When you sit down to watch the “A Minecraft Movie” in theaters, you’ll quickly see how unserious the movie is. The opening scene itself starts with Jack Black cracking jokes about his childhood and his dream/obsession with some local mines. After growing old enough to be able to explore the mines, he discovers a portal to a new world that he named “The Overworld.” 

The Warner Bros. film, “A Minecraft Movie,” has seen tremendous success in the box office after its highly anticipated release. Yet, in both its announcement and teaser stage, the movie received egregious backlash from both Minecraft fans and critics alike. 

Initially, the movie was faulted for its questionable casting choices and uncouth remodeling of iconic characters, while having a massive production budget. However, the reception of the movie quickly turned around. Just weeks after the release of the movie, according to it had grossed over 345 million dollars in the box office, and due to its success, the director announced that progress on deals for the sequel have been moving more rapidly.

After watching the movie in theaters, I can assure that the movie itself shouldn’t be considered top tier. The movie has some basic themes of family, love, teamwork, and not giving up during tough challenges. Although, these themes are frequently conveyed in a cliché or excessively shoehorned way throughout the movie. The writing and progression of the story appeared to lack effort, seeming like they put more focus into CGI than the script.

Although the script may have been a bit below par writing wise, the selection of characters seemed to be leaning towards the humorous and unserious side of genres. Ranging from scenes with Jack Black having a whole song about hot lava chicken that contributes almost nothing narratively, to having an entire character that bases his life off of an outdated video game. This character alone adds to the movie’s genre of unserious comedy and kind of strays away from the Minecraft aspect of the movie in my opinion.

The most important factor that has made the movie so popular on social media would be its quotes. Specifically Steve’s quotes during the movie that happened to come out a few days before the movie’s release.

Thanks to the community engagement and anticipation for the movie, memes surfaced on the internet that helped further the hype up. This caused a lot of people to shout infamous lines they had seen on social media before the movie went widespread. 

Again, the movie wasn’t really organized well, but it wasn’t terrible. Despite the less-than-great scores by both Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb, the movie sat very well with fans and came off like a great experience for laughter and lighthearted jokes. I found myself laughing at the mere opening scenes of the movie with Jack Black. Having this legend, along with many other cameos later on really set the tone for the engaging video game adventure ahead.

If you haven’t already, I would recommend watching “A Minecraft Movie.” I don’t think you should expect a legitimate storyline with it, but the movie had some moments where the visuals looked beautiful. 

The amount of hyper-realistic settings had me convinced that they spent the majority of their budget on just CGI. I think the movie is great for the interaction and laughter it provides for the audience. It amazes me how a simple meme or two flipped the whole perspective of this movie.