A Minecraft Movie promotional poster
We’ve all seen the memes or at least heard children yelling “Chicken Jockey” from the playground slide. A Minecraft Movie came out in April and it’s been making noise for the past few months across social media.
If you still haven’t seen it, where have you been? The movie revolves around a mysterious blue portal that pulls our main cast from the human world into the ‘Minecraft’ world, a world that thrives on imagination. To get back home, they’ll have to master the terrain while embarking on a journey with an unexpected crafter named Steve.
The Trailers
When the first trailer released a lot of criticism originally surrounded the movie for its casting decisions, visuals, and everything under the sun, really. The movie didn’t represent the experiences felt by fans of the iconic IP, who weren’t all that excited by the movie’s direction and felt it was underwhelming. The criticism mainly took aim at a single frame of a pink sheep, focusing on the look of the sheep and many trashed its design for being “ugly.”
Ironically with the release of the second and final trailer reception began to change, strangely enough the general public seemed to have done a complete 180 from their initial reactions. Many who’d criticized the cringe-inducing lines were now quoting them from heart, this meme-ified the movie and, ironically or not, ramped up excitement for the movie.
Reception on Release
Critics weren’t very kind to the movie. This was in stark contrast to general audiences throughout all ages, who were enjoying A Minecraft Movie. This was in part thanks to the rise of the infamous “Chicken Jockey” scene for anyone working at a movie theater.
The aforementioned scene and its accompanying scenes, you know the ones, timed perfectly with students’ spring break across the country, which saw everyone ranging from elementary schoolers to college students joining in on the fun.
The craziness kept reaching new heights when Entertainment Tonight reported that someone brought a live chicken into the movie theater.
Regardless of the differing press between audiences and critics, the movie was a financial success making $163 million domestically and $313 million worldwide during the opening weekend. Needless to say the movie still garnered plenty of attention, both good and bad.
Looking Back on the Movie
After two months, frankly, A Minecraft Movie is bad on a critical standpoint. The movie’s quality is ruined due to an uninspired plot and the underutilized women characters, who don’t necessarily add much to the story. They’re used more like springboards for the other characters’ development, which is one example of the movie’s untapped potential to become something greater.
Despite this, the movie still managed to connect with audiences. Plenty of the Edison Community have the memes memorized by heart, repeating them throughout the past few months.
“Yeah, I think it’s just Jack Black. I think he makes everything funny, kind of. When I first saw it, I thought it was corny, but Jack Black is so inspirational that anything he does is iconic,” junior Rausir Assar said.
Since its release, A Minecraft Movie has birthed an endless amount of content that has left a lasting impact on 2025 pop culture and will continue to do so. While the movie itself might not age particularly well, the wild memories made during this last spring break will live on forever in the minds of the audience and movie theater workers alike.