The first trailer for Warner Bros. Pictures' Minecraft movie has arrived – and, as this article's title suggests, I can't decide if it's drop-dead gorgeous or the stuff of nightmares.
Officially titled A Minecraft Movie, the live-action-animation hybrid flick has also blocked out an April 4, 2025 release date in US theaters. Ordinarily, that would be the headline news for a movie adaptation of one of the world's most popular videogame franchises. But, when you watch the 75-second-long teaser trailer below, you'll see why I'm on the fence about how visually spectacular and grotesque it looks.
Let's start with the "holy heck, this looks amazing!" side of things. The cube-based aesthetic that the film's various art departments that authentically captured here is nothing short of breath-taking. I mean, just look at the landscapes that greet four of the movie's intrepid human adventurers between the eight- and nine-second marks. Take in the blocky goodness! The draw distance! The faithful recreations of the creatures that inhabit this universe! Insert the chef's kiss hand gesture emoji here.
But then we come to the goofier and even frightening portion of the trailer for one of 2025's new movies. Where the former is concerned, the blend of live-action performers and their animated world does not look good. At all. Obvious as it is to say, you can just tell that green screen technology, rather than practical effects, has been heavily utilized. As long as it wasn't used, maybe The Volume would've been a better piece of tech to employ for this film.
On the latter front – I mean, just look at the pink sheep, via the image above, to see what I mean by its nightmare fuel visuals. There are other examples of... how can I put this politely... unsettling creature designs in A Minecraft Movie, too, such as the dead-eyed Pigmen, the overly expressive llama, and even the fuzzy, almost tactile take on Minecraft's iconic Creepers. I can't be the only person who's getting flashbacks to Sonic the Hedgehog's original and horrifying humanoid design for his first film, right?
Who's been cast in A Minecraft Movie? And what's its story?
Stepping away from A Minecraft Movie's visuals for a moment, what is Warner's movie take on the videogame series – one originally developed by Mojang and now owned by Microsoft – actually about?
Here's a plot brief, courtesy of the film's official website: "Four misfits – Garrett 'The Garbage Man Garrison' (Jason Momoa), Henry (Sebastien Eugene Hansen), Natalie (Emma Myers), and Dawn (Danielle Brooks) – 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, while embarking on a magical quest with an unexpected, expert crafter Steve (Jack Black). 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."
A new kind of block-buster. #MinecraftMovie - only in theaters 2025. pic.twitter.com/lmeb1jvLfLSeptember 4, 2024
As the story synopsis confirms, former Aquaman star Momoa and The Super Mario Bros Movie's Bowser voice actor Black are part of its ensemble, as is Myers, who most readers will recognize from Wednesday, Netflix's hugely popular spin on The Addams Family. Just Mercy's Hansen and The Color Purple's Brooks are also part of the main cast, while The White Lotus' Jennifer Coolidge will play a supporting role throughout.
Jared Hess, who's best known for co-writing and co-directing 2004 cult classic Napoleon Dynamite, is A Minecraft Movie's lead filmmaker. Hubble Palmer and Chris Bowman (Masterminds, The Secret Saturdays) have penned its script.
A Minecraft Movie will arrive on April 4, 2025 in the US, and April 2, 2025 in the UK and Australia.
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