I am Steve. And I finally saw ‘A Minecraft Movie’

Catching up on the year’s #1 box office hit.

Image: HBO Max

A Minecraft Movie was released back in early April and soon emerged as both the #1 movie of the year so far at the box office and as a legitimate cultural phenomenon. And both of those things, somehow, passed me by.

The advance screening was on a Sunday morning, and my kids had something, so I didn’t go. Then, the movie came out, it had astronomical box office numbers, and it led to a series of viral videos of moviegoers (kids, mostly) going crazy and throwing popcorn at certain moments of the film, such as when Jack Black yells out “chicken jockey!”

This led to a whole other debate over how cineastes should feel about it: On the one hand, young people were going to the movies and being enthusiastic about them, but on the other, they weren’t exactly living up to Alamo Drafthouse-approved standards of movie theater decorum.

My older son went to see the film with friends, but I somehow managed to avoid it until this past weekend, when A Minecraft Movie made its debut on the soon-to-be HBO Max.

My verdict: As a middle-aged guy who has never played the Minecraft game a single time, I acknowledge that this movie isn’t exactly for me. But I still see the appeal, much of which is wrapped up in the infectious enthusiasm of Jack Black. And while my son and nephew did all the catchphrases — minus the throwing of popcorn — in the living room, a part of me is kind of sad that I missed out on that movie theater experience.

And no, it’s not nearly as good as its major template, the first LEGO Movie, which was a true creative triumph; I think I had in my top ten that year. But it’s also far superior to the similarly situated Jumanji movies, which also co-starred Black.

Black had something of a career swoon — his Wikipedia page has a section called “2009–2014: Box office bombs” — and the bulk of his recent movie work has been voice acting, in stuff like The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the latest Kung Fu Panda, and Borderlands, a video game adaptation that went wrong in all the ways Minecraft went right.

Speaking of not having a hit in a while, A Minecraft Movie was directed by Jared Hess, who directed Napoleon Dynamite in 2004, and hadn’t made anything successful in the 21 years since. A Minecraft Movie shares with Napoleon Dynamite an Idaho setting, and at least one tater tot reference.