The first trailer for the Jason Momoa-starring Minecraft movie is here, and my immediate reaction is bafflement—absolute wonderment, really—that 2025 could potentially give us an even bigger videogame movie catastrophe than 2024's Borderlands film—and that both of them feature Jack Black.
Black plays Steve in the film, the Minecraft main guy in the teal shirt who was previously rumored to be portrayed by Pedro Pascal. How a casting department gets from Pedro Pascal to Jack Black is completely beyond me, but I am not a highly-paid Warner Bros executive so I will comment no further except to say it makes me think about Schwarzenegger and Stallone "competing" for the lead role in Stop or My Mom Will Shoot. I bet Pedro's having a good laugh this morning.
As for the trailer itself: Look, folks, I'm not a big Minecraft guy so I'm not going to pick out any hidden-away details or surprise Easter eggs for you. And even if I was in a position to do so, I would not, because my attention is thoroughly focused on other things—specifically, what the hell is going on with Jason Momoa here?
Props to the man for doing his thing, even if I can't put my finger on what exactly that thing is. He's sure come a long way from Ronon Dex.
Anyway, the rest of the trailer is a pastiche of bemused looks, dismissive asides, CGI, and Jack Black being Jack Black, and if that—minus the gunfire, of course—sounds to you at least a little bit like the Borderlands film and all that entails, you're not alone. I thought my reaction to the Minecraft movie teaser might have been driven by a lack of knowledge, or maybe because I just don't like things as a general rule, but the reaction in the YouTube comments isn't what you'd call overwhelmingly positive either:
It goes on like that for a while. It's not all bad but, yeah, it mostly is. The bulk of specific complaints focus on the live-action aspect of the film, the general consensus being that it would fare much better as a fully-animated project, but the broader feeling is simply that the whole thing does not look great no matter how you squint at it. This is only a teaser, mind, not a trailer, so it's possible that a more comprehensive look at the film, which is no doubt on the way, will boost the mood. But maybe not, too.
Courtesy of the YouTube description, here's the quick rundown of what we can look forward to on the narrative side:
Welcome to the world of Minecraft, where creativity doesn’t just help you craft, it’s essential to one’s survival! Four misfits—Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Momoa), Henry (Hansen), Natalie (Myers) and Dawn (Brooks)—find themselves struggling with ordinary problems when they are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal into the Overworld: a bizarre, cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination. To get back home, they’ll have to master this world (and protect it from evil things like Piglins and Zombies, too) while embarking on a magical quest with an unexpected, expert crafter, Steve (Black). Together, their adventure will challenge all five to be bold and to reconnect with the qualities that make each of them uniquely creative…the very skills they need to thrive back in the real world.
And yes, there are a few references to Jumanji in the comments too. Which, in case you'd forgotten, also featured Jack Black.
A Minecraft Movie, which is apparently the official title for it (And why "A Minecraft Movie?" Why not "The Minecraft Movie?" How many of these things are they planning to make?) is set to come out sometime in 2025. We all look forward to making Joshua Wolens watch it.
