A Minecraft Movie

You're probably familiar with A Minecraft Movie. If you knew me, it would make sense that I like this movie. I love Minecraft and stupid, lighthearted movies. So the fact that they made a stupid lighthearted movie about Minecraft is reason enough for me to like it unironically.

Minecraft was one of if not my first video game. I actually remember getting it. I was in gamestop with my family for something, and I noticed it on the shelves. I thought it looked cool, and asked for it. My Dad playtested it to make sure I could play it. I remember playing it and thinking the zombies were supposed to be friends at first (any other game I've played beforehand was pokemon or mario, so maybe I didn't understand the concept of minecraft). I've been playing the game since, I played it fairly consistently (I remember my mom tried to get me to play COD and branch out, I didn't) until 2020, where I started playing Animal Crossing pretty much every day for a year straight (hey, I had nothing else to do!). I still play fairly often when I'm not busy, and have found fun playing minecraft with friends.

I remember when the trailer came out, I didn't like it too much. It was like a dinner you had to eat even though you didn't really want to. Fine, but pretty unsatisfying. Maybe that's how everyone else saw it. But something funny happened as the release date inched closer. I started actully getting excited for it. I was counting down the days, I got the 12in Steve action figure, I made bracelets. And this was BEFORE the movie came out. The first time I saw it with two of my friends on opening night. We dressed up for it. I wore a knockoff Minecraft shirt at a weird store they took us to on the DC trip instead of the Smithsonian (The trip was poorly planned out or poorly executed), and brought my 12in Steve. The theater was packed, there was actually A LINE to get tickets, which is saying something, considering this wasn't even a good theater, and almost any other day it's practically empty. We had the full Minecraft Movie experience, people clapped and cheered (but had enough sense not to throw popcorn, from what I could tell). It felt unreal no matter how many times I saw it, and probably the stupidest movie experience in the best way possible.

As for the actual contents of the movie, I can't explain what made me attached to it. It's cheesy, not the most original, and isn't even accurate. It's the most generic "real life people in another world" story, and the movie is just "alright" but by god do I love it for that. I loved Steve and Garrett as characters, but Henry Natalie, and Dawn could have been more interesting characters, especially considering Natalie and Dawn had like no screen time. I think the reason I like it is because it's stupid, but (likely) on purpose. That's the sort of energy I think more people should have.