A Minecraft Movie, directed by Jared Hess, is out now.
Rating out of five: ★★★½
Having grown up building with Lego blocks not Minecraft cubes, I did what any responsible reviewer for 2025′s most-anticipated video game spin-off would do – I took an expert to the premiere.
Master Eight (whose impressive construction and problem-solving dexterity owes a lot to the world’s bestselling video game) gave A Minecraft Movie 10 out of 10 and declared it his “best film ever”. (Sorry, Steven Spielberg.)
The target audience, then, will be satisfied after two years of waiting impatiently since international film stars descended upon Aotearoa to shoot this flick. But is it any fun for family members desperate to entertain their children this school holiday?
Luckily, director Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) has ensured that his madcap, live-action-CGI fantasy adventure has something for everyone.
From callbacks to 80s games, toys and fashions, such as the hot-pink tasselled leather jacket worn by a swaggering Jason Momoa, to a supporting role by White Lotus queen Jennifer Coolidge, adults should enjoy Minecraft’s silliness while the youngsters thrill at seeing their favourite pastime brought to life on the big screen.
The original game, which involves creating extravagantly designed 3D worlds populated by non-speaking villagers and grunting zombies, has spawned books, games, clothing, toys and even Lego sets. But for a movie, you need a story.
Enter Minecraft’s head crafter, Steve, played by the perennially juvenile 55-year-old Jack Black (also star of Hess’s 2006 comedy Nacho Libre). Steve falls into the magical land of the Overworld, where he is overjoyed to be able to build to his heart’s content, until he’s captured by the evil Malgosha (voiced by Rachel House), the Piglin ruler of the Nether, who hates creativity.
Years later, two new kids on the block Henry and Natalie (Sebastian Hansen and Emma Myers) move to small-town Idaho (played by small-town Aotearoa). A junk-shop discovery brings them together with Momoa’s hilariously jaded Gen X gamer Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison, who mentors young Henry with advice such as, “There’s no ‘I’ in team, but there are two in winning.” Along with petting zoo owner Dawn (Danielle Brooks), the foursome tumble into the Overworld, where they must help Steve fight for creative freedom.
Adults may find the fan service less thrilling by the end, but the script is frequently laugh-out-loud funny, while the beautifully animated action plunges its audience into the 3D worlds that have been sucking our children’s attention since Minecraft came out in 2011.
Cameos from Jemaine Clement and Matt Berry will delight the grown-ups, while the littlies can be satisfied that Black’s rendition of their precious Steve is, according to my consultant, “funny and with good acting”. What more could you want from a blockbuster?
