Game-to-screen experience

Minecraft, the game, was released in 2011 by Swedish developer Markus Persson, and it was about creative world-building within a digital landscape. The film, though, had a set agenda and it was not possible for the players to choose their own adventures. Even so, the multiple writers and the director manage to make it a game watch.

Minecraft’s unfussy pixelated design, simple colour scheme, Lego-like look and ambient sound make it an uncomplicated attraction for the really young. The film though is targeted at a wider demographic. Written by Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer, Neil Widener, Gavin James and Chris Galletta, it tries hard to court a general audience while appeasing the existing one. Because of this, it fails at times to spark the imagination.

The prologue quickly establishes Steve’s (Jack Black) universe — the sandbox game that helped the doorknob salesman deal with adulthood by reigniting his creativity. And because of it, he has a wolf he tamed and christened Dennis. Steve stumbles upon a hell-like world called the Nether where Malgosha (Rachel House), a greedy Piglin who hates joy and creativity, rules. She kidnaps Steve to take over his universe but Dennis manages to escape and hide the orb in the human world, thereby putting a spoke in Malgosha’s wheel, so to speak.

But the story doesn’t end there. Garrett (Jason Momoa), a former championship gamer, buys Steve’s possessions in the hope that the lot might have a valuable game that could bring him the money to help save his failing arcade store. But all Garrett finds is the orb, whose value he doesn’t yet understand. On the other side, across town on the same day, Henry (Sebastian Hansen) and his older sister Natalie (Emma Myers) move into Steve’s previous home.

Their realtor Dawn (Danielle Brooks) has just concluded the sale. Henry eventually finds Garrett’s store and the two bond quickly. They also decide to follow the orb and end up in an abandoned mine shaft that leads them to Steve. Natalie and Dawn are not far behind.

Henry has an intuitive sense of the minecraft universe and is able to figure out the lay of the land.

Black’s performance is physical, easy on the eye and he even gets to belt out a couple of songs. Momoa’s take on Garrett, a bumbling championship gamer living in the shadow of his glory days, is also quite entertaining. The rest of the characters are underdeveloped.

Minecraft, known as a sandbox game, allows the player to invent things. So, making a movie of it is quite a challenging task. Jared Hess, an absurdist filmmaker, makes it a ‘game-ish’ one even though it may not be the best.

As an audience, we don’t have much of a dramatic stake in this cobbled-together universe.

The film is replete with zany set pieces and has ragtag characters at the heart of the story, but the lack of character development and a complicated storyline make it hard to be completely immersed or involved.

Although, for a game-to-screen experience, this one is a halfway decent one.

Movie Review