A Minecraft Movie: Stupid; but in a sweet way

 After 10 years of waiting, I finally got a Minecraft Movie in my life... 

And it was just about what I expected from such a thing. Because my expectations were either of two things... the either two ways the movie could go. Bad... or good. 

For me?

It was both.

My tagline for this movie is: Stupid. But in a sweet way. 

Just a warning that this blog WILL contain MAJOR SPOILERS. So read ONLY if you've seen the movie or you just don't care and need something to read off of some guy's obscure blog. 

First off, my first impressions were just pure excitement. It started with the world loading screen and I knew we were in for a fun ride. Steve's whole intro already was absolutely amazing and I really felt connected through the orchestral version of C418's 'Minecraft.' This orchestral version being something that I always wanted to hear for a Minecraft movie. It was an odd dream come true to hear it.

There were so many fun easter eggs and references scattered throughout the movie that I also absolutely loved. I love the way they nodded towards Herobrine, the water bucket clutch scene was actually pretty funny, I could go on! The story itself was simply Jumanji but with Minecraft but some of the characters and concepts were actually really compelling to me. 

I know a lot of people are going to make reviews tackling the bad things about the movie. I already recognize all of those criticisms so I'm going to skip over anything overly critical about this movie and mostly go over what I thought about it. And my opinion kinda tends to give this movie more of a chance than most might. (Despite the fact that the movie is actually doing really well.)

Over all, I really like how all sorts of Minecraft things just translate into real life. Especially the villagers. I love how grotesquely realistic they look and they remind me of those realistic Minecraft villager images that you can find online. I'm also super glad they used the proper Villager noises. I kinda feared they edited sound effects over them in the trailers. Which they did, but only for other things. But I'll get to that later. 

Before that, I wanna talk about my favorite character in the movie, Garret. Garret "The Garbage Man" Garrison. I didn't think he was going to be terribly compelling till I watched the movie. There's something fun about characters who are just buff and serious dudes and think they're all that, yet they have this massive soft side. Garret just had a lot of funny moments that made me laugh more than I expected to. 

What's even better than Garret though? Is there something in that movie that is?? Yes, and it's called Garret and Steve's Jack Black's never-ending unconditional Bromance. Now that was truly the funniest part about the movie. Garret may have had an ultimatum on Jack Black, keeping the Orb from him until Jack Black got Garret's hands on some sweet-ole diamonds; but they both really loved each other the entire time. It's undeniable, they would die for each other. I love them. 

The way Jack Black grabbed Garret's ass, the way Garret tenderly caressed Jack Black's face as he whispered softly to him "Vaya con Dios." They were MEANT for each other! 

Jack Black and Garret are cool. Henry I guess as well but he's just kinda there...

But Natalie and Dawn were done dirty. I'm gonna backtrack on Henry, he's fine. He actually offered something to the story. But Natalie and Dawn were just pushed back for most of the movie just so Jack Black, Garret, and well, just the dudes; so the dudes of the story can have their moment. And the girls can have girls night in a shroom house for like 15 minutes of the movie.

The issue with Natalie and Dawn is that they're interesting... but not compelling.

Now we can talk about the sound effects used in the movie because I really want to touch on those. I am so glad they used the proper sound effects for many things. Sometimes even combining the original sound effect with an added touch. It was actually pretty cool. I kinda feared they would only edit things into the trailer and leave them out of the movie. But it was only true for like 2 things. For some reason the lever sound effect and the dirt block sound effect was used in the trailer but not in the movie... 

But it doesn't matter in the face of the Villager noises being used perfectly.

I think that's somehow everything I wanted to get out there. Most of my thoughts were already put out in a special for The Mapping Unit that I did where my friends and I answered some prompts I wrote up regarding the Minecraft movie. I'll be sure to post that one super soon!

Overall, I think the Minecraft Movie is bad but that's why I like it. It's really stupid but it's in a very sweet way because I don't care that I don't like the movie. 

I care about the fact that the people making the movie had fun with it. And I think that matters in some capacity. The movie could still be good with the people behind it having the same amount of fun... but I would rather watch a movie where everyone got to have fun than a movie where it was just hell for the people to produce. 

I kinda feel bad that I'm excited for the next Spider-man Spider-verse movie because the animators were overworked and pressured so much. 

But the Minecraft Movie feels different. It was a fun ride. I laughed the whole time. The jokes were so bad they were funny. The characters were stupid but bearable. 

10 years ago I would've LOVED this movie and not even know that it was actually a terrible movie. And frankly, that's good enough for me. Because it was me 10 years ago that REALLY wanted a Minecraft movie to be a thing. Now it is. And I am satisfied.

The Minecraft Movie is stupid... but in a sweet way.