A Minecraft Movie Review: Hollywood Remake Of Badass Ravi Kumar With Minecraft Touch?

There's a video game called Minecraft which is immensely popular worldwide. Even if you haven't played it, you must have heard about it. They've made a movie based on Minecraft, which isn't that weird in itself. Over the past few years, movie adaptations of video games have earned a lot of money and have been quite successful, from Cyberpunk to Super Mario and Sonic. However, the announcement of the Minecraft movie created quite a stir. The majority of reactions to the teaser trailer ranged from average to negative, with many people not understanding what they were seeing.

But when the Minecraft movie was released in theaters just three or four days ago, it garnered a 47% critics' rating on Rotten Tomatoes, meaning it was considered bad. Since it has been out for a few days, I’ve seen some reactions on social media claiming that the movie is not good. You might agree that it looks weird with Jason Momoa dressed in that video game aesthetic while being converted into live action. But do you know what the real buzz is? The Minecraft movie has broken a record for the highest opening weekend for a video game movie ever. Yes, it has earned more money in its first three days than any other video game movie ever made.

Two years ago, the Super Mario movie grossed over $1 billion worldwide in its first three days, and this new movie beat that record. In fact, early projections for Minecraft before its release estimated it would earn around $70 million in its home market and about $80 million internationally, totaling $150 million. If Minecraft had hit that $150 million target in its first three days, it would still have been considered a success since its budget was also $150 million. Do you want to know how much it actually made? Are you ready? Where expectations were set at $70 to $80 million in the US and Canada, it actually collected over $150 million. When you add in international markets, which is around $144 million. A Minecraft Movie has collected $301 million worldwide in its first three days.

A movie that was supposed to be bad, with early reviews also being poor, still made this much money. But what does that $301 million actually mean? Just for perspective, if I give examples of recently released big movies, the live-action Snow White has made around $168 million so far. Going further back, Marvel's Captain America: Brave New World has made about $393 million to date. The Minecraft movie achieved $300 million in just three days, while Captain America: Brave New World took two months to reach that figure. From what I’ve found on the internet, a major reason behind this is that people expected it to be bad, and the short clips went viral online.

People were wondering, "What is this?" and then they started enjoying those clips and made so many memes that it became funny. If you compare that to a good movie, once it starts to drop, it can fall into that bad category. This particular bad movie turned out to be so bad that people actually liked it. Ladies and gentlemen, do you understand what I’m trying to say? The Minecraft movie is basically a bad movie that people went to watch in theaters as a joke, and it made a significant amount of money.

Everything I say from here on is my opinion regarding the movie. If I had to describe the Minecraft movie in one sentence, it would be: take any generic Hollywood action movie and insert basic characters, add action sequences at regular intervals, and in the climax, include a huge fight where the world is ending, along with a couple of emotional scenes where characters try to express their feelings. You would have seen at least 100 Hollywood movies with this formula. The only difference here is that they added Minecraft to it. The movie itself is very basic and mediocre, but it understood its assignment well and does one thing quite effectively.

When you start playing Minecraft, it gives you a certain experience that feels a little nostalgic. If you are someone who has played this video game a lot or has watched creators on YouTube or Twitch live streams over the past five to six years, you will find elements in this movie that you can relate to. The entire picture revolves around that. On the internet, or when you debate about Marvel, you might have heard discussions about fan service, whether fan service really good or bad? If you want a different example of how a movie can run solely on fan service, Minecraft is a great example. The agenda of the movie was to give you a very uncanny, weird energy experience because the world of Minecraft is just like that. When you enter that game, everything appears in square boxes.

For instance, take the Jumanji movies with Jack Black. When they enter the video game world, the rules are completely different, and it’s fun to watch those bizarre things unfold. However, this latest movie shows the real world where humans exist but makes it so weird that you might think, "What am I watching?" I mentioned Jack Black, who has mastered making movies based on video games. He was also in Jumanji and Super Mario. Here, he commits so much that normal dialogue and expressions don’t exist; he goes to such extremes that what feels weird at the start becomes enjoyable later on. But one thing I must commend is the VFX department. Seriously, the way this movie showcased the Minecraft world with its aesthetics is impressive.

It doesn't look entirely like a video game but resembles real life in a weird way, and they committed to that look. Nothing is real, but it looks consistently good. I’ve played Minecraft for maybe 100 hours, and the way they portrayed going into caves at night with monsters attacking was done perfectly. Overall, it’s quite basic and mediocre.

If you are personally invested in Minecraft, you will catch those pop culture references and enjoy the action sequences. It can be an entertaining time pass if you don’t think too seriously about movies. If you're looking for a weird experience, you might want to give this a try and find out for yourself why the movie is making so much money. Hint: the answer is in the title of the movie- Minecraft. Don’t be surprised if you see a good number of kids in the theater. If I had to watch it again, I’d choose to see Badass Ravikumar.