2/12 ForReel Score | 1/5 Stars

Every so often, a movie comes out and becomes a cultural event for all the wrong reasons. The last movie I’ve encountered that earned the so-bad-its-good status was Morbius starring Jared Leto, but it never crossed the threshold in the same way something like The Room did. The Room set a precedent for films that cross the threshold from “cinema” to an out-of-body experience akin to a gas leak pervading your home. The thing with Morbius and The Room, however, is that these were self-serious films that tried so hard to be something yet missed all of their intended marks.

Enter, A Minecraft Movie (not “The,” because “A” opens a door for even more reality-bending horrors of cosmic proportion) which, bar none, takes the top spot for the most bizarre theater viewing I have had in years.

Right off the cuff, no beating around the bush, A Minecraft Movie is a trainwreck. It was doomed from the start by being shot in live-action against green-screens for reasons that I couldn't answer even if I unlocked the Rosetta stone. It’s arguably one of the most iconoclastic works in the history of the medium, with Warner Bros. paying $150 million dollars for the most laughed-at movie in decades.

The internet is ablaze with recorded theater reactions to the “Chicken Jockey” or “I am Steve” moments, not because they actually like them, but because their enjoyment is coated in so many layers of irony that the dumbest thing in the world feels like finding out what “Rosebud” means in Citizen Kane. Warner Bros. is getting their payday for sure, but it's not out of the audience’s genuine love for the film. It's almost like one of those strength tests you'll see at an arcade, where people will pay cash hand over fist to get a chance to take a crack at cinema’s brand new punching bag.

I can't lie and pretend like I didn’t fall victim to this exact scenario. I've got a credit card bill to pay in a week, yet I spent nine dollars to watch A Minecraft Movie anyway to willingly subject myself to the masochistic amusement of watching a truly terrible film. I laughed harder than one has ever laughed in a thousand lifetimes and my friend cried from laughter on three separate occasions during the film. Half of our group dressed in Steve-adjacent color palettes, we applauded at the end, and I'll be damned if we didn't stay for both post-credit scenes.

The immeasurable collective experience, all of us together laughing our asses off to high heaven, was almost irreplaceable. Bonds were strengthened that day through simultaneous joy and suffering, which speaks as to why A Minecraft Movie is such a smash-hit with audiences. The widespread cultural experience of ripping on it brought us to the theater in a group that nearly filled an entire row of seats on a Monday afternoon, for no reason at all than the morbid curiosity of how horrible the film truly is.

Like The Room, A Minecraft Movie crosses the threshold of stupidity while being completely absent of any seriousness. Jack Black, as an iconic character from the most popular children's game on the planet, says “Just relax, let my hips guide you” to a winged Jason Momoa before they get into the 69 position to fly through a mountain. Jennifer Coolidge, in a tertiary plotline with no relevance to the overarching story, goes on a date with a Minecraft Villager after she hits him with her Jeep Grand Cherokee. Jason Momoa’s character, a washed up gamer from the 80s, insinuates at one point that he used to pick up kids from school and pretend to be their uncle. Danielle Brooks plays a realtor whose side hustle is a mobile zoo. There is a character named “General Chungus”. It's a lethal concoction of pure, unfiltered stupidity that creates a chemical reaction in one’s head akin to either brain death or the greatest acid trip ever.

The stupidity operates on such a “see it to believe it” echelon that I feel like I'm doing a disservice to the film itself. It’s like a cut-for-time sketch from Jack Black’s last SNL episode but with the budget for ten full seasons. It's completely abhorrent to look at, it has as much artistic quality as feces, and it's a movie meant to be seen with a crowd.

A Minecraft Movie fails so spectacularly at everything that it loops around into becoming a success, unless the film being terrible was the plan all along. It's like a boardroom of shareholders just picked a bunch of things from the game, got Jack Black after the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and threw nine figures at it without asking twice. You can barely tell that Jared Hess - let alone anyone at all - directed it. There is possibly nothing of substance to be found in any of A Minecraft Movie’s 101-minute runtime, which is precisely why people are flocking in droves to see it for themselves. Half of it is the negative-yet-positive word of mouth, and the other half is that people want to be in on the joke. And, by God, is A Minecraft Movie a complete joke. The only question is, is the joke on us?

Movie Review: Laughing At "A Minecraft Movie"