A Minecraft Movie reviews are in — and it’s a dud

A Minecraft Movie launches officially on April 4 but reviews from critics are hitting outlets today, and surprise surprise, it’s looking like a dud. There are some middling reviews so far and some downright scathing calling it “a new low for modern video game adaptations”, ouch.

Right now, the film is sitting at 52% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 52 reviews, which isn’t exactly promising.

Here’s a sample of some of the reviews so far:

• Globe and Mail “If Minecraft is the game where kids exercise their creativity by building new digital worlds full of tunnels and fortresses. A Minecraft Movie is where that creativity goes to die.”
• Dexerto (1/5)“Let’s be real. I enjoyed the child who kicked my seat for the entirety of the train ride to the screening more than this. I enjoyed only being able to have a £1.75 Greggs sausage roll for dinner because I ran out of time more than this. I later enjoyed watching five and a half hours of Marvel unveiling Doomsday chairs more than this. You get the idea.”
• The New York Times “The silliness of “A Minecraft Movie” will appeal to kids who love the game, to adults who think fondly of this comedy era, and perhaps to few else. But the movie could have gone a more polished and predictable route, like another of Black’s game-related movies, “Jumanji.””
• Indiewire (Grade C) “The Overworld is flattened into a colorful backdrop for a painfully generic adventure, rather than used as a tool for unrestrained ingenuity.”
• Discussing Film (1/5) “Hollywood has spent over a decade conditioning us to expect blockbusters to be riddled with bad CGI, dull stories, and uninspired performances as creativity and originality dwindle to the margins. Nobody expected creativity and originality to be present in A Minecraft Movie, and the film delivers on that promise with lazy pride. Somehow, the video game movie adaptation has reached a new modern low.”
• The Wrap “The most accurate summation of “A Minecraft Movie” is probably “It is what it is.” It’s what it’s supposed to be. It probably won’t dig up many new converts to the game, but should strike box-office silver, at least.”
• The Independant (2/5) “There’s a through line, buried in here somewhere, about how it’s harder to be creative, easier to destroy. Unfortunately, A Minecraft Movie proves its own point. Creativity took too much effort. Easier to destroy the spirit of the video game instead.”
• Variety “A Minecraft Movie isn’t nearly as good as The Super Mario Bros. Movie. It’s not even as good as Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves — which, given the latter’s 50-year-old pedigree, might be described as the analog version of a video game movie. A Minecraft Movie is just a flaky, spirited, low-hijinks quest comedy.”