A keen audience can almost always identify when a movie isn’t centering the story it really wants to tell. Madame Web, for example, is ostensibly about Dakota Johnson’s clairvoyant Cassandra Webb’s efforts to save three girls destined to be Spider-Women in the future. Here, however, the girls do relatively little as it’s peppered with images of powers they don’t have and cool scenes that don’t occur within the timeline of the film… Sony made Madame Web as a prequel to the film they hoped to set up and produce. A Minecraft Movie, following a rag-tag band of humans who have to protect the Overworld from a horde of piglin villains, clearly suffers from a similar vice.

We’re first introduced to Steve (Jack Black), a mining-obsessed man who discovers magical cube artifacts that send him into the Overworld, the creative cubic realm where all creation is possible (if you don’t get eaten by nightly zombie invasions). He accidentally goes one portal deeper, landing in the totalitarian Nether dimension ruled by the piglin ruler Malgosha, who want to break into and enslave the Overworld, imprisoning Steve. Cut to the human world, where former game champion Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Jason Momoa) meets siblings Natalie (Emma Myers) and her inventive brother Henry (Sebastian Hansen), along with realtor Dawn (Danielle Brooks), and they all get thrown into the Overworld, the fate of all worlds in the balance.

‘Minecraft’ Had To Find A Focus, And It’s Probably A Minerrrrrrrrr

If it seems like that description seems heavily weighted towards Steve and the Garbage Man, and shortchanges the rest of the cast, that’s because the movie does. Steve gets an extensive intro, complete with a full hero’s journey before the film’s actual story gets going, and then the narrative immediately pivots to The Garbage Man’s extensive backstory. We’re introduced to Natalie and Henry as they move to the town where this all goes down, and we get a glimpse of Henry’s inventive powers, but the narrative is wildly unbalanced in favor of Garrett and Steve. From a narrative perspective, it sure seems like A Minecraft Movie intended to be a Steve, or a Steve / Garbage Man film first and foremost, before someone realized it needed a nominal kid protagonist (Henry), who then needs a guardian (Natalie), who might benefit from a realtor (Dawn) to make the siblings-in-new-home plotline work. Henry gets some relevant scenes, but Dawn and Natalie are evident afterthoughts.

Jack Black as Steve in A Minecraft Movie

Performance-wise, Jack Black and Jason Momoa fully commit to and make the most of their respective silly roles. It’s clearly in Jack Black’s wheelhouse, but his Steve is at least charismatic, and Momoa vigorously commits to his self-serious childhood game champion who can’t quite move on. In a small role, Jennifer Coolidge is quite funny as Vice Principal Marlene, with an implausibly goofy arc that pays off as the film proceeds. Sebastian Hansen is solid when Henry, a character who perhaps should be the film’s protagonist but isn’t in practice, is given something dramatically interesting to do. There’s a distinct feeling that Emma Myers would kill it in a draft of the film where Natalie isn’t an afterthought, but she’s given little to do here. Worst served of all is Oscar nominee Danielle Brooks, who deserves much better (she has comedy chops!) and whose most notable scene is Dawn’s intentionally awkward dancing in the film’s conclusion.

Committed Comedic Performances Can’t Save A Minecraft Movie

The film’s comedy is intended for younger audiences, so results may vary for adult viewers. There are jokes about butts and excrement that elicited hearty laughs from the children in my screening, and not as much comedy relevant to adult tastes save for a few pratfalls and other well-executed bits of physical comedy. Momoa’s self-serious ex-gamer bits largely work well for a regular laugh, as to Jennifer Coolidge’s moments (this one plotline shouldn’t be spoiled), and one particular finale moment between Jack Black and Malgosha was wildly funny (as was one specific scene as the credits role). It ends on its funniest bits. That said, its comedy is a mixed bag.

A Minecraft Movie

One of the best things that can be said about A Minecraft Movie is that it looks stellar, with blocky animation that really does reflect its game origins. They’re rendered perfectly for the big screen, with piglins, skeletons, and (in particular) zombies that look great (and oddly better than Snow White‘s Dwarves). The entire SFX team deserves kudos. That said, A Minecraft Movie clearly seems to have suffered as a result of a long process of development. Mojang Studios first discussed the project back in 2014, and it’s since gone through several cast and director changes: Shawn Levy in 2014, Rob McElhenney in 2015, Peter Sollett in 2019, then finally, Jared Hess in 2022, rewrites all the way down. It sure feels like an unfocused Frankenplot of several different versions of the tale, a regrettable consequence of development hell.

Altogether, A Minecraft Movie is perhaps most guilty of what it doesn’t do. There are characters played by talented performers that read like afterthoughts, alongside middle school humor and convoluted plotting that produces an opaque set of stakes. Most of the film involves a hearty defense of the Overworld from totalitarian forces, but why should we be emotionally invested in it? If the piglins could enslave our world, why not just destroy what seems to be the only cube capable of letting them come here? And shouldn’t zombies and skeletons logically fight the piglins once night inevitably falls? Maybe too much is being asked of a film designed for younger-skewing audiences. Still, it’s disappointing that more care wasn’t given to the creation of a movie that purports to champion the act of creation.

A Minecraft Movie premieres in theaters April 4.