My wife and our kids went and saw the Minecraft movie last night-- and had a lot of fun! Yes, it's a stupid movie with a paper thin plot, which is trite and superficial, which has zero emotional impact, and which leans on cliches and ninety-miles-per-hour story developments instead of creating any kind of authentic character development or connection with its audience.

But as someone who as been playing Minecraft since it was in alpha back in 2009, seeing the interactions between well-known game concepts and real-world actors-- like watching a creeper sneak up on one of the characters-- carried it for me. That, and Jack Black's incredible energy plus Jason Momoa successfully playing what looked to me like an obvious parody of John Romero, made the acting at least watchable.

Of course, it's getting deservedly terrible reviews-- I love this quote from one of them: "Mine all you like. You'll never find any smarts in this cavern of stupidity." But for people who have sunk a gazillion hours into the game, I would categorize the film as unmissable frankly, as a cultural event as much as anything. Just make sure to watch all the way to the end of the credits...