to prevent Malgosha to invade the Overworld. However, the Orb and the Crystal are found by Idahonians Garrett, Henry, Natalie and Dawn, who also enter into the Overworld. Together with a freed Steve, they battle against Malgosha's evil forces and win, saving Overworld. Then they all return back to Idaho.
"A Minecraft Movie" is neither "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" nor even "Super Mario Bros. Movie", but is nonetheless still a solid and easily watchable video game film adaptation, with a few good gags that help lift it from other film adaptations which rank far less. It has a good, funny opening act, and one great gag at the end, but the entire 70 minute central segment is routine and standard. The opening act works, probably because it is set in the real world and is thus able to connect with some real-life situations in this fictional small town in Idaho, from a washed-up ex-champion video game player who, despite his machismo, wears a pink jacket, Garrett, played by Jason Momoa, up to the high school principal Marlene, played deliciously by Jennifer Coolidge. In one sequence, as Henry enlists into the high school, Marlene greets him with these ironic, revealing words: "You know, you're the first student to enroll here, ever since that article came out about the school rankings." Henry's sister Natalie is at first endearingly played by Emma Myers, hinting that this might lead to something more emotional later on.
Unfortunately, once the human characters enter the artificial Overworld, the authors seem to lose their ground, and all that is left an empty collection of chase and action sequences, without much ingenuity or creativity. Momoa and comedian Jack Black spend the rest of the movie merely as a distraction from the thin, unimaginative plot. A lot of potentials are left underused. For instance, a cubic Overworld man exits through the portal into the real world, stumbles upon Marlene, and they spend the entire rest of the movie just sitting at a dinner date, but it all leads nowhere, and is just a waste of time. Coolidge is underused in this. Myers is also underused, since we barely find out anything about her that expands her initial character in the Overworld, as the movie puts its weight mostly on Henry, Garrett and Steve. This is unexplored talent right there, since Myers is much more charming then them. The nadir is reached in the infamous chicken jockey sequence, where a zombie baby is riding a chicken and fighting with Garrett in a boxing ring, which is ludicrous. Here and there, a few more 'proper' moments show up, among them also in a wonderful cliche-breaking joke near the finale, where Malgosha feigns she is weak and calls upon Steve to come closer so that she can tell him something, while he immediately sees through her and says: "Do you have a little knife that you will try to stab me with?" - "No, no, I'm too weak." He comes closer, she swings a knife at him, but he just slaps it out of her hand: "Come on!" If at least there were more inspired jokes like these, it would have made the movie much more fun. Though Steve's words aimed at Malgosha have some wisdom: "You're right. It is harder to create than to destroy. That's why cowards tend to choose the deuce."
Grade:+
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