Mario Martinez Ignacio is a writer from Mexico City. As a child, he spent most of his free time deep-diving into online wikis, which sparked a passion for lore and worldbuilding. Driven by his love for writing, Mario obtained a BFA in Dramatic Writing at the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2024. With the objective of inspiring others, he fuses writing and education to create narratives that entertain while igniting curiosity and fostering new perspectives, one word at a time.
Apr 7, 2025
Table of Contents
16 years after its legendary release ‘Minecraft’ finally gets a film adaptation with ‘A Minecraft Movie’ in the hands of the filmmaker behind the beloved ‘Nacho Libre’.
On May 2009, Markus Alexej Persson better known as the legendary “Notch” released a simple building-based exploration game after changing its name from ‘Cave Game’ to ‘Minecraft’ as a developmental release. As time went by Notch kept updating the game until in January 2011 ‘Minecraft’ hit a million sales, by July that number reached 10 million.
Ever since its humble birth back in 2009, Notch designed Minecraft to be a sandbox game—an unstoried canvas for infinite expression, a haven for everflowing free creativity, and for many years—to this very day it has profoundly been successful at doing so. Yet, in a bold turn, Director Jared Hessand and writers now make a very audacious attempt with ‘A Minecraft Movie’ to add a cohesively structured narrative to it.
With a central message of embracing boundless creativity, ‘A Minecraft Movie’ does try to make an earnest effort to intertwine meaningful storytelling with themes such as embracing individuality and finding acceptance through shared experiences. However, these go largely unfulfilled due to the dumbification of its plot and characters—most likely watered down to be tailored to cater to a younger audience, despite most fans of the franchise now being on average in their early to mid-20s. This makes the plot feel dull, lacking any substantial philosophical depth—devoided of introspective resonance.
Each character seems to have their “unique trait” very exaggerated, to an extreme over-the-topness that leans into stereotypes, reducing the creative protagonist being portrayed as an immature, naive tinkerer, the responsible sister as a paranoid overworrying architect of order, and the town gamer as a mere comical washed-up failure. Not only weakening these characters but also risking for audiences to feel wrongfully identified with such stereotypes.
Amidst this, the film’s strong suit definitely is its action sequences. Despite them being somewhat exaggerated as well, they managed to effortlessly evoke a pretty decent mix of entertaining and visceral awe—a fleeting glimpse of what the film could have achieved had it trusted its audience’s intellect. If it wasn’t for the rushness and abrasive exposition throughout the whole thing, which compresses the hour and 40 minutes feeling curiously and alarmingly collapsed in within barely an hour, the emotional depth and thematic richness of the world would have had a chance to unfold in a more meaningful way.
Despite its simplistic and retro-filled aesthetic, Minecraft’s visual design has managed to captivate millions for the past 16 years. Even after introducing multiple textures and updates, many still prefer set “classic” blocky textures that have come to define the game’s timeless charm.
Striving for realism amidst a shimmering illusion of perfection, ‘A Minecraft Movie’ struggles to recapture this iconic essence, just like seen in trailers everything seems to be placed under a smoothness filter, stripping that beloved original rawness away—leaving behind a polished veneer that leaves the only objects resembling the game’s textures being the handheld ones, and even such details being a barely noticeable trace of the past’s unrefined truth.
The film’s visual effects feel overly ornate, being engineered purely for the sole purpose of increasing attention to sensationalist visual humor and its overblown action. Such spectacles are often seen as quite entertaining and conspicuous the overdoing of such the overdoing of such extravagant and grotesquely theatrical-looking sequences that disrupt with the immersion more often than they enhance it.
The enemies—commonly called “mobs” in the game—have their designs and animations feel overly frantic, as if someone configured the spawn rate to an unreasonable pace, whereas in the game, things tend to be a tad bit more… milder while still having a significant impact on the player. Stripping away the gentle cadence of creative thought, leaving behind only the hollow echoes of a forsaken narrative.
When it comes to its musical aspects, ‘A Minecraft Movie’ feels to have been somewhat forced into the narrative. Just as if they saw the huge spike in popularity of Jack Black’s musical features and decided to add it last minute. Disjointed from any narrative rhythm—song selections, feeling out of place, underwhelming.
Thanks to its vastless terrain of endless, uncharted creativity, Minecraft has been revered as the base for countless amazingly astonishing independent short films across the deep expanse of digital imagination of video game films. Yet, when it comes to professionally made pieces—those which stand grounded, propelled behind multi-million-dollar budgets like ‘A Minecraft Movie’, have had quite have had quite a tremulous and contradictory throughout history.
We have seen many examples. From the chaotically violent cinematic fragmented fever dream of 1997’s ‘Mortal Kombat Annihilation’ to the disappointingly hollow spectral echo of potential that was 2021’s ‘Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City’, we are cyclically reminded again and again of the illusion that deeper meaning can be easily manufactured within narratives that were never born from intention.
Nonetheless, if inherent balance is struck correctly, like the quiet yet public revolutions of recent years, and with a good synthesis of robust and keen research and logical execution has proven that unwavering conviction can not only be good transmuting adaptations but also highly successful. Shows like the emblematic triumph of the Emmy-Winning ‘The Last of Us’ or highly resilient creative endeavors like ‘Detective Pikachu’ of the ‘Sonic The Hedgehog’ series have shown to transcend expectations, hat through unwavering commitment, and if visionaries embrace the uncharted, endless possibilities have the power to unfold.
In its bold attempt to bring the creative soul of Minecraft to our perception of the limitless possibility of immersive worlds, ‘A Minecraft Movie’ unfortunately succumbs to a superficial kinetic spectacle, sacrificing the nuanced cadence of introspection and narrative simplicity that once whispered profound truths through each digital block. Disregarding the lifelong fans of the franchise to chase fleeting trends for a quick commercial gain with a children audience, and exaggerating characteristics that if left to their natural flow may have unfolded deeper meaning.
By Mario Martinez Ignacio
Click here to read The Hollywood Insider’s CEO Pritan Ambroase’s love letter to Cinema, TV and Media. An excerpt from the love letter: The Hollywood Insider’s CEO/editor-in-chief Pritan Ambroase affirms, “We have the space and time for all your stories, no matter who/what/where you are. Media/Cinema/TV have a responsibility to better the world and The Hollywood Insider will continue to do so. Talent, diversity and authenticity matter in Cinema/TV, media and storytelling. In fact, I reckon that we should announce “talent-diversity-authenticity-storytelling-Cinema-Oscars-Academy-Awards” as synonyms of each other. We show respect to talent and stories regardless of their skin color, race, gender, sexuality, religion, nationality, etc., thus allowing authenticity into this system just by something as simple as accepting and showing respect to the human species’ factual diversity. We become greater just by respecting and appreciating talent in all its shapes, sizes, and forms. Award winners, which includes nominees, must be chosen on the greatness of their talent ALONE.
I am sure I am speaking for a multitude of Cinema lovers all over the world when I speak of the following sentiments that this medium of art has blessed me with. Cinema taught me about our world, at times in English and at times through the beautiful one-inch bar of subtitles. I learned from the stories in the global movies that we are all alike across all borders. Remember that one of the best symbols of many great civilizations and their prosperity has been the art they have left behind. This art can be in the form of paintings, sculptures, architecture, writings, inventions, etc. For our modern society, Cinema happens to be one of them. Cinema is more than just a form of entertainment, it is an integral part of society. I love the world uniting, be it for Cinema, TV, media, art, fashion, sport, etc. Please keep this going full speed.”
Mario Martinez Ignacio is a writer from Mexico City. As a child, he spent most of his free time deep-diving into online wikis, which sparked a passion for lore and worldbuilding. Driven by his love for writing, Mario obtained a BFA in Dramatic Writing at the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2024. With the objective of inspiring others, he fuses writing and education to create narratives that entertain while igniting curiosity and fostering new perspectives, one word at a time.
Mario Martinez Ignacio is a writer from Mexico City. As a child, he spent most of his free time deep-diving into online wikis, which sparked a passion for lore and worldbuilding. Driven by his love for writing, Mario obtained a BFA in Dramatic Writing at the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2024. With the objective of inspiring others, he fuses writing and education to create narratives that entertain while igniting curiosity and fostering new perspectives, one word at a time.
Mario Martinez Ignacio is a writer from Mexico City. As a child, he spent most of his free time deep-diving into online wikis, which sparked a passion for lore and worldbuilding. Driven by his love for writing, Mario obtained a BFA in Dramatic Writing at the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2024. With the objective of inspiring others, he fuses writing and education to create narratives that entertain while igniting curiosity and fostering new perspectives, one word at a time.
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