You have likely seen the videos of moviegoers clapping louder than they did during “Avengers: Endgame.” The popcorn buckets flying across the theater. You might have even heard people incessantly repeating something about a “chicken jockey.” 

There are movies you admire, and then there are movies you enjoy. Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” is the kind of film you study. “A Minecraft Movie,” released earlier this month, is the kind you point and laugh at. 

It is the sort where you yell out references alongside the kids in the next row and leave the theater trying to digest everything you have witnessed. It is chaotic, dumb and frequently baffling — but that is also what makes it work.

Minecraft’s voiceless protagonist, Steve, is portrayed by Jack Black. He begins the movie with the energy of a rogue “Saturday Night Live” sketch, and from there, the absurdity only increases. This movie is a feature-length meme compilation, stitched together and held aloft by the sheer willpower of Black’s over-the-top performance and vocal cords. 

The film opens with a loading screen reminiscent of the ones in the titular game’s world creation screen, and then we are dropped headfirst into a world full of pixelated mayhem. Steve narrates his journey from a child who “yearned for the mines” to his unfortunate exile to the alternate world of Minecraft. 

There is, technically, a plot. Jason Momoa plays Garrett ‘the Garbage Man,’ a game store owner who peaked in the 80s as an arcade champion. His nickname inspires Jennifer Coolidge’s character to deliver the line, “You can bag me up and take me to the curb.”

Steve and Garrett are joined by Dawn (Danielle Brooks), a real-estate agent and part-time mobile petting zoo operator. Brooks does not get as much opportunity to shine as the rest of the cast, but it is clear that she, like everyone else, is having a blast.

The adults are also joined by siblings Natalie (Emma Myers) and Henry (Sebastian Hansen). Together, they are transported to “The Overworld,” Minecraft’s dimension analogous to the real world. 

As they try to return home, we see them explore several classic Minecraft locales, including the Nether (an analog to Hell), a village populated with humanoids appropriately called villagers and a woodland mansion populated with the villagers’ evil counterparts, the pillagers.

The villain is a piglin (a man-pig hybrid present in the game) sorceress named Malgosha (voiced by Rachel House) that was invented for the film. Our introduction is seeing her stab a piglin child for the grievous crime of drawing a picture with crayons. Her motivation is that she once performed at a talent show and got bad reviews. Now she wants to destroy all creativity.

In the movie’s gag B-plot, a nitwit villager from the game gets isekai’d into the human world and is promptly hit by Coolidge’s Jeep Grand Cherokee — a vehicle she says she has accidentally used as a weapon before. They fall in love, go on a date and live happily ever after.

Garrett and Steve share an intriguing but persistent erotic tension, culminating in a moment where, in an attempt to glide through a tunnel, they form what they call a “full man sandwich.” You will understand when you see it.

The movie knows its fans, and it serves them exactly what they came for: explosions, piglins, blocky nostalgia and more than a few cameos from YouTubers and even Minecraft developer Jens ‘Jeb’ Bergensten. Technoblade, a Minecraft YouTuber who passed away in 2022, is given a brief homage.

Ultimately, “A Minecraft Movie” is not trying to be deep. It is not a cinematic masterpiece. But it doesn’t need to be. It is a sugar-rush of pixels, slapstick and nerdy game references. It made the kids in the theater laugh, got the parents to chuckle and even gave long-time fans something to obsess over.

Every scene seems designed with one goal in mind — triggering recognition. Minecarts, elytra wings, endermen, creepers, easter eggs — each moment is a nod, a wink or a nudge that encourages the audience to cheer like trained seals. And in most cases, it works spectacularly. 

Yet somehow, the movie is fun. Not prestige cinema, but undeniably fun. It is the kind of film that makes you laugh at it as much as with it, and that may be the point. Like a child’s fever dream brought to life, it throws enough insane energy at the screen that some of it sticks.

Black sings no fewer than three times. A pink sheep gets viciously mauled by zombies. There’s a piglin named General Chungus who has an exaggerated effeminate voice and uses the term “unalive” (an internet self-censorship of ‘kill’).

It is a film that knows exactly what it is — and embraces it fully. If you go in expecting the ultimate nostalgic Minecraft experience, you will probably be disappointed. But if you are ready to turn off your brain and have some fun — you will probably leave happy. 

Ultimately, “A Minecraft Movie” thrives not in spite of its absurdity but because of it. It is the cinematic equivalent of eating a whole cake with your hands. You might regret it later. But you might just have the time of your life while doing it.

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