On September 4, Warner Bros released a trailer for a movie based on an iconic video game from 2011: The Minecraft Movie. This live-action teaser received almost immediate backlash from fans and critics due to the many differences seen between the Mojang Studios game and the forthcoming film. With 36 million views as of September 14, the trailer on YouTube only has 677k likes, and a staggering 1.6 million dislikes.
The trailer for the movie, scheduled for an April 2025 release, showcases a group of four people entering the world of Minecraft through a blue portal into the newly-texturized and realistic rendering of the world. Celebrities such as Jason Momoa, Danielle Brooks, Emma Myers, and Sebastian Hansen are featured in the film as the main group of characters, with Jack Black playing Minecraft’s primary protagonist, Steve. The movie is being directed by Jared Hess, best known for the 2004 surprise hit Napoleon Dynamite and 2006’s Nacho Libre, which also features Black in the starring role.
Fans were quick to point out the changes in the movie adaptation, the first being that the portal the cast enters through is light blue, whereas the portals from the game (namely the Nether portal) are a dark purple. Unlike the movie, the portals from the games are both unique in appearance and connect to two different dimensions. The portal shown in the trailer, however, is just a recoloration of the Nether portal.
Another thing fans disliked was the scaling of the world, such as the wood block the protagonist breaks and holds and the shrunken iron and sticks on the crafting table. “Nothing seems scale accurate to the game,” an experienced Minecraft player commented. The game has consistent blocks, all being generally the same size in relation to one another, while the movie shows skewed trees and proportions not following Minecraft’s scale, although the items in the world and in the menu screen are different sizes and shapes. All players were always two blocks tall; however, the trailer characters are all different heights, disorienting the scale even more.
One fan who has played Minecraft since childhood and has logged over 7,000 hours on it said, “It should not have been live-action. … It’s just Jumanji with blocks.” Fans were hesitant about the plot due to the Minecraft gameplay being “self-paced” and “relaxing,” and the trailer showcasing similar concepts to the Jumanji movie, where a handful of characters are transported to a new world and have to explore and learn about the realm.
Although the movie looks a bit rough, the character designs have been met with consistent approval from fans. The Piglins (a hog-faced race living in the Nether), for example, look like they do in the game, just more detailed and expressive. Same with the Llama and Ghasts (mobs of hostile square ghosts).
Despite the controversial outlook, many fans are still looking forward to see what this movie has in store and whether or not it will be worth watching, and if it’s worthy of being called The Minecraft Movie.
