SPOILER WARNING

The movie theater was destroyed, left in complete shambles by what looked like everyone and their mothers. Moviegoers couldn’t take a step without feeling the crunch of popcorn kernels beneath their feet. Food was everywhere, drinks were spilled, people were screaming, and police showed up.

All the chaos was started by two simple words: Chicken Jockey.

On Friday, April 4, “A Minecraft Movie” hit theaters in the U.S. and became instantly popular, especially among all audiences, grossing a whopping $163 million on opening week in the U.S. and Canada alone. This was in part because prior to the movie’s release, there was a huge social conversation online about the movie itself.

On popular platforms such as TikTok and Instagram, the Minecraft fandom engaged in heavy debate on the nature of the movie itself, with many believing that the movie would fall short of expectations simply because it was riding solely on the hype of new fans and the nostalgia of old fans. They also believed the movie would be a shallow representation of what the game really is and what it means to them.

They weren’t completely wrong about that either.

Everything from the production, promotion, and plot of the movie operated under the assumption that there would be a supportive fanbase no matter what. That meant that when Warner Bros. became the laughing stock of the internet for their mediocre output, the studio simply leaned into the memes to gain more support.

However, even the renewed approval could not mask the massive holes this movie presented, or its disastrous fallout. 

Because the movie had gained such massive popularity on the internet, yet another case emerged of young teens, usually teenage boys, creating a trend out of the destruction, disturbance, or riling up of a movie theater. In this case, it was all three. 

During a generally comedic scene of the movie, one of the main characters, Garrett, is forced to fight a baby zombie riding a chicken in a boxing ring. It is at this point when another main character, Steve, throws out one of the most destructive one liners in cinema history: “Chicken Jockey.”

As mentioned before, movie theaters were often left in shambles after these incidents, and as it always does, videos of it all were posted all over the internet. This, in combination with other previous movie theater incidents, sparked serious discussion about the decline in cinema etiquette after the COVID-19 pandemic and how we as a society can mitigate incidents like this from occurring while maintaining a fun atmosphere.  

It’s very telling when AMC and Warner Bros. need to create entirely different editions of the movie to accommodate for audiences causing genuine disturbances to the point of needing a literal “meme- along” in separate theaters. 

It’s disappointing that many young adults don’t have the efficacy or etiquette to sit down and watch a movie without causing a public disturbance; it’s disappointing that the studios producing and showing the movie are playing into it by giving those young adults reasons and places to be indecent; and it’s disappointing that the employees working in the theaters get the short end of the stick because they genuinely want everyone to enjoy the movie and have a good time too, just not at their own expense. 

All of the destruction outside of the movie proved to be a great distraction from how mediocre it really was after the first glance. 

For one, the movie was forgettable. Every obstacle the characters face is generally solved or avoided within 30 seconds to a few minutes of being introduced, with the only exception being the main villain of the movie. On top of this, the movie didn’t stay true to the game, with characters creating items that just don’t exist in game or having NPCs act in ways that they can’t. This is obviously a picky critique, but the movie felt that it based itself off the Minecraft spinoff games (Minecraft Dungeons, Minecraft Legends, Minecraft: Story Mode, and Minecraft Earth) rather than the actual game itself, which isn’t an issue in and of itself, but is not what the movie was branded to be. 

The movie’s pacing was also another one of its shortcomings, with a crammed exposition that somehow lasted a quarter of the movie, lengthy filler for most of the story, and a rushed final battle to end the movie on a “happy note” (as they always do).

In everything “profound” that the movie was trying to say, only two messages really hit: fostering creativity is good and the bonds between family and friends should be cherished. The only reason these two messages stuck out in that soup of mixed signals was because one of the main characters said it directly, which almost defies the whole point of having themes woven into a piece of media. 

Beyond this, the entire story makes absolutely no sense and the plot contradicts itself. 

The entire movie could have been avoided if Steve had just told Dennis, his dog, to hide the portal key literally anywhere other than under his bed, or even destroy it. On top of this, the five main characters have clunky dynamics that feel very forced because they are simply made to fit an archetype to try and show a theme which ultimately falls flat.

Walking out of the theater, I couldn’t remember the names of any of the characters because they were only identifiable from the actor who played them or the predictable archetype their character was trying to portray. 

The biggest fault that the movie has is its need to always be bright and happy.  This completely unravels a decent plot near the end of the movie because it erases any meaning from the sacrifices that any of the characters make.

Unfortunately, “A Minecraft Movie” is prime example of a “game turned movie” that irritatingly falls into the overdone trope of “Real world people get sucked into (insert videogame) usually due to bad circumstances  but there’s already another human trapped in the game who will teach them how the game works and will ultimately push the plot forward through their direct relation to the main villain of the story. This character will also stay in the game as they send everyone home because they ‘found their real home’ in the game or are stuck there.” 

This trope comes from movie studios trying to replicate “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’s” wildly successful formula, which actually had dynamic characters, a developed plot, and discernable themes that resonated well with audiences. 

This failed replication paired with a lack of creativity leads to the aforementioned trope, a lack of movie hype/excitement due to predictability, and a decline in the popularity of this genre of movie, which is a shame because if done properly, the movie could have been so much more. Minecraft and its spinoffs have so much lore and worldbuilding that goes into them that either wasn’t on screen for very long or omitted completely from the movie. 

One of Minecraft’s most important areas, The End, houses one of, if not the most universally recognized bosses in gaming history: The Ender Dragon. In a nonlinear game like Minecraft, the death of the Ender Dragon is considered the final step of the game for many players and one of the most heartfelt considering the profound message screen that shows directly after coming home, making the name not only cool, but literal in a sense as well.

To have this area not even mentioned once throughout the entire thing is a complete missed opportunity and a massive fumble on Warner Bros. part, especially considering one of the main items used in the movie, an Elytra, is found only in The End, and one strictly specific part of The End at that.

Through its shortcomings, the movie had its humorous moments, it had cameos and nods to appreciate massive OG minecraft content creators, but most of all it was entertaining. The quality of the movie certainly didn’t outweigh the destruction that was caused because of it, and the plot didn’t truly reflect what the game was or meant to people, but if you were free on a weekend and looking for something fun to do, this movie was definitely worth the watch, even if it wasn’t accurate or logical.