A Minecraft Movie, tween and teen greatness in a mindless wrapper

There are certain markers that define cultural zeitgeists. A Minecraft Movie is one of those instances. As a video game launched in 2011 it has a built-in fan base of millions of kids. Some of them will be knee-deep in their appreciation and fandom, others are about enter it and some stopped playing it in lieu of other games. Our family has two kids in the Minecraft interest world, both of whom had different reactions to A Minecraft Movie.

It’s worth mentioning that, as I am over 22 years old, I didn’t see A Minecraft Movie. The film doesn’t have an age minimum or maximum. I went to our local theater intending to see the film with our 15 and 13-year old. I went into the theater lobby and was confronted with the film’s target audience, as well as, the group of teen boys my kids were meeting.

Teachers loathe seeing their pupils outside of the classroom. In that instance, countless students I taught over the years sensed their comeuppance. Some of them were genuinely enthusiastic in their greetings, however, it was the silent majority whose future actions were suspect. Not wanting to embarrass my children or get popcorn ‘accidentally’ thrown my direction during the film I gave my ticket to one of my son’s friends. Not only did that lower that showing’s demographics by 38 years, it hopefully earned me some goodwill in the next class I teach where one of those hooligans is ‘learning’.  It wasn’t that I was the oldest person who had a ticket. There were other parents there seeing the movie with their children, but they were families whose children were too young to attend it by themselves.

Middle-elementary school ages will enjoy the slapstick humor and video game world graphics. Their parents will enjoy the time with the family and fondly remember A Minecraft Movie when they see it on a lazy Saturday on cable tv in 15 years. They’ll think, sure, there are better movies around, but I remember seeing this when they were eight and hopefully they will channel some of those memories my direction. This is all good and well, but A Mincecraft Movie has a narrow, rabid range of fans who know that this film speaks exactly to them.

Boys, aged 13-22, according to our 15-year-old, are the sweet spot for the film. I can attest to that due to the fact that teen boys made up almost the entire concession area. The few girls were younger and there with their families. Our 13-year-old had a similar takeaway from A Minecraft Movie, even though he stopped playing the game several years ago. Neither child thought that the film accurately described how to play the game, but I get the sense they didn’t really care about my feelings about the franchise.

Our 15-year-old summed up how he and his peers thought of A Minecraft Movie most eloquently in these short statements. “It’s the funniest movie in three years. People shouldn’t go see this if they’re looking for a plot. It’s fun to experience it with the audience (his friends).” This is important because he went to see a film expecting a train wreck. He wanted to see A Minecraft Movie for the same reason I wanted to (but never ended up seeing) watch Snow White. His bar for entertainment was low and A Minecraft Movie far exceeded those expectations.

At school, in the 120 students of high school age that I teach, A Minecraft Movie is the only film that they’ve expressed any interest in seeing. This initially confused me because I wouldn’t have associated a presumably silly, brain-dead film on a video game that this demographic no longer used to play as something they’d be interested in. Personally, I think it’s comfort food happening for these ages. They remember the game from when they were younger, want to see how (or if) a movie would be based on their memories of it, and then they start playing the game again. And that’s pretty much what’s happening, the kids in my class are going back to playing the game because the movie reminded them of how much fun they had back then.

As Chunk from The Goonies said “It’s our time down here” and, ignoring the directional aspect of that quote, it rings true when trying to rationalize A Minecraft Movie. Don’t spend time trying to convince the film’s key audience there are better films out there. Don’t question the suspect graphics or heavy use of dialogue by Jack Black in the first 45 minutes. This film offers up exactly what Minecraft fans wanted in A Minecraft Movie, just don’t yell “chicken jockey” during that scene or you’ll rightfully get kicked out of the theater. The moral is: don’t do stupid things when you go to the movie theater.