Okay, I’ll admit I don’t know jack about Minecraft, but plenty of us do, and plenty of us have already seen the movie. Now, an opportunity has arisen to catch it on HBO and Max. Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures’ A MINECRAFT MOVIE made its HBO debut on SATURDAY, JUNE 21 at 8:00 pm ET with its premiere on the streamer the day prior.
As a press release states, Welcome to the world of Minecraft, where creativity doesn’t just help you craft, it’s essential to one’s survival!
Four misfits—Garrett “The Garbage Man” Garrison (Jason Momoa of Aquaman fame), Henry ( newcomer Sebastian Hansen), Natalie (Emma Myers of Wednesday) and Dawn (Danielle Brooks of The Color Purple)—find themselves struggling with ordinary problems when they are suddenly pulled through a mysterious portal into the Overworld: a bizarre, cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination. To get back home, they’ll
have to master this world (and protect it from evil things like Piglins and Zombies, too) while embarking on a magical quest with an unexpected, expert crafter, Steve (Jack Black of Dear Santa). Together, their adventure will challenge all five to be bold and to reconnect with the qualities that make each of them uniquely creative…the very skills they need to thrive back in the real world. Plans for a Minecraft film adaptation originated in 2014, when the 2011 video game creator Markus Persson revealed that Mojang Studios was in talks with Warner Bros. Pictures to develop the project. The movie’s director, Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre), saw mixed reviews when the movie came out in early 2025. It was a box-office success, grossing $954 million worldwide against a budget of $150 million, becoming the second-highest-grossing film of 2025 and the second-highest-grossing video game film of all time. A sequel is in development.
Not all the critics liked it, but fans sure did. Empire Magazine called it, “A hyperactive hot-pink mess of a movie, which fails to elevate its cubic source material and revels in that failure like it’s achieving something.” THR declared, “What makes A Minecraft Movie so dispiriting is how it fails to spark the imagination, betraying a core tenet of the game on which it’s based.” But the Toronto Star says, “The movie takes a grown-up absurdist’s approach to adapting a kid’s video game for the big screen, with mostly entertaining results that should appeal to more than just squares.” The Arizona Republic states, “A fun romp that kids, whether they’re fans of the game or not, will likely enjoy. The missed opportunity is the older generations of players. There’s not enough storytelling or humor to get us invested in Hess’ Minecraft world.” So, it tries to be creative with the creative world it is set in, but only kids will truly dig it? RT remarks 
So, delve into the world of Minecraft differently and check out the movie, but note that sometimes a movie may only be good if you are having a fun family experience while doing it.
