Steve (Jack Black) always dreamed of going into the mines as a boy. When he fulfils that dream as an adult he finds a new world where you can build anything you can think of as well as an artifact that an evil sorcerer wants to use for nefarious purposes. But do not fear, another group of intrepid travellers have found their way to this new world and may just be able to save the day.

A Minecraft Movie features a large exposition dump from Jack Black’s character in the opening minutes that tries to give an overview of the videogame’s logic for all the parents taking their kids to watch this movie. Which kind of sums up the lack of faith the writers (no less than five are credited!) have in the concept of the movie and where they are pitching the film in terms of its audience. Ultimately this should be about getting our protagonists into the world of Minecraft as quickly as possible and having some creative fun. It is odd then that it then returns to the real world for far too long introducing us to its rather uncreative characters.

Our heroes are recently orphaned brother and sister Henry (Sebastian Hansen) and Natalie (Emma Myers) who have moved to a new town. Bigger sister Natalie is struggling to deal with being her brother’s guardian at such a young age whilst Henry is super creative but misunderstood by those his age. They are both incredibly dull and cookie cutter characters. Dawn (Danielle Brooks) is their real estate agent who sold them their house and has zero character other than “zany”. Whilst the only one with a modicum of intrigue is Jason Momoa’s washed up 1989 video game champion Garrett whose dress sense and idea of cool is locked in the 1980’s.

The film is probably at its best when it just unleashes Momoa and Black’s characters at each other. Two man-children vying for superiority in the most idiotic of ways. Momoa plays a little against type and is basically a punching bag for all of the enemies in the world whilst Black sings (numerous times) and rattles off his usual schtick. And if you do not like the sound of that boy are you in trouble if you watch this film!

The blocky special effects mimicking the world of Minecraft are fairly impressive and that is about as much excitement as I can muster for the film as a whole. Unlike The Super Mario Bros. Movie I have no nostalgic interest here. I have never played Minecraft despite watching my kids put in countless hours. But they spent quite a lot of the running time declaring, “that’s not how it works!”. So I am not sure if this film will please all but the youngest audience or the Tik Tok crowd who got excited about something called “Chicken Jockey”. And the less said about Jennifer Coolidge’s role in the film the better!

If you are interested in watching this barrage of nonsense and noise keep your eyes/ears peeled for cameos from Jemaine Clement and Matt Berry and be aware that there are mid and end credits stings. But ultimately I would not recommend it!