Fans are not enthusiastic about the trailer for the new live-action Minecraft movie, but will their criticism make a difference?
Warner Bros released a teaser for Minecraft’s new live action movie on YouTub. Many reactions to the video centered around the animation style and plot details featured within the trailer.
The teaser featured household names such as Jason Mamoa and Jack Black as Steve. The main cast also included Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, Sebastian Eugene Hansen. The teaser description mentioned Jennifer Coolidge, but she was not depicted in the video. Mojang, the game’s developer, first pitched a Minecraft movie in 2012, with Warner Bros mentioning it was in early development in 2014. The COVID-19 pandemic postponed the initial premiere on March 4, 2022. The teaser projected that the movie will release on April 4 of 2025.
A common complaint amongst fans of Minecraft was Warner Bros’ seeming lack of passion for the movie, criticizing the art style, humor, and the concept of the film. YouTuber Phoenix SC covered the trailer in a livestream. “The problem with this teaser is that it gives off the impression that the film is very lifeless and has jokes that do not land,” he said. The Youtuber then referenced how the teaser handled the introduction of Steve, played by Jack Black. “If this is the level of humor they’ve included in the film, then it’s gonna fall flat. [This joke] is not funny,” he said.
Phoenix noted that, while it will take time, the animators can make alterations to the style given significant adverse responses. The main issue, however, is that, as Phoenix said, “It’s not just the sheep… They’re going to have to change a lot of [the figures].”
The teaser featured live actors within a set that was largely CGI. The setting and animals were designed in a photorealistic version of Minecraft’s blocky graphics. Many in the comments claimed that the two were poorly blended together, making the overall viewing look “horrendous” as one commenter put it.
In an interview with an anonymous student from Goucher, a long-time fan of Minecraft, recalled their initial feelings of watching the teaser as an “oh no” gut feeling. They explained that it felt like the movie was suffering from the ‘Video Game Movie curse,’ wherein most video games adapted into movies either bomb or the creators don’t give the proper respect to the source material. “I am so [disappointed] they aimed for a Live Action approach when animation is [having] a big boom and a resurgence in preference when adapting something to film,” they said.
The trailer came after online praise for both Spider Verse movies and 3D animated shows such as Arcane. Mojang regularly releases videos in their official 3D block animation style in their Minecraft Live, which the fan said they would have preferred, along with graphics that were updated for a cinema view while adhering to the original game design. They also brought up how Minecraft books and fan animations align more with the content and mechanics of the game itself. “[Warner Bros] just needs a polish that movies give all animated features, not a full live action Jumanji-rip off cast,” the student stated.
Many worried about how the movie would portray key mechanics to the game, such as crafting. Within Minecraft, players can take ingredients from around the in-game world, such as wood and stone, to create objects via a crafting table. In the teaser, Jason Momoa placed random items on a crafting table and formed an object never seen in-game before – what appeared to be two buckets connected by a chain.
Alongside consistency were also concerns about how the movie would portray some of the game’s more concerning aspects, such as villagers, who were allegedly an anti-semetic portrayal created by the game’s creator, Notch. Their noses are large, and they are the only way to use the game’s form of currency, emerald gems. They also create an iron golem, a creature from Jewish mythology, to protect themselves from monsters.
Offensive imagery aside, many were disappointed with how the teaser seemed to be missing or mishandling many of Minecraft’s core features. The fan claimed that, “It just feels… like [Warner Bros] hollowed out all the things Mojang [has] filled the [world] up with, which is what everyone really wanted to see.” Viewers will have to determine this for themselves when the film debuts next year.
By Jaiden Johnson, ’27
