Alright…let’s talk about A Minecraft Movie because it’s actually something I’ve never really brought up here.
If you know me, you’d know that I grew up playing video games. While I wouldn’t call my constant daily check-ins and terrible carnival games of Webkinz the pinnacle of gaming, I will say that as I got older, I started to expand what games I played—many of which ended up becoming great video game adaptations.
From the new yet strange adaptation of Until Dawn to HBO’s successful The Last of Us all the way to the horror hit of Five Nights at Freddy’s, which is getting a FNAF2 sequel very soon – these are the games that defined my childhood, or, at the very least, my teen years. These are the games that, if I could, I would wipe from my memory and replay just for fun.
But there’s one game I haven’t talked about a lot in the past, and that’s Minecraft. With the release of the new movie, which felt like it was taking forever to get made, I decided to see it. Now, I have a major decision to make in terms of the franchise as a whole, and I have to talk about it.
I Played Minecraft All The Time When I Was Younger
While I will admit I was not playing Minecraft when it launched back in 2009, I hopped on the game back in 2011. I instantly fell in love with the world-building aspect. I saw the opportunity to create fantastical structures in strange ways that you wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else in the world.
I got really into Minecraft for a time, as well as The Sims 4 (which is funny because apparently, The Sims is receiving the movie treatment as well). But, of course, school happened, and I wasn’t able to play as much. But then college came around.
Back in college, I finally started to meet people from literally all over the country. While I loved going home for the summer and the break from academics, it was always a pain to try to find ways to connect with my long-distance friends and, even worse, my long-distance boyfriend. What was the best way? Minecraft.
We would hop onto the same server for hours, exploring, building, and just talking about literally nothing and everything. It was one of the best ways for us to connect, even if we weren’t in the same room anymore. It was stress-free and fun, and we would have nights that would go well past our bedtime (I mean, we were college students, so there was really no bedtime, but you get the point).
We got so into it that my boyfriend and I had dates in Minecraft. We would get the same food, travel to a certain point on the server, and then talk and eat over the phone while we played. It brings back memories that I smile about all the time. It was such a wonderful way to connect.
But I Stopped Because Of, Well, Time
Time is like the creepy uncle who comes to the family Christmas party. You try to avoid him, but he always comes knocking and brings his weird new young girlfriend with him. You can’t evade the inevitable.
And time is really what drove me away from Minecraft.
We graduated college, and ironically, we found ways to connect that weren’t in the game despite still being miles away (usually with parties now and again to see each other). I moved in with my boyfriend, so there was no longer any need for long-distance dates. And, of course, I got a full-time job. I had to do adult things. I needed to shop for groceries and all that stuff.
I didn’t have the time anymore to dedicate to the game that I once held so dear. And honestly, for years, it’s just kind of been collecting dust. But then the movie came along.
The Movie Made Me Realize That I Genuinely Missed The Game
The 2025 movie schedule is filled to the brim with a lot of great films coming out, but I’m going to be real because I trust you – I did not think A Minecraft Movie was going to do so well and didn’t plan to pay money to view it.
From the early reactions, I believed it would bomb. I stand corrected now with the mega amounts of money it has made. So, I decided to see the film with my dad for fun.
It was like the memories of this game came rushing back.
The film literally opens with one of the main scores from the Minecraft soundtrack, and almost instantly, I had tears in my eyes.
I saw the Overworld and everything else around it, and it just made every single emotion that I could have had about this series bubble right to the surface and boil over onto the stove beneath it. And it’s then I realized…I really missed this game.
It Wasn’t Even The Content That Got Me, It Was The Memories That Came Racing Back
This makes it sound like I’m praising A Minecraft Movie. I’m not. The film is what it paints itself out to be – it is, at its best, a children’s film that doesn’t know how to take a breath and is constantly feeding intense CGI action sequences down your throat with block-head animations. At its worst, it’s a movie that has no serious substance and is made just as a cash grab.
The story is nothing new. But what got to me, as a former Minecraft fan, are the memories that came back: the long nights with friends, the date nights with my boyfriend, and even the times when I was alone, just lost in my head, building for hours.
Jack Black’s character, Steve, is obviously a highly animated version of the actual character from the franchise, who doesn’t really speak at all and is just an Avatar when you’re just building. But his passion for the world, for building, for mining – it legit made me want to return to the game, and I haven’t felt that in years.
Frankly, I’ve turned to books as a way of escaping the last few years, and there are so many great upcoming book-to-screen adaptations that I am excited about because of that. But this may make me return to video games for a bit.
I Might Need To Return To The Game, Just So I Could Experience With My Friends Again
Granted, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to recreate those moments with my friends. We’re much older now. We all have our own lives. And the things that once brought us the same amount of joy aren’t even relatively close to how we feel now, in our mid-twenties.
What A Minecraft Movie did was bring back a love for this game that has long since been dormant, and inspire me to try and make new memories. Heck, it doesn’t even need to be for a long time – maybe just one night where we all get together and go on the same server and mess around. Or maybe on our home Nintendo Switch, my boyfriend and I could have some fun and hunt a creeper or two.
I don’t know; maybe I will, perhaps I won’t. I could just be completely overthinking this. But at the end of the day, there was something about this movie that made me want to revisit it, and for that, I’m thankful.
And even if I don’t play the game, the least I can say to the movie is a hearty thank you for the throwback. It was the one I didn’t realize I needed right now.