A Minecraft Movie Review

By: Aryan Bachu, Taran Nulu, Ian Tan

The long awaited Minecraft movie recently came out. Does it live up to its hype, and what is a chicken jockey?

SPOILER WARNING

One of the biggest issues with A Minecraft Movie is its plot. It lacks originality, is very predictable, and is very reminiscent of other movies, such as Jumanji. The characters get trapped in a mystical world and are trying to find a way home. Like in Jumanji, the characters run into many issues getting home. The intro to this world seems very lazy, as it is in the form of an exposition dump by Steve, played by Jack Black.

The audience learns a bit about the five main characters’ backstories, but through exposition as well. Garrett, played by Jason Momoa, was one of the best gamers in the world in his youth. However, he fell from grace and now owns an unsuccessful video game shop, as well as is in severe debt. His debt leaves him very desperate and greedy. Steve has always felt held back by the restrictions of the world and is stuck at a dead-end job. He discovers the Minecraft world and decides to stay there to be free from the restrictions of the real world. Natalie, played by Emma Myers, and Henry, played by Sebastian Hansen, have to move towns as their mom passed away, and have to go through the struggles of moving to a new place. Natalie has the pressure to be a good guardian for her younger brother, Henry. Henry is similar to Steve, where he wants to create, but his environment discourages this behavior. While the audience learns a decent amount about the four aforementioned characters, the fifth main character Dawn, played by Danielle Brooks, is barely touched on. The audience learns very little about her—only her job. This disparity makes the story strange, where the audience knows and cares about four of the characters, while Dawn is just there.

This excessive amount of exposition—from the plot to the characters’ backstories—is the movie’s fatal flaw. It tears the audience away from the mystical world back into their seats in a theater. Rather than the audience feeling like they are in the movie, they are being told what is happening.Despite these flaws, A Minecraft Movie has success in its comedy. One of the best parts of the movie was the subplot between Jennifer Coolidge, as Vice Principal Marlene, and a dunce villager who wandered into the real world. Despite the primary audience of the movie being young children, I found myself, as well as other parents in the theater, laughing at several scenes between Vice Principal Marlene and the villager, as well as several other scenes between other characters. Several characters in the movie, especially Steve, just name items from Minecraft and rely on that for comedy. While for most viewers this does not land as comedy, several of these references to Minecraft items have been blown out of proportion and become intensely “memified,” contributing greatly to the Minecraft movie’s success.

Behind the meme:
The Minecraft movie, quite the opposite of our first review, was a huge success. The Minecraft movie is now the second-highest-grossing video game movie of all time, making over $550 million worldwide. Despite the numbers, the success did not come from the movie being good, but rather viewers liked it satirically for how bad it was.

Another reason the Minecraft movie was such a great success was the “memeification” of it, with many social media users and creators quoting lines from the movie. Some of these include: “This is a crafting table,” “They love crushing loafs,” “Big ol red ones,” “This is an ender pearl,” “Flint and steel,” “The nether,” “I am Steve,” “Chicken jockey,” “Water bucket release,” “Steve’s lava chicken,” and “First we mine then we craft—Minecraft.”

Another movie that utilized media to skyrocket its success was Minions 4, where it became a trend to wear suits to the movie. In recent times, it has become a trend to follow the trends, and with such a prominent game as Minecraft, the fanbase was destined to make something about this movie experience different.

The memeification of the Minecraft movie was exemplified by the “brainrot” cycle’s prominent pause, which was prevalent throughout March. This pause would later be recognized as the Great Meme Depression. Typically, each new brainrot—the first prominent being “Smurf Cat”—was created in early 2023. Since then, there have been countless new cycles of memes, over exhausted, then replaced just as quickly as they popped up. Recently, this cycle has sped up, with memes being rapidly created, then overused, being called “mainstream,” and the satirical desire to become niche has led to the speedy development of new memes. Just in 2025, we had “Chopped Chin,” “Eye of Rah,” “Property in Egypt,” “What’s a father?” and the overuse of abbreviations, especially the use of the 🥀 emoji. The increased rate of creation and destruction of memes led to no mainstream “brainrot cycles,” resulting in the Great Meme Depression.

The Great Meme Depression was solved, however. It was saved by Jack Black. Jack Black is known for announcing everything he does in the Minecraft movie, viewed through a satirical lens by the adolescent and early adult audience. This satirical lens turns multiple phrases into iconic symbols that serve as vessels for expressing emotion during the movie. The most popular one, and the one we focus on in this literary argument, is “chicken jockey.”

It has become a trend to throw popcorn and scream as loudly as possible when Jack Black announces “Chicken Jockey.” This trend has gotten so out of hand that after movies, piles of popcorn, confetti, toilet paper, and other party equipment are left in the aftermath of Chicken Jockey. However, theaters have found a creative solution to this problem. Tim Lammers from Forbes talks about how this problem is plaguing theaters worldwide; however, there is a solution. Many theaters are creating separate “Chicken Jockey screenings,” where viewers are encouraged to throw as much popcorn and scream as loud as they want. This separation of the two niches allows both audiences to have the perfect screening experience, ultimately contributing to the movie’s remarkable success.

A Minecraft Movie is not revolutionary in any way. Its plot is not very unique, and its characters lack much depth. It does okay with some comedy, but it is by no means a comedy movie. However, I believe that it does not need to be revolutionary, or even good. It is supposed to be an adaptation of Minecraft. The Minecraft world in the movie is a good representation of the game. A Minecraft Movie does justice to the game.

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-minecraft-movie-is-now-the-no-2-highest-grossing-video-game-movie-of-all-time/1100-6530830/ 
https://www.forbes.com/sites/timlammers/2025/04/14/a-minecraft-movie-theater-chain-announces-chicken-jockey-screenings/