Did you hear? There’s a live-action Minecraft movie coming next year. It stars Jack Black, Jason Momoa, Jennifer Coolidge, and Emma Myers, so a pretty solid cast! The first trailer is out now, and it will haunt my dreams until my last breath.
Warner Bros. Pictures has released a teaser trailer for its latest video game movie adaptation, and it’s got a lot going on. There’s a lot to explain here, but we highly recommend you watch the trailer first. We’ve embedded the video below, but again: This will haunt me, and probably you, too. You’ve been warned.
Okay, now that you’ve seen it, let’s start with the obvious. What on earth is going on with Jason Momoa’s bangs? Why is he like that? It’s hard to say if Momoa chose it or if the members of the hair and makeup department are simply living their best lives, but it’s a look that can best be described as “mid-2010s romantic comedy actress,” and it’s both wonderful and deeply distracting.
Jack Black’s Minecraft Steve is just Jack Black being himself and hanging out in the Minecraft world, and it’s hard to argue against that creative direction. It’s worked in a hundred other movies before, and it looks like it’s going to work here. The rest of the cast also seems to be coming to terms with how silly this all is, and Emma Myers, of Wednesday fame, does a great job. So far, so good.
But then the creatures. My goodness, the creatures. The sheep in the introduction is an abomination, the piglins are unnecessarily fleshy, the creeper is… OK, I guess, and the llama, while the most normal looking of the bunch, is still terrifying with its creepy square eyes.
At least the world looks absolutely fantastic, with real props complemented by plenty of CGI to make it look sufficiently like a Minecraft world. Some things look a tiny bit too realistic, but given the mood of the film, that’s certainly something you can overlook – it feels like Minecraft, perhaps with a high-res, realistic texture pack.
“A Minecraft Movie” – the official title – will be released in the USA on April 4, 2024.
