If anyone were to play two men deeply invested in the Overworld of A Minecraft Movie, Jack Black and Jason Momoa were good choices.

Where video game adaptations with planned-out paths such as the fully animated A Super Mario Bros Movie or those like the Tron films that have an organization to the world-building and plot, Jared Hess’ A Minecraft Movie leans into the illusion of organization that disguises the chaos of creativity that the game builds itself around.

The film opens with Jack Black’s Steve – the generic player of the Minecraft universe in the game — sharing his backstory of how he discovered the cubic world in which one can create almost anything. Black lends his kooky voice-over and usual antics like fetching a dog Frisbee and partying with pandas (potentially a nod to his voice work as Po in the Kung Fu Panda films?), which segues into the setup for the other anchoring characters of the story — Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Momoa), Dawn (Danielle Brooks), Natalie (Emma Myers) and Henry (Sebastian Hansen).

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Sister and brother Natalie and Henry move to Chuglass, ID, home of Chuggie the Potato Chip and the factory he represents, after the death of their mother. The low rent and full-time opportunity for Natalie to run the potato factory’s social media accounts provides an offer they can’t refuse, though Henry struggles to fit in at school on his first day as a creative child who thinks outside the box and embellishes his still-life portrait of a banana and orange. He stops by the video game store where Garrett — a former Gamer of the Year down on his luck — unknowingly holds the key to the cubic universe Steve was describing. The pair activate the Orb of Dominance — which is shaped like a cube and comes in two parts, a light blue core and an outer shell called the Earth crystal — to open the portal back to the Overworld.

Garrett, Henry, Natalie and Dawn, the realtor who sold the siblings their house, are transported into the world of imagination, where the action really begins as night falls and hordes of zombies, neon-green explosive creepers and spider-riding, flaming arrow-wielding skeletons soon seek out the four new human additions to the world, forcing Henry to activate his creativity and build them a fortress to shelter. Steve returns in dramatic fashion as day dawns and the zombies catch fire, but not before he employs some of his battle moves like the sneak attack.

Steve’s kidnapping into the Nether by the piglin, who are led by hunched sorceress Malgosha (voiced by Rachel House), prompted the return of the orb to the Overworld after his devoted wolf dog Dennis hid it under his waterbed in his house back on Earth. Steve faces the choice of surrendering the weapon to the gold-mining piglin or showing his new friends and nemesis-turned-frenemy Garrett around the world of unbridled architectural potential.

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The film is at its funniest when Black and Momoa share scenes together, whether it be obscure dialogue that fans of the game will know or potentially ad-libbed one-liners from Black, whose Steve affectionately starts to call The Garbage Man “GarGar” through their harrowing gauntlet of adventures. The stunts involving both men move the plot along, particularly one in which they are flying through the air together with a shared set of wings or dancing a duet to dodge the projectiles as they escape flying piglin carried by stone hot-air balloons that shoot fire. One more memorable scene involves a tied-up Black cheering on Momoa, or GarGar, against a baby zombie who rides around on a chicken to fight Momoa’s grown man.

The film is also not a musical, but that doesn’t stop Black from breaking into song every once in a while. His bromance with Momoa ends on a fitting note at the conclusion of the film.

The quirky humor characteristic to details of the game such as night falling every 20 minutes and Steve’s collection of unisex turquoise blouses left behind in a storage unit with a vintage Atari also spawn laughs. Brooks and Myers’ girl group also holds its own when they are split off from the boys. Henry’s storyline is the true heart of the movie.

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Whether it’s too on-the-nose or not, the film’s overall message of embracing creativity though it can be more of a struggle or heartbreak in a monotonous world hits home, especially when nurtured in young Henry by a wacky but well-meaning Steve, who even decides to follow the quartet to back to the real world after their quest to save the Overworld. Brooks’ Dawn has a similar conversation with Myers’ Natalie about how childhood gives way to adult tasks and side hustles. Jennifer Coolidge delivers a memorable appearance as always as the Chuglass school’s vice principal Marlene, whose husband Clemente divorced her recently. She finds new love with an escaped Overworld villager.

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Although the humor might be niche, that of a teenage boy brain or low-hanging fruit, A Minecraft Movie has heart. And the visual effects are enough to transport any past or present gamer right back into the square-shaped world that lent itself to the blockbuster.

Title: A Minecraft Movie
Distributor: Warner Bros
Release date: April 4, 2025
Director: Jared Hess
Screenwriters: Chris Bowman, Hubbel Palmer, Neil Widener, Chris Galletta, Gavin James, Allison Schroeder
Cast: Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Sebastian Hansen, Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Coolidge, Rachel House, Jemaine Clement, Hiram Garcia
Rating: PG
Running time: 1 hr 41 mins