A Minecraft Movie

"A Minecraft Movie is a film based on the global phenomenon of sandbox video games, a game set in an open world where players can explore, build with blocks, experiment, and create whatever their imagination allows. However, the movie, directed by Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite), doesn't live up to that creativity. The story follows an intelligent but socially awkward boy (Sebastian Hansen), his older sister (Emma Myers), a failed gamer (Jason Momoa), and the game’s protagonist, Steve (Jack Black), who are inserted into the game's world and must survive an adventure to save it from darkness. However, everything in the story is generic, from the characters’ objectives to the journey itself, with an adaptation of Minecraft's cubic world that is colorful and pleasant in its environments but genuinely strange and unsettling with its villagers and monsters. The film exhibits some of Hess' quirky humor in the first few minutes, but it is quickly sidelined in favor of a digital image-heavy adventure that isn’t always visually pleasing. Essentially, it is a corporate product in the same vein as The LEGO Movie, but lacking the same wit, heart, and devotion to creativity. Recommended for fans of the game, and possibly Jack Black or Jason Momoa fans."