On April 4, A Minecraft Movie released in theaters worldwide. An adaptation of the classic video game Minecraft, the film follows Jack Black as the character Steve, helping a group of people who have accidentally entered the Overworld, “a bizarre, cubic wonderland that thrives on imagination.” The film had a successful opening weekend, earning 157 million dollars at the box office through its first few days. However, the overall reception of the film has been split.
The film only has a 47 percent critic rating on the film rating website Rotten Tomatoes, and 2.8/5 score on the film website Letterboxd. Walter Chaw of Film Freak Central called the film “cynical, workshopped, and producer’s-noted to death.” However, most Norwalk students seemed to have the opposite opinion of the film.
“I thought it was very cool to see a game I’ve played since I was a child on a movie screen, said Gabe Gasche, a former Norwalk student who saw the film on Saturday, April 5. “The theater experience was even better than Dune: Part Two, last year.”
Many viewers of the film noted that the audience was very invested in the film, partly due to the popularity of many quotes from clips of the film that released early on the internet. This includes the trend of saying “chicken jockey” and “water bucket, release” which were both popular phrases from the film’s trailer. Reports from many say that many viewers were cheering and reciting these phrases whenever they appeared in the film.
“The crowd made the movie for me,” sophomore Liam Wilhelm said, who also saw the movie on April 5. “They were really enthusiastic.” Wilhelm said that the crowd during his screening was cheering whenever trending phrases were spoken in the film.
Outside of Jack Black, another prominent star in the movie is Jason Momoa, who plays the character of Garrett. Momoa lived in Norwalk and graduated from Norwalk High School in 1997.
“I was very impressed with his acting and fitting his character very well,” said senior Isaac Binder on Momoa being in the film. “It’s cool to see someone from Norwalk be successful because when someone asks about the minecraft movie, I can say, yeah, Jason Momoa went to my school.”
A Minecraft Movie is already the third-highest grossing movie of 2025 so far, and the film’s success looks to grow in the coming months. Norwalk students are still able to watch the film in theaters and form their own opinions of the film for themselves.
