Minecraft has survived the years since its release in 2011, always kept alive by its loyal fanbase, content creators, and yearly updates. The game has drastically changed since its initial launch, but fans were still excited for the film to be released. Personally, Minecraft is a game that holds a lot of nostalgia for me, and it shaped a large part of my childhood because it was my first introduction to video games.
However, fans were quickly disappointed by the first look at the film. A Minecraft Movie dropped its first trailer on Sept. 4, and there was clear criticism from its fans, largely leaving the internet unsatisfied with their first glimpse.
Reactions to the first trailer included criticism of the CGI, the film being live-action rather than animated, the unsettling mobs and monsters, the landscape, and how these aspects contribute to the film not portraying the iconic pixelated Minecraft look.
The film is produced as a collaboration between Warner Bros. Pictures and Mojang, set to release on April 4, 2025. It features iconic movie stars Jack Black and Jason Momoa, as well as Sebastian Eugene Hansen, Danielle Brooks, and Emma Myers, all of whom make up the main cast featured in the first trailer.
After the first trailer, I was hesitant for the second trailer, a common sentiment among the fans who were disappointed by the release of the first. The second trailer was announced in a post of a behind-the-scenes video uploaded online the day before it dropped. The video featured a look at the props, sets, and creation of A Minecraft Movie.
The props and sets were handmade by designers for the film and included pieces such as a totem of undying, stone blocks, blocky apples, forest sets with trees, Steve’s crafting room, and even a cave with diamond ore. Mumbo Jumbo, a prominent Minecraft content creator, was also invited on set to help with the creation of the film.
We also got a sneak peek of the backstories behind the characters that Black and Mamoa play. Black, playing Minecraft character Steve, says that the film “takes place in the real world and the Minecraft universe.”
Steve, “wishing he could do whatever he wants,” discovers the Minecraft universe through what appears to be a cave in the real world featured in the behind-the-scenes video.
Momoa, playing Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison, is another character in the main cast that gets pulled into the Minecraft world. His character is an ex-video game champion who can’t let go of his past. Momoa says his character is a “burn-out who got fame from a very young age,” expanding on Garrison’s past in the film.
Seeing how the props and sets were created cast a new, positive light on the film. The props and sets are the most impressive part of the film so far, but the CGI is still questionable, especially looking at the monsters featured in the behind-the-scenes sneak peek.
The video featured a zombie and a skeleton, the latter of which I was disappointed by. The skeleton holds a sword, but the mobs in the game usually hold bows, even if they can hold swords occasionally. The zombie was also unsettling because the motion of its movement was too fluid for Minecraft.
The release of the second and final trailer was a pleasant surprise — a complete turn-around from the first one. It featured a preview of Steve’s backstory, more of the iconic Minecraft mechanics, and a look at more of the mobs in the film.
The trailer starts with Black’s character as a young child, with a voiceover of his “I… am Steve,” saying, “As a child, I yearned for the mines.”
I was hit with a wave of nostalgia when Black entered the world of Minecraft, when the title theme, Minecraft’s main song “Minecraft Theme (Calm 1),” plays. This song is the core of Minecraft — one I would listen to for hours as I played the game.
Black’s line about the game hits on the core of Minecraft: “A land where anything you imagine is possible. As long as what you imagine can be built out of blocks.” Black’s enthusiasm for playing Steve is evident in his portrayal of the character.
We get a look at a few other core mechanics of Minecraft: Black, as Steve, riding on a minecart railroad to travel, Black placing and picking up blocks, Momoa using an ender pearl to teleport, and a Redstone machine that cooks a chicken.
We also get a look at some iconic Minecraft objects, including elytra, TNT, a totem of undying, as well as more mobs. The trailer shows a bee and a wolf, which look better than the sheep and llama in the first trailer. The bee is accurate to its in-game model and is actually really cute.
The wolf, too, is adorable: Black holds a bone out to it in the trailer, taming the wolf, and the little hearts that show in Minecraft when taming a mob also appear in the trailer. I thought that was a very subtle but nice easter egg referencing the game because that’s one of my favorite parts of Minecraft. The trailer also references the quick atmospheric change in Minecraft when it switches from day to night. It instantly gets spookier, with mobs seemingly appearing out of nowhere to attack the characters.
What made this trailer better than the first is how it captured more of what makes Minecraft, well, Minecraft. Steve’s backstory is a plot point I didn’t expect, but it adds more depth to his character and why Steve is in there in the first place.
The mobs in this trailer look better. However, we’ll still have to see the unsettling sheep and llama from the first trailer. These two models are examples of why animation might have been a better choice than CGI, and it’s evident that there’s a lot lost in translation from the in-game models to the movie.
The second trailer was also funnier, with Black’s “as a child, I yearned for the mines” quote being featured and the chicken being cooked by lava.
This trailer also captured the core idea of Minecraft, highlighting the idea of limitless creation and of making the game your own. This was also referenced in the sneak peek by director Jared Hess.
Hess says that it was “very intentional that the movie is called A Minecraft Movie, as opposed to The Minecraft Movie,” because players make their own journeys when playing Minecraft. The movie is just one story within the Minecraft world.
However, the initial complaint of the movie not being animated stands. The props and sets are impressive, but the landscaping and CGI still fall short of capturing the aesthetic. Minecraft has a distinct style, featuring an iconic pixelated and blocky look, which is why fans are already disappointed with the film. I’ll be seeing it in theaters to ultimately see how the film does Minecraft justice, but currently, A Minecraft Movie has unfixable issues, as seen from just the trailers.
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