It’s been a great week for gamers, especially if you’re a Minecraft fan.
With the recent release of Warner Bros’ A Minecraft Movie starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa, the conversation about video game adaptations and their critical reception is back in the spotlight. The movie has been mostly panned by critics, but is seeing overwhelming approval from audiences, where it currently holds an 88% approval rating from viewers on Rotten Tomatoes.
While it’s not unusual for a video game adaptation to have higher audience approval vs critic approval, the response to A Minecraft Movie, especially from Gen-Z viewers, has been nothing short of overwhelming. Theaters across the country have reported rowdy teenagers screaming and cheering during the film, even going so far as to throw food and other debris and leading to police escorting the worst perpetrators from the theater. It’s been compared to the audience response to Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame, and the reactions to the return of all the heroes lost to Thanos’ snap (minus the trashing of the theaters). Looking past the vandalism aspect of the film’s response, it’s been an unprecedented premiere for a video game film, which is now being lauded as the highest grossing video game adaptation in its opening week.
This does beg an interesting question. Many moviegoers take critic reviews into account before going to the movies. After all, who wants to waste money on a movie that is being universally panned? That said, there is a very obvious disconnect between the response from movie critics and the response from the average viewer when it comes to video game adaptations. Historically, video game adaptations have not been the most well received in either camp. Films like Super Mario Brothers and Mortal Kombat from the 1990s come to mind. However more recently, with the success of films like Pokemon: Detective Pikachu or the Sonic the Hedgehog trilogy, the disconnect between critics and average moviegoers is more obvious. And the response from filmmakers has been the best possible response they could make: they’re making movies with the fans in mind, not the critics. And the results are clear.
Personally, I’ve never played Minecraft (gasp), so I am not the target audience. Warner Brothers didn’t make this movie for me, nor did they make it for the elite film snobs constantly on the hunt for the next film they can boast as being an “Oscar sleeper” at their next book club meeting. They made it for the Gen-Z teenagers staying up all night on Minecraft servers with their friends when they should be doing their homework. They made it for the tired Gen-X and Millennial parents that just need a couple hours of reprieve while their kids kick their feet in their seats in the theater. They know their audience, and nothing a film critic says is going to strip said audience from the chaotic joy of hearing Jack Black yell “Chicken Jockey!”
While we have been seeing this shift in motion, that of making video game movies for gamers vs critics, the resounding success of A Minecraft Movie is only going to strengthen this commitment. Going to movies like this one and expecting high art is like going to Taco Bell and expecting high end Mexican food. You’re in the wrong place, and this fare wasn’t made for you. But you and I can appreciate the majesty of a well timed Crunchwrap Supreme at 10pm on a Tuesday. Just like a 14 year old kid and their buddies will appreciate the slapstick humor only found in a Minecraft server they have been playing in together since they were 10.
It’s an exciting time, and even if I’m not a Minecraft fan, the movie symbolizes an exciting future of possibilities for the industry, and the blending of video game adaptations as films. Sure, they won’t all be winners, but the odds seem a lot more in our favor now than they did in the 90s, when filmmakers clearly were failing to understand their target audience. The future is bright. And full of chicken jockeys, apparently.
