A new trailer for A Minecraft Movie, the live-action production based on one of the biggest video games ever made, has been released, and while it’s an improvement on the last, it still doesn’t paint a great picture for this film, which has been in the works for years.
A Minecraft Movie tells the story of a young girl and her friends who set out into the Overworld to stop the Ender Dragon’s path of destruction. For some reason telling this story is being done with live-action stars including Jack Black, Jason Momoa, and Danielle Brooks.
Despite the first trailers for this movie looking strange, to say the least, it turns out that a lot of time and thought has gone into this film, in fact, during an interview with IGN Minecraft Senior Director of Original Content Torfi Frans Olafsson explained that it has been in production longer than some of its audience has been alive.
“This movie’s been in development for a very, very long time. A lot of the people who will see it were not born when the first contracts and the first discussions were had, and there was always going to be live action.”
It’s not the fact that there’s a Minecraft movie that has people deterred, it’s the fact that most of the movie is CGI creatures, other than the real actors playing its core cast. It looks odd, and it’s one of the biggest gripes many have had from both previews released for the film.
A Minecraft Movie director Jared Hess said to IGN that they always expected the first preview of the movie to be met with strong opinions, no matter what they showed. The pair both acknowledge that given the scope of how popular Minecraft the game has been, many people have different personal connections to the game.
According to the team, test screenings for the movie have been much more positive than the initial reaction to the previews seen online. In fact, Olafsson quotes a nameless test screener who said “This is nothing like the trailer, this movie is awesome,” so maybe there’s more to this film than the bizarre look we’ve been given in footage so far.
The good news is that the team says they are taking on board the intense feedback. While we shouldn’t expect any major changes this close to release, perhaps the words of social media users will have some positive impacts on the final product.
At the end of the day, it’s not what people think about the trailers that matters, it’s who shows up on the release date. Ultimately if you haven’t been sold by these two trailers for A Minecraft Movie then it might not be the right fit for you. However, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that it has more to offer than it would seem at first glance and that it can join the growing lists of great gaming movie adaptions, instead of landing straight in the trash.
A Minecraft Movie is expected to arrive in theaters on April 4, 2025.
