Seeing this film is likely now one of my most treasures cinema experiences.

You could also tell that no one in the audience was taking this film seriously, because as the credits for the film began, I began jokingly clapping my hands wildly in a moment of amusement, only to have an encore of people in the theatre room join in the applause.

Afterwards, the Post-Credits scene began, and in due silly Yoshistar fashion, I shouted out loud, “ABSOLUTE CINEMA”, only to have my friends continue the phrase in what was to be a domino effect within my friend circle. Much to our surprise, the surrounding people who hadn't left the theatre room already decided to clap wildly yet again.

I can tell you now that this singular moment of one-brain cell unison was something I feel I'm going to cherish for a lifetime to come.

Let's go back to this film’s origins, though...

Upon its teaser trailer, a similar phenomenon to the Sonic the Hedgehog film took place, where people had seen the heavy reliance of CGI for the film, alongside its uncanny hyper-realistic character designs, before agreeing with one another that this film looked like an uncanny disaster.

It really says a lot that one of the first pieces of dialogue we ever saw about this movie was in its primary main lead, Steve talking about “yearning for the mines” “as a child”.

And yet in spite of that, there was still hype surrounding this film. I personally ended up roping my friends into a cinema booking, dedicated to the idea of assembling a squad so we could make fun of the film together.

I'm sure plenty of people had the same idea as well, because the meme discourse surrounding the film’s trailers alone were noteworthy, to say the least.

Jack Black being placed within the iconic shoes of Minecraft’s Steve seemed to be a wild concoction of sorts. He always has a way with his performances, and this means that his pronouncing and accentuating the quirks of Minecraft’s world were all the more striking.

You really couldn't go a step in the internet without seeing edits of Jack Black saying the most mundane Minecraft terminology in his whimsical tone, as well as having it sped up, rewound, ranked or repeated. It truly was a disaster - and yet it felt as if everyone had accepted it.

So what exactly is A Minecraft Movie about?

One of the things the creators mentioned during interviews of the movie was its choice of name. The creators emphasised the wording, stating that it would be called “A Minecraft Movie”, rather than “the” one, because they envisioned the story of Minecraft to be up to anyone's interpretation. They didn't want to set a status quo on the game's lore through the film, but instead imply the idea that they were using the game's world to make one of many potential stories surrounding it.

In its story, we follow a myriad of protagonists after Steve’s Introductory sequence, with the most notable ones being former renowned gaming champion, Garret (your local resident pompous loser), and recently orphaned siblings, Henry and Natalie.

After a sequence of events leads to Henry and Garret finding a cube-shaped orb, they opt to follow its trail, eventually dragging everyone from the main cast into the world of Minecraft, where they have to fend for themselves before Steve, the original game’s implied protagonist, saves them.

Steve’s character in the film arguably taken a lot of creative liberties regarding his backstory. It's revealed that he uses the world of Minecraft as a form of escapism from the real world, having already been there for many years of his life. However, when danger strikes the Overworld of Minecraft, he takes the helm in leading Henry’s groups through their journey with the promise of helping them find their way back home after its over.

To that extent, the film places a heavy reliance on how different the world of Minecraft is to the real world. Not only do the greyed out tonal palettes of the outside world present it as a boring hellscape for our primary characters, but the dialogue and overall atmosphere present a drab form of exchanges that Henry and Garret especially struggle conforming towards during their time spent there.

This leads to the world of Minecraft, paired with Jack Black’s trademark whimsical performance as Steve, all the more enticing as a result. Just like the game, the film emphasises a core message of the its world being a land of many creative possibilities, directly contrasting the constrictive real world that our characters struggle against.

Put bluntly, the film is an Isekai: A story about travelling to another world. It's nothing audiences haven't seen before. After all, writing a narrative about a protagonist travelling to a new world is one of the most accessibly easy narratives to create. In having the cast's knowledge of the setting work as a blank slate, this allows them to discover new things about their circumstances alongside the audience.

It also helps save the film writers the efforts of having to subtly imply things as being commonplace within this bizarre world when its main characters are just as clueless as its audience. Simply put, it's often a cheap, yet effective method of introducing a new setting to an audience.

Even so, it's harmless at the end of the day. Do I wish we got more than just a generic Isekai trope for a renowned film adaptation such as Minecraft? Yes, but I also think this is more inoffensive than people give it credit for.

The film's “faithfulness” to its source material is up to personal preference.

Reading up on this film’s production was certainly insightful. While filming the movie, the main cast allegedly got very into playing Minecraft on their own server, in an attempt to immerse themselves in the world between filming time.

It does feel as if their experiences carry into the game. Sure, the standard mechanics of the game were for sure adapted, such as the concept of breaking blocks and building with them.

Even so, there's far more that more experienced players will catch references of.

These include the inclusion of strip mines, flaming a live chicken for seared stake via lava, and even certain game game exploits such as Steve’s creeper farm or his water bucket negating fall damage. The ways that mobs die is also very akin to the game, eventually being faithful enough that I'd at some point completely glossed over everything else about the world looking so different.

That's not to say the film doesn't take creative liberties, because it very much does. The film explores three settings, being the real one, the Overworld, and the Netherworld - where are central villain for the film, Malgosha, lives.

Malgosha’s presence is entirely unique to the film. I personally view the film's enjoyment to rely itself heavily on if you can stand her character or not to begin with. At least to me, the story embraces the concept of her being new to Minecraft's lore through also having her backstory be equally as ludicrous as the rest of the film’s writing.

The Minecraft film’s additional lore ranges from being supplemental to creatively bizarre when compared to the game, but I also think that's where a large part of the charm comes in. It feels as if the team behind it knew that they couldn't, in good health, adapt the game’s lore faithfully enough to please everyone, so they instead picked bits and pieces they liked while adding their own spin to keep things fresh.

In a way, it feels like the opposite of Telltale Games’, Minecraft: Story Mode, game series - which also made additional lore while also maintaining parts of the game’s mechanics, however took itself far more seriously than the latter Minecraft film.

To a hardcore player, this film would be a lot to get used to. Even so, as I've said before, I believe there's merit to its creativity. At the very least, it feels noticeable that a surplus amount of effort was put into this film, and that alone is enough to obtain my respect.

Did the memes lie to us, though?

I think one of the final things I'd like to address about the film is likely the very thing that most critics have taken issue with.

It's about the movie’s writing. Specifically, it's the fact that a majority of the film doesn't stray from the silly marketing we'd seen of the movie before its release.

This is why I believe this film is “self-aware”, because it often never takes itself seriously for a majority of its runtime. There were times that I found myself chuckling to myself while thinking, “how did people in good faith put these lines in the script?”

It's truly a bizarre circumstance. Not only is A Minecraft Movie likely to be one of the most quotable films this year, but so too does it sometimes feels as if it's hitting a checklist of clichés and tropes to fill in during its runtime.

One of my main complaints for the movie, in all honesty, was in how the film began and later resolved its core character conflicts. They'd happen so abruptly that they caught me off-guard, leaving me to wonder if their fastened nature was intentional to begin with.

Besides that, is the comedic antics of Steve and Garret’s portrayal. Jack Black’s vigour and whimsy bounces off well from Steve, massively contrasting his more sparse, yet butch voice lines from the game.

Jason Momoa's Garret, on the other hand, is characterised in such a way that he feels more than just a “butt of the joke”, as well as a reflection of how unseriously the film takes itself to begin with. He acts as a great source of comedic relief for the movie, and his friendship with Henry - while forced - maintains endearment throughout the movie.

The writing for this movie isn't for everyone. It doesn't take itself seriously whatsoever, and yet it revels in that core childishness to a point where I found it more comedically satirical than annoyingly grating.

Even so, I'm speaking of my own personal interpretation of the movie. I've been made aware of people within my social circles who thought otherwise - hence the need for me to advice caution when watching this film. Don't expect the most captivatingly well-written blockbuster (I'm so funny, I know) in recent times, but instead something that you can turn off your brain for if you're feeling the desire for a film that's more relaxed.

Concluding on a cube-shaped note…

I can't, in good faith, recommend this film to just about anyone and everyone. Does that mean this movie is bad? Far from it.

Seeing A Minecraft Movie has been one of the most notable cinema experiences I've had in recent times. In fact, I'd argue that bringing a group of friends along was the very thing that made me enjoy the movie. For me, it was less about the film's contents, but more on the external factors that led to my excitement in seeing the movie.

The film is stupid, bizarre, inherently satirical, yet fun and silly at the same time. A Minecraft Movie doesn't try to be something it knows it can't be, but embraces the parts of itself it isn't - which is why it has my respect.

I don't regret watching this movie. In fact, I'm glad I did. Bring the right group of friends, a relaxed, yet open mind, and you've got the makings for possibly one of the most fun movie experiences within your lifetime.