What are your thoughts on A Minecraft Movie? Do you think that the core thematic content could still make for a good film, or do you believe that the form that content has taken (i.e. formulaic script, unsightly visual style) detract too much from the movie as a whole?
i think that it's a silly style and that's not a bad thing at all minecraft, really, is not a serious game. i don't know if many people were expecting an action focused movie but i was not. i was expecting a goofy, slightly cringy but still good movie. i mean the director is the guy who made napoleon dynamite, the guy typically goes for absurdist humour in all his films. i think it's great for a silly game like minecraft
@@lucy_derg Minecraft is not serious, but it's sincere. It's rules are fantasy and can result in a little silliness sometimes, but it still treats them sincerely. You're right, a pure action movie wouldn't have been the right choice, but I really don't think absurdist comedy is either. And the teaser doesn't understand that. Minecraft's rules are not treated with sincerity, but ridicule (the sheep, steve, the llama, etc.). "Well that just happened"-style humor is just not minecraft.
From what we currently have, I feel that it's too high in energy. Minecraft is very calm and quiet, almost melancholic. Hell, you could probably make a movie that feels like a sort of fantasy Charlie Brown using Minecraft. Though I think a better fit would be something similar to the webseries, Tux & Fanny.
Prior to the insight you shared in this video, pointing to the end poem, I would have immediately said "Nope, there is no helping a live action adaptation." But now I have watched your video and I find that there is a remarkable bit of nuance to be had here. The thing is that this premise, that Minecraft is a thing to experience once and then quit to carry the lessons learned over into the real world rather than get stuck in this small dream, could work, but a lot of things have to go right in order to actually make it. And the movie's visual style is a key reason why this execution of it can't. The world of Minecraft needs to be presented as a dream in the sense that it needs to be something unreal, yet something you could see somebody getting lost in. The fact it is uncannily realified in this case, however, turns it into unsettling nightmare fuel. As a result your immediate reaction isn't wonderous awe, it's revulsion. You want to get out as fast as possible, not stay forever, so Steve here seems just utterly insane instead of being a genuinely presented possibility of where the path ahead could lead. Becoming a master of this reality is not as immediately appealing as it really should be, so there isn't food for thought. The obvious answer from the outset, no matter how much the characters warm up to the strangeness of it all, is escape. Granted though, it would always look awkward to have fully real world people existing and interacting with any interpretation of the Minecraft world. You'd just have to pick your poison somewhere between children's show fakeness and uncanny nightmare fuel and I don't think there is a real sweetspot to be had. So no matter how you put it, a well superior option would have been a movie that has a live action prologue and epilogue, but mainly takes place in a fully animated Minecraft world. Specifically with a style somewhere close to the one used by Squared Media, just so we don't end up with the problem of no articulateable mouth and a lack of knees and elbows, which would make things feel too stiff to be desireable. Fingers are up for debate there. As for what we've seen so far of the script, yeah it's pretty cringe, but within this premise the Jumanji amusement park tour of "whoah, look at this strange thing, that is actually just part of the game, but it's so weird live in person" is kind of necessary, at least for the beginning. After all, that is the only natural reaction to suddenly finding yourself in a complete dream world of strange, new possibilities.
I understand Minecraft doesn't have a general plot, but that's the beauty of being able to make the movie. You can create a plot with the materials that Minecraft has to offer. (which is a ton). There's no creative direction, and they're taking what seems like the most straightforward generic route, aka Jumanji 3.
Oh no. Saying there's no creative direction is absolutely a mistake. There is a creative direction, but it's so hopelessly muddled by studio interference and misunderstanding on a fundamental level that it isn't applied consistently and thus is rendered completely incoherent.
@@FrostbyteFreeman I agree. I was more so saying that in the context of being artistic. A movie that creatively uses the IP like The Lego Movie. But yes, this movie fells like large amounts of studio interference and mishandling.
Personally, I would rather the Minecraft movie turned out to be McElhenney’s proposed LEGO Movie analogue than the Jumanji-esque thing we’re getting now. I think there were definitely ways to make this version of the story work, but stylistically, this doesn’t inspire much confidence in me.
To be fair, the interpretation of bearded Steve did always exist. I’m still as flabbergasted as you by the casting of Jack Black, though- seems to have been motivated more by his status as funny Internet video game celebrity than anything else. This video was, in part, my attempt to make sense of that decision.
@@FrostbyteFreeman you also forgot that it’s a beard and not a smile I know I’m just joking around I thought it was funny that there was a debate on if it’s a smile or a beard and how you could interpret jack black as confirmation that it is a beard lol
Taking one look at the bedrock edition's marketplace makes me feel pretty comfortable in saying that it really is just about money. Maybe it didn't start that way, but I think it is now.
Oh, absolutely. Zaslav and Mojang both want that sweet, sweet, juicy cash injection directly into their veins. Just because the hands at the helm now are cutthroat and cynical doesn't mean we should necessarily engage with this thing on those same cynical terms, though. Sincerity is the only way to defeat that mindset and actually appreciate art for what it is.
I disagree with your interpretation of the end poem. I think it's a more pessimistic view of what it is saying. To me, it's not about leaving the game or any other "stop wasting your life" thing, but rather about connection with others. The poem not only refers to the game as a dream (the short dream), but also to "real life" (the long dream). I think a dream represents a world that we are immersed in. Usually, that is the long dream of life, but when interacting with any kind of fiction, we go to sleep in the long dream and wake in this new dream. This does not make these short dreams any less important or real however. One of the two voices states that "Sometimes when they are deep in dreams, I want to tell them, they are building true worlds in reality". I think that these "true worlds in reality" represent our connection with other people, since the same voice also wants to encourage us to make them. Dreaming does not prevent making these connections, it can't, since life is also just a dream. The "wake up" at the end is not telling us to stop the game, it is telling us to, if just for a moment, wake up from the long dream and see true reality, the connections we make with other people. Eventually the short dreams end, as all dreams do, and we awake to the long dream. But we also continue to dream more short dreams. And this is not put in contrast to us being the universe, to us being love, but said alongside it. If minecrafts goal was to make you quit it, to awake from the dream, it would go against the message that life is also just a dream. Instead, it urges you to love, to truly connect with other people, be it in the short dream or in the long dream. How you do it is up to you. What I agree with is that this would make for a great message for a movie. Make steve not dream for "too long", but dream an isolating dream. Make him realize this, but instead of waking, make him connect to other people through the dream. Dreams are not bad or a waste of time, they are what allows us to make these connections in the first place. I don't have many hopes though for this movie. Whether or not warner bros sincerely think that the movie will be any better than awful, its target is the lowest common denominator, the people that will watch it because it's the minecraft movie. I am open to being surprised, but I doubt it will happen.
Thank you! I totally agree. I was glad that someone finally pointed out the Poem of minecraft, only to find myself a bit disappointed that he didn't quite get it right. I have not read the Poem in years, I should probably read it again, I remember that it is beautiful and that there you can find hints of what the movie should really be about, what the two "Gods" are talking about... "What did this player dream about? He dreamt of fields of grass and trees, (don't remember well, he said a lot but then the other god replied) "Ah the original interface" The story should focus with that in mind. I really like the part of the poem that references the mother creating life and the part of the universe and love. If anyone has not read it I totally recommend it.
I don't think my interpretation is pessimistic at all- in fact, I literally said in the text of the video itself that it's beautiful. It's true that the poem doesn't denigrate players for devoting themselves to the game, but it's also true that its goal is to get them to step back for a second and at least disconnect from the context of Minecraft to critically examine themselves. Why else would the Universe repeatedly attempt to disassociate the viewer from their screen by reminding them of their hands on the keyboard, the breath in their lungs, the feeling in their toes... by reminding them of their body? It's not about the waste of one's life, but the realization of what's ultimately important, and in the broad context of that life, maybe the player realizes the game ultimately isn't. To me, the poem is meant to remind the player that the game isn't life- it's just a *part* of their life, and if it remains a part of their life after the credits roll, that's okay, so long as they understand. And I think Minecraft's attempt to contextualize itself in that way is a noble, if not hauntingly beautiful and ultimately doomed, effort. To that end, though I think your interpretation has less textual foundation, and your reading of the lines on interconnectivity extrapolate too much towards the assumption that you're almost in a pseudo-multiplayer configuration by default, I don't fault you for it, and I still see the validity and merit in your argumentation. It's art, we're entitled to differing interpretations because it's ultimately subjective. In fact, I don't think your argument that the importance of the dream is found through the relationships we make is inherently incompatible with mine. Rather, I think within the broader context of the narrative I've tried to construct around this trailer, they're actually nestled within one another, complimentary takes, parts of the same whole. I'm not very hopeful for the movie much myself, though. But I'd like to be, and this video was me trying to articulate that yearning for it to be better than it is. Can't well fault me for dreaming the dream, can you?
You're very much on the right track, you just lose me at the connections part. In fact, the entities speak explicitly on the value of privacy and our confrontations with darkness therein. They don't command us to love, they say that we are love, and that the universe loves us. Sure, the universe has people in it, but it doesn't require connection with another soul for you to feel that love in the dream of the sunlight that comes through the shuffling leaves of the summer trees. "Sometimes, through the noise of its thoughts, it hears the universe." Within the statement that we are love does come the implication that we are capable of love, and that we are capable of being loved, but the entities are being overbroad for a reason - they're establishing that love of every kind permeates into every dream, long or short. This is consistent with Minecraft's potential for peace or enlightenment even in isolation because it's built for either singleplayer or multiplayer to be an equally important dream. Deliberating on the poem's meaning now will certainly help us to get closer to that ideal, but that required the step of digesting it in privacy first This is where I get the basis for my interpretation of Steve as a mentor of nobility, because he's already beaten the game and killed the dragon and seen what happens when you don't treat the dream back with the same kindness it showed you. That's not a trait that's inherent to him, it's one he learned the hard way and now has to teach to a new generation of miners who gradually discover he used to be the villain of his own dream. Picture Mark Hamill in the role, but instead of playing an arrogant prick he gets to redeem himself as the wise mentor he should have been
argument that "story isn't for you" is a lazy cop out. Children will consume mostly anything that has sugar. Children will consume mostly anything with their favorite characters. It doesn't mean parents don't recognize crap then they see it, and don't get upset about companies making a quick buck off iconic intellectual properties. In toys, merch and media.
I used the phrase "isn't for you" (or something to that effect) only once in the video, and within the context of literally everything else that comes before it in the video, I feel like it's being misinterpreted here- at the very least, it's being stretched too thin to make it seem like I'm condoning sins that I have no intention to. I think (think does a lot of heavy lifting here) that the themes of this movie will revolve around arrested development and the value of being protective over one's own creativity while still maturing, learning, and growing up. So to that end, yes, this movie isn't *for* the adult audience. Because of course it isn't, obviously, so why would you pretend it is? This is a children's movie about a children's block game, yes, but that doesn't excuse it from criticism, and that's what this video attempted to provide. At the same time, though, I also think the controversy is ridiculously overblown and mostly caused by the sort of insipid, safe contemporary cultural infantilization the industry has attempted to inculcate in us. People (by which I mean my specific segment of Gen-Z adults) just need to just watch more grown-up movies.
the thing about minecraft's story is that while the game itself has no "story" the amount of lore and interesting things they have added and pushed towards gives more than enough to make something great out of, the lore from minecraft dungeons was labelled as canon to minecraft officially by mojang and they could have done so much with it, just look up characters like "the nameless one" and imagine how much they could have done with that single character, there's so much wasted potential there
On the one hand, you're right that Dungeons would have offered a lot of interesting storytelling options, especially with its implications on the broader lore. On the other hand, I completely understand why the filmmakers felt that basing the game on a more niche spin-off adaptation would have alienated the general audience.
@@FrostbyteFreeman they went with an even more niche spinoff though, there are mobs from minecraft legends in this, and they are using the same plot of "piglins invade the overworld"
Mojang really doesn't want a definitive minecraft universe, the way want it open ended, to keep it timeless like lego. so "a minecraft movie" leans into the philosophy into a endless multiverse. Philosophy, check, Presentation, meh, Story... to be determined.
Yes! Exactly! This is exactly my take! Thematically, I think there's actually something structurally sound here, but the *form* the thematic content has taken is what's given me pause. Thank you for actually getting it. Thank you.
It’s funny how we came all the way back around to Levy-esque direction sensibilities after a full decade of development turbulence. Also, is that Crusty783?
This was a fantastic video. I love that you had a more calm take and looked a bit more into it than the average person. Well all see how it ends up once we've all seen it. This video gave me hope, not only for this movie but for any film/series/show that will use the Minecraft IP
Thank you! I'm glad you found my take to be more measured and reasonable than most- while I'm less than optimistic about the form this particular film has taken, I wanted to close this video with my hopes for the future of Minecraft in the cinematic medium. That, at least, I see potential in.
No, thank you! I’m very happy you enjoyed the insight in this video, and that you sincerely appreciated my analysis of such a polarizing trailer and topic!
This is a really interesting bit of insight, especially with that interpretation of what potential the premise of "A Minecraft Movie" could hold. As for what could have been a good reason to make a Minecraft movie otherwise, an idea I have landed on since the release of the teaser trailer would best be classified as a celebration of the things that make Minecraft nostalgic. So it's a very relateable storification of a player's journey from spawn to the end, together with a varied cast of friends. That would ultimately actually be focussed on discoveries and the interpersonal interactions along the way, how people help each other out, how the different roles born from people's specializations work together, all that while making steady progress in the sense of gameplay and exploring the varied vastness of the Minecraft world. Think the old Minecraft game trailer, the one by Vareide that used to be featured on the Minecraft website's homepage. That sort of casually wholesome nostalgia is what I'd love to see out of a Minecraft movie.
That's definitely a really interesting take on what a Minecraft movie could be- I'd love to see a story centered more on the multiplayer experience! My concern would be making any Minecraft movie too heavily dependent on nostalgia, though. Narratives that center on the nature of nostalgia can be powerful, but narratives that wax too openly nostalgic with unabashed rose-tinted glasses never stand the test of time.
@@FrostbyteFreeman Oh yeah, definitely. I should've specified that I'm not thinking of a story that uses nostalgic moments as waypoints to path along, but rather that it should be one where those nostalgic moments, that every Minecraft player has either experienced or heard of, can happen naturally. Like a second morning creeper sneak attack, taming a horse and riding it across the hills and plains in a travel montage or having a scene dedicated to a couple characters figuring out the basics of newly discovered redstone. In fact, I was not kidding with the Vareide trailer comparison. While exploring this story idea in writing, I have so far kinda just ended up with a bunch of situations that could very easily be matched to the text of it without being forced. Take a ride on a rollercoaster? Well, there is a miner who happens to be the carefree type to absolutely set up a minecart track that ends up turning into quite the thrill ride on the descend. Build a majestic castle? There is a need for a secondary, collective base once nether travel is discovered, so that only makes sense as a fancy group home. And plenty of the more vague prompts can be filled in with your usual journeying and action scenes that are bound to happen when making your way through a Minecraft world with a fair bit of exploration being done. What I'd be more concerned with is if this kind of a story can actually work out well in a movie format, because it needs to be able to take its time and I have next to no clue how text translates to time if turned into visuals
i wouldnt mind the realism as much if they actually made them accurate like i will not get over the fact that the sheep has human teeth, i hate it so much. they clearly used sheep refrences so why couldnt they made the sheep have actual sheep teeth i know its human teeth cause sheeps dont have upper teeth and the lower teeth seem to be bit too many, and even the back teeth do not look like that of a rumen animal but anyways! this video was great and awesome, hope your channel keeps on growing! :]
I think that’s definitely a major contributing factor in the uncanny feel some of these designs give off! I don’t think that those distinctly Minecraft sensibilities of silliness translate across into this sort of faux-photorealism style they’re going for. Thank you so much for the comment, though- I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Bruh is those blue and green words actually from after beating the ender dragon? I never played minecraft but have watched a bunch of content from it and have never seen this but it made me tear up its so good
@Iliadic that's epic fam there is no longer any doubt in my mind that I will have to experience my own minecraft journey... videos of it just doesn't cut it
The blue and green text is indeed from the End Poem that plays at the end of the game. My narration is extrapolation from the themes of that poem- or it’s meant to be, anyways. Surreal to think that this video, of all things, would be how you saw the credits for the first time.
You’ve video is the favourite I’ve watched on this topic. You explain the history of the production and what direction they could have went. Good stuff innit 👍
with the "what minecraft means" i really thought he should become a song writer, i havent been touched by words like that in a long time. Thanx frostbyte
I usually don't comment frequently on RUclips, but I feel the need to state here that this video really captivated me and kept my attention all the way through. I was eating and watching RUclips lol and wasn't very attentive watching the 3 other videos about the Minecraft movie, however, your video is so well thought through I had to shift my focus to watching it. Almost everything, including the writing, framing and everything but the small blip in audio quality (which hardly affects the overall quality of the video anyway) was outstanding. It's one of the if not the only videos on this movie where I actually learnt something (e.g the other directors involved in the ongoing production). You've earned a sub man.
That audio blip was actually my attempt to use the new audio removal feature here on RUclips to resolve a claim with the backing track. I hadn't encountered it before and had no idea it was going to completely nerf the quality (though I expected some downgrading, at least). If I had known, I'm not sure I would have done it. I think it makes the finished product worse overall. Still, it was worth it for the lesson it taught me, if nothing else. Thank you so much for the kind words- I'm happy you thought so highly of this silly little video, enough to leave a comment informing me you enjoyed it. Glad you found it informative, too! :)
This is the absolute best take on any form of media I have ever watched. The composition of your words, your intricate and nuanced discussions, broad but catching hooks, stellar point transitions and topic organization, and vast understanding of the material itself.. It all comes together into a beautifully told story and argument. Fantastic work, you've earned my sub. Oh, and the edit of the video is amazing too. I love the way you edited/timed the music with the arguments. Good job!
Wow! That's seriously such high praise for a meandering and perhaps overly self-serious thirty minute analysis of a minute-long Minecraft movie trailer... thank you so much for the kind words! I can only hope that someday I will be worthy of even half the compliments you've lavished upon me here :)
I came in expecting an entertaining but surface level analysis of the trailer. I left feeling like someone had finally articulated my feelings about film as an art form in a way I never could. You have some serious skill as an a video essayist.
Thank you so much for the kind words about my quality as a video essayist! I'm happy that you think this silly little video somehow effectively managed to encapsulate your thoughts on the medium of film as a whole. :)
They should make ‘minecraft’ a movie genre and then it’s just all these random people making different Minecraft movies, different style, different story, different everything. cuz that’s also what Minecraft is, it’s different for everybody but everything is possible. It would be like every Minecraft movie is their creators story/history in Minecraft. Idk how to explain it better cuz no English but y’all know what I mean?
you should really consider doing videos essays on things you’re interested in, you have the right voice/style of video and this video is absolutely incredible
Thank you so much for the kind words. I've been quietly trying to prepare this channel for a shift into more general video essays about movies and the like, so I'm glad it's something you think I could actually accomplish. Really means a lot to hear.
My main problem, outside of maybe the visuals, is that the story seems kind of generic and safe. With that being said, the Super Mario Bros Movie, which also played it safe, had likable characters and worlds from the Mario series to still make it a fun time, but Minecraft doesn’t necessarily have that. That’s just a guess at what the movie may be like from 1 teaser trailer though, and you did bring up a lot of great points about how the story and vibe is somewhat reminiscent of what Minecraft truly is: a silly and creative escape.
I don't think a "generic," "safe," or even predicable story is inherently a sin in of itself- the real issue is whether or not that story is handled with care and craftsmanship in the context of the film. I definitely agree with you that the Minecraft movie's attempt to use the same sort of positioning as the Mario movie is doomed to fail, though, especially since Mario has the benefit of characters and narratives with which to draw parallels, and Minecraft as a sandbox game is sorely lacking in that sort of backlog.
Right?! It really seems to me like he was coming at the subject from an angle akin to the LEGO Movie, in spirit if nothing else- granted, given its influence, that was definitely the prevailing thematic sentiment of the day, but I’m confident that if anyone could have articulated the quintessential Minecraft approach to creativity, it would have been Rob.
I hope to Notch that you are right. I hope that Jack Black as Steve is on purpose, that he is now old and fat and goofy, maybe even insane from being the only human in this world for a long time. That would be more in line with his acting style.
I'm really disappointed with the negativity this movie seems to be getting because it just proves how little people are paying attention to the meta layer of the worldbuilding Mojang has been trying to lay out for years now with their youtube channel and spin-off content. A sentient computer named M.a.r.i.l.l.a sitting in a closet at Mojang, A guy being Isekaied into the game and having to learn the game's mechanics as he survives on an island, Advanced Full-dive VR versions of the game that can imprint a person as their avatar. The gods of the world in Minecraft legends being referred to as "Hosts". Not to mention the lack of appreciation for how much Mojang has paid attention to the kinds of stories players have crafted themselves over the years, with them trying to follow similar themes. Minecraft's community has always had a habit of giving their storytelling a bit of a meta referencing element, with things like Mojang staff being referenced as religious figures, the world being a server and the concept of administrators being a part of it, and acknowledging stuff that would normally be thought of as just a gameplay mechanic like being able to carry tons in an inventory hammerspace and blocks defying normal physics. This kind of thing was even done in Minecraft Story Mode which people seem to be praising as the better alternative comparing it to this movie, with the main antagonists going from a Command Block fused to a Wither to a literal Administrator. Even the End Poem which is in the game itself goes into this, referencing the player, how they perceive the game and what it means to them within the greater lens of their existence in the universe. The premise of real people being transported into the game has been a running theme they've playing with the idea of since they first started putting out the novels in 2017 with The Island and the Crash, the former of which Jack Black literally voiced the audiobook for. I for one am excited to see where they'll be going with this, as I love meta stories. The visuals are just fine for what the premise is, I think it *should* look just a little bit uncanny as to properly represent the juxtaposition of a person directly entering the game’s world and viewing it through the lens of how a human being would perceive it. It needs to be a living breathing world for this to work and for them to exist there. It's not bad, and I even find it a bit charming for what it's going for. I think it makes sense for the context considering they didn't keep the PS1 style the game had on-screen IRL in Jumanji, for example. They even nailed the creeper's canonical details in it's plant based *mossy* appearance despite people calling it furry/fuzzy. My only real complaint is that they didn't try very hard to make Jack Black's outfit accurate to Steve's, as all they would've had to do is leave the neck part of the shirt open and have one side tucked in the pants with the other draped out. Otherwise, he's a perfect fit for Steve. As an isekaied player, at least. Momoa would've made sense if it'd been Steve as a character native to that world like an NPC, But Jack fits not because of his appearance, but because even though he's not a hardcore fan like his kids, he still has a genuine passion for the game. To me, the controversy with this movie is more comparable to the FNAF movie than Sonic. It's gonna be a hit with hardcore machinima/lore nerds and bomb with casual fans and critics that don't understand where it's coming from with the decisions made. Super hyped and looking forward to seeing this in Theater with some friends and theorizing how it could connect to other content afterward 😄
HOLLYYYYYY ur back???!! damn bro the last time i saw u u had a bucket on ur head or smth!! the editing of this one with the combination of clips n audios is absolutely immaculate especially so fast after the trailer came out?? im js soo disappointed w the choice to go live action w the movie,, maybe js become im an artist.. anyways man glad to see u back and thriving and can't wait to see whatever content ur gonna be making!!
Thank you! I appreciate your waiting until I had actually uploaded twice (technically three times) to officially determine that I was back for real- that's the sort of well-measured skepticism I can appreciate, given my notoriously unreliable track record! Glad you appreciated this video for what it was worth. I'm disappointed in the finished product too, and though I'm not necessarily opposed to the thematic content or even the narrative arc it's taking in broad strokes, it's the form factor that gives me serious trouble.
Thank you! This is less so an analysis of the potential particulars of the plot and more so speculation on what I think the central themes will be, though. It's important to me to note that there's a distinction. A lot of the interpretations of this film have fixated too heavily on the very literal elements of the plot, and my desire was to stray away from that. Maybe add a bit more nuance to the discourse, too.
What ever you're about to say, keep in mind this is being directed by the same guy that did Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre. Also the team that worked for Mojang in 2009 thought is alpha and beta testing is not the same anymore. They let go of a lot core values. There's also signs they just don't think of the game the same way anymore. I also feel like you're giving this movie too much credit of having a deep meaning.
I honestly think this movie should just be scrapped. Let the poor thing die already it’s already suffered in the dark for 10 years, don’t let it spoil the legacy of its original
I don't think that even if this movie is bad it can possibly soil the game's legacy; just look at all the terrible Minecraft videos on the Internet like this one that have had no bearing on how the game is perceived
In the original cut of the Super Mario Brothers movie, there was a scene the studio deleted from the very end where the Mario Brothers are meeting with Nintendo in Japan to sell them the rights to their life story. The creative team there, deciding the "real" story as seen in the movie is too weird, change the brothers' story to be less convoluted and crazy, leading to the games as we know them today. It's a very strange take on the idea of an adaptation, and yet, it was at least intended to be one at one point. I don't know that this movie is exactly analogous, but I can see where you're coming from.
They should just make a dark fantasy film of steve exploring and wandering the ruins of the old world, as shown in HELLO THERE's trailer parody. We tend to underestimates childrens appreciation for a story and setting with meaning, which is untrue.
Thank you! I'm glad you actually appreciated the more film-focused sections of this video- I've been trying to let a lot more of that stuff bleed into my videos for a bit now to prepare everyone for a gradual transition into some movie-related stuff on the channel, too! Hopefully that works out, and you continue to appreciate my philistine insights on the greatest art ever conceived.
Really? I thought this video was kind of a hot mess, actually. Some stuff in here that I don't think I articulated very well whatsoever. Thanks so much for the kind words, though! Glad you liked the video regardless, Emily :)
When it comes to story and what you could do with everything Minecraft has to offer, we should look at the books licensed by mojang. Ive read that one villager hero book series when I was a kid, I dont wanna describe it or talk much about what it is about bit it just reminds me of how many directions you can take this thing to. And also what has been done before.
I don't think the fact that they were unlicensed/unofficial stories makes them or the impact they had on you at such a formative age any less valid. In fact, I think it only lends credence to the idea that you can come up with so many different stories and interpretations from the same core components- which is actually the entire premise of Minecraft itself.
people keep saying it should be fully animated & yet if the story is being pulled into the minecraft world and not the Lor of minecraft history, then real people ending up in this world that seems animated, fits better then, animation in an animated world that would make them seem more part of that world rather then pulled into it from outside.
That's a false dichotomy- you're assuming that the film has to remain within the same medium the entire way through. I hate to go there, but what about the LEGO movie? If the fish out of water Peter Pan story is the route you're going to go, why not start in live action and transition into animation when making the jump into the blocky world? Wouldn't that make the transformation more creatively captivating?
@@FrostbyteFreeman & in my opinion I think it seems better as a live action move when u consider the possible story line they might be going for. & not minecraft Lor. Can I have an opinion on that?
it was so easy, just make a medieval fantasy plot and put it in the minecraft universe, add minecrafty stuff and jokes to the script and thats it. THEY COULD STEAL THE WHOLE DAMN PLOT FOR LORD OF THE RINGS AND I WOULD BE SAT!
I feel like medieval/fantasy-adjacent is always everyone’s first impulse when it comes to Minecraft, both in terms of building styles and the stories we tell. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing that this movie wants to weave the meta-textual thematic core of the game back into its narrative- after all, the LEGO Movie handled similar such ruminations on the nature of play and creativity brilliantly. I just don’t have faith that those same ideas will be handled tactfully here.
@@FrostbyteFreeman yeah, but if they wanted to be lazy with the script they could have done that, instead they want to pretend it's some metatextual self aware bs when in reality is just a cashgrab slop movie with bad faith comedy.
I'm a father, full time craftsmen, and minecraft player. My daughters also play minecraft and my son doesn't. We three all think it looks really bad. The wife also think it looks dumb and my son has no interest in it. But as a longtime player and movie ticket buyer, this movie isn't for me. It also isn't for any of my kids, apparently. Who exactly it for?
Much as I want to believe your central premise that there is a soul to this venture, that there is thematic core of sincerity, introspection and escape? I just can't. You I fear are projecting your desires for depth onto an empty and shallow cash grab.
Not true. Rob McElhenney thought about it a lot, I think. I think even the current team at the head of the project thought a lot about it, too. But their thinking about Minecraft was watered down and sterilized by the studio formula and focus-grouped objectives, which renders all that thought useless.
Man i wish this movie would come out on April 1st and its actually Animated other than being in the real world, but most likely will be just like the trailer 😢
I appreciate this analysis, but at the same time, I feel like you're a bit too optimistic. But who knows? Maybe I'll come back here after the movie and be able to say you were right. Here's hoping :/ Edit: Spelling
I think you’re definitely right. Was trying to be a bit more optimism here since I think the reaction to the teaser has been overwhelmingly negative, but I definitely wanted to qualify that positivity with skepticism, too. I don’t take issue with the thematic content that the film seems to be focused on- rather, it’s the form that thematic content seems to have taken (the visual style and the formulaic nature of the script) that concerns me. Ah well. Hopefully, this movie does live up to the best I believe it *could* be. I’d like to think it can. But I have my doubts.
on a first impression level, i think the fundamental problem with movie is just how out of place the people feel in a way that is off putting. its like they’ve been green screened in
2:52 This should come with blurb about the knee jerk discussions still having some semblance of merit to them as they touch on visuals and asking why they are they way they are and if that was the best road to take.
I wouldn’t be shocked if Mojang lost any and all creative control of the movie the moment they signed off on it. Such massive changes to the internal workings seems like it would quickly cross away from “the right idea which got the go-ahead.”
I mean, that's not *totally* true- it was Mojang that eventually settled on McElhenney, after all. I think it's more like control steadily seeped away over time, coupled with the apathy on the game studio's end brought on by perpetual pre-production problems.
I think that Alan Baker mad a great job at giving life to the world of mincraft and to use it as a base to developpe his carracters. It's probebly the best portay of the differents gamestyles and it will live forever in my heart as the best story in minecraft.
minecraft: warships of various types whose primary mission is laying or sweeping mines movie: a recording of moving images that tells a story and that people watch on a screen or television trailer: a selected group of scenes that are shown to advertise a movie joke: something not to be taken seriously
I'm sorry! Thank you so much for watching and commenting, though- if nothing else, I'm happy you had such a sincere emotional reaction to this silly little video! Hope you enjoyed, if nothing else.
You know, when ever I envision a Minecraft movie, I always imagine it to be something like Surfs Up were it's more of a documentary style movie that showcases the life of a person in the world of Minecraft. I knew this is not how the final movie would turn out because of how unconventional it is, but I feel like the format would of fit a Minecraft movie very well.
That's really interesting! My initial instinct for a Mincraft movie definitely wouldn't be a mockumentary, but I'm not saying there isn't potential there! I think that concept would probably work best as a short film, though- something in the ten to twenty minute range, maybe? Still, that's a fascinating idea... thank you for sharing!
@@FrostbyteFreeman Reading critically doesn't mean reading deeply. And no, that is not how art works, that is how some educated snobs think that art works. Reading deep into media can be fine, if you are careful, and deep meanings were woven into the media. If you start reading deeply into something shallow, you start inventing stuff. Meanings and ideas out of nothing. What you read into it stops making sense, because you are trying to assign meaning to the smallest concepts. Frankly it is like people trying to read gender fluidity out of Loki in Norse myth, while if you ask any one of the time, Loki is simply a man, that embodies the more female traits of their culture (being manipulative, lying, deceiving), that's it... he is a lesson for men to not only embody the masculine, sometimes you need to embody the feminine to win. When you start reading deeply, the meaning, the cultural lessons, and more is lost. Norse mythology tend to wear its meaning on the outside.
@@FrostbyteFreeman Let me actually continue just a little bit. You are not even presenting this as your reading. Your title is "What the Minecraft Movie Trailer Means", and you read some really weird concepts in to the very minor stuff that happens. You are not presenting this as a "For fun fan theory", but an actual reading of the meaning, which is for certain is not. Try and read into Jumanji instead, and discard readings that are not supported during most of the movie. There are actual deeper meanings hidden in that movie, themes beneath the surface level, some that were intended to be found. Minecraft Movie Trailer is not going to themes beneath the surface. I really doubt there is any themes of "Steve having to wake up from a dream", And saying "The actual intended purpose of Minecraft, is to stop playing Minecraft" is such a weird reading. That has never been the "intended purpose", that's if anything the byproduct of not wanting people to die playing the game. The intended purpose of Minecraft, as stated by the actual creator of Minecraft, was to create a fun creative experience with light mechanics to engage people in the world while being creative.
I mean the paper-thin lore of Minecraft is so niche (especially the ancient builder stuff implied in Minecraft Legends) that there's no way a studio would green light a Minecraft movie that isn't geared for the most basic level of mass appeal
It's definitely important to point out, even though the visuals in the Minecraft movies look strange to put it lightly, what would they have done if not this, I really can't see a Minecraft movie animated normally selling well, I mean we have seen that type of animation done a million times already, and the main thing about big budget movies, no matter how bad or good they are, is that they are something that you cannot just easily recreate on a low budget, so you are going to see something that you can't see outside the theater, so what motive would people have to see the Minecraft movie if it was something that we have already seen so many times? And even if they did some of the best animation of regular Minecraft animation, we have seen that, and I don't see how much better it could get within those realms. So I honestly cant really blame them for taking this approach, since even if the movie is terrible, it is at least going to draw people to see it because it is something people have not seen before and has that big brand behind it.
The movie would sell well irregardless of how it looks. It's the movie for the most sold game in the world. The visuals not being special wouldn't have mattered in the slightest. Minecraft itself has (one of) the worst graphics of any modern release. And yet it still outsold all other videogames, because the graphics do not matter. What matters is the things we do in it, the stories we create ourselves. It being able to be recreated on a low budget is not a detriment, but a boon, because it lets us focus on just the storytelling. A sincere minecraft movie doesn't pride itself on its visuals, but its storytelling.
@@terra_creeper I agree that a good movie doesn't have to have great visuals, but the fact of the matter is that Minecraft is very likely not going for making a great story, and the audience this movie is targeting would not be looking for this either. Even though it is such a big game, when big brands venture into other media, no matter how big the name is, it does not guarantee success. There is no need to make a Minecraft movie, no artistic desire behind it or message it is trying to send, the movie is made purely to make money, and we have seen time and time again that the movies about spectacle and grandiose are what sell the best. So I disagree that the movie would sell well regardless, since there is not trust in audience yet that Minecraft would make a good movie with a good story, and when an audience doesn't have trust that a movie will tell a good and compelling story, they go for the one thing they can tell the quality of for sure, which is the visuals.
@@hamsterdini If that were true, then they failed even harder than if they had just made it animated. The visual style looks awful and the public opinion is terrible. What little story can be gleamed from the teaser doesn't look great either. But I disagree with both assertions. Minecraft has no objective intrinsic story, its story is the one you give it. I think this is why mojang originally said that they would wait until the right idea came. There is potential, it just has to be used correctly. And while it might not be what the target audience necessarily seeks, it won't be harmful as long as it's presented in the right way. And being a big brand definitely has influence in other media, as long as you're big enough. The mario movie is a good example. It's plot really isn't anything special and the visuals are really only as good as needed. It also had a few things that lowered its reputation before release, for example being from illumination and having Chris Pratt as mario, and also not really having any intrinsic story beyond "mario good, bowser bad, peach kidnapped". And yet it still grossed 1.4 billion dollars.
@@terra_creeper I feel like you are confusing my points a little bit, though I do apologize if I was making my points unclear at all, and I do understand and agree with some of the points you were making too. But I was trying to say that while I do really hope that they do a good story and that general audiences do care about good story’s, the movies that sell best sadly do not have the best stories, they have fine enough to decent stories, and are paired with visuals and spectacle that are grand and show their big budget. The Minecraft animation style just doesn’t lend itself to going much further and grander as is, and Minecraft knows that and hoe important it is to have spectacle in big budget movies, and thats why they took a different approach. I think it is a tricky situation since this style they went for is obviously controversial, and kinda ugly if were being honest, but we have to think about if they did go for their regular style, even if the story was really well written, what would draw general audiences to see it in the first place? I don’t doubt it would do decently, since the brand is big and there would be a lot of people who are curious about it, but in the days of streaming movies online for cheap, theater tickets are expensive, and I don’t think there would be enough people willing to spend that kind of money on what appears to be a style they have already seen so many times, and a style, all though nostalgic for many, was never that visually pleasing in the first place. And most would have hard time sitting through an hour or two of that. I was saying all this because I have seen so many people upset over the live action approach Minecraft took, and many wishing it would be in the normal style, but I think they took the best approach they could have, maybe not to make the best movie, but to make money. And I don’t blame them for taking this approach. Also just a side note, using this style garnered a lot of controversy, and discussion, there would be so much less discussion if it kept to the normal style, and the amount of taking about this whether it’s positive or negative, greatly helps the rollout for the movie overall.
@@hamsterdini I disagree entirely that just because it's animated, it would lose its potential for grandiosity. In fact, making it life action actually leads to less possibilities, since you have to make the world look compatible with real humans. This kind of realistic style was not a choice, but a consequence of the real humans being in the shot because a faithful style would be too jarring with real humans. It being animated gives you the most possibilities to make something good looking, faithful and grandiose. It looking like nothing people haven't seen before is only a problem for a filmmaker not creative enough to make something new. Minecraft story mode is a great example. It is fairly faithful to minecrafts style and didn't look bad and it's still a style I haven't seen that often. A blend of that and the newer announcement (which use less harsh textures by the way) videos would have probably looked amazing if it used realistic lighting physics. You could even borrow from dungeons or legends which both tweak the style to be more appealing and even grandiose imo. Saying that there aren't ways to make minecraft look grandiose is not a critique of minecrafts style, but an admission of lack of creativity.
I articulated that poorly- let me rephrase. If you're going to film on location, with physical props and sets, then paint over most of those background visuals with computer-generated imagery, what was the point of filming on location? The filmmakers wanted CGI purely to create this reality of grotesque "realism," quote un quote, while dampening the stylized potential of animation, ostensibly because they hold that the live action aesthetic is superior. But animation is a medium in of itself- so at the point where the film is entirely contingent on animation to create the look and feel of Minecraft anyways, *why would they not simply choose the filmmaking medium of animation to portray Minecraft instead?*
I'm almost 50 and have played Minecraft for years. I was just hoping for... More. Something better than what we're seeing. And my 5 year old grandson plays Minecraft- he saw the trailer, and his look of disappointment said it all. So... I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think it'll be very good. And Jack Black's backlash at Minecraft fans is definitely not a way to get people to watch. That has turned me off to it more than anything.
Minecraft movie should of been a psycho logical horror prequel to the Original Minecraft and the cast should of been bast around the default skins of Xbox 360 characters...centered around Prisoner Steve and how he escaped and was the reason why the Ender dragon became evil and why the villagers Monopolized the emeralds...and then Steve Junior goes to find him
The artistic intent of the creative teams that make movies possible have always been at odds with the capitalistic and purely commercial intent of the people that produce movies- that's been the case since the literal dawn of this art form. Every movie has to have at least someone who cares about it, though. Whether that's overworked and underpaid animators forced to sift through MCU slop and resurrect an actual film from the ashes in post, actors genuinely passionate about a script regardless of whether it's good or bad, directors of photography who use even the most middling of fare to hone their command over the visual medium, or directors trying earnestly to make something special and failing in the process, at least SOMEONE has to care. Movies are too big, too collaborative, too weird to exist without at least some semblance of a heart, without at least one person trying their hardest. They can be made cynically, made as just a job, made for money or intellectual property rights or box office gross or what have you, but even in the most festering carbuncle of a film, even in the ones that didn't deserve to be made, there's at least something that someone tried their hardest on, something they're proud of. Studio heads have become increasingly corporate and insincere when it comes to the safe, unimaginative fare they ship out to sustain their bottom line, but that doesn't mean we have to follow suit. Earnestness is the only antidote to their insincerity- earnestly loving and appreciating movies is the only way to ensure better ones get made. If you don't want more bad stuff to exist, stop watching it. There's so much about the medium to like. Why sup on a diet that consists solely of slop when you could be savoring the sweet flesh of true artistic fruit?
Now minecraft "finally"(?) gets its film adaptation? I can't say I've yearned for this moment. Doesn't seem important. Won't be as good as the game. The grownups will complain. The kids will hype. The movie series will continue. It will live on alongside the game. Just invest your stonkers in the memes.
I know that this was and would never be your intention, but the way you note the controversy that spawned from this trailer, with a broad brush, as mostly shallow makes it seem like your talking down to the people who take different elements that yours into account with the information they know. Another one of your comments reflect this with this standing out in particular: “At the same time, though, I also think the controversy is ridiculously overblown and mostly caused by the sort of insipid, safe contemporary cultural infantilization the industry has attempted to inculcate in us. People (by which I mean my specific segment of Gen-Z adults) just need to just watch more grown-up movies.“ Without proper elaboration this just rings of “Whatever this controversy brings to discussion is insignificant as the only discussion is surface level” instead of just bringing to light what you see as an underrepresented angle. I know this is a small thing but it bothered me when reading the comments as well as when I watched the video.
Me right now: ruclips.net/video/cM5hHuIrf5c/видео.htmlfeature=shared Imagine Gru being me and Vector being the developers of this so called Minecraft movie.
@@FrostbyteFreeman I know there is like a 2% chance of that working but if you enjoy it and get blessed by the algorithm (Something you have been multiple times somehow lol) dude you have the skill to make it big your video essays are so good
@@Wulk Thank you! That's very kind of you to say- I'm flattered you think so! I'm not sure you're right, though, but I'm not sure it matters much to me at this point!
There have been good adaptations of game franchises. They should have been modelling this concept after the Lego Movie, which got good reviews & public acclaim, or Wreck-it Ralph, which adapted a videogame setting into an original story that actually resonated with audiences. Given the quality & success of those projects, it's crazy that they arent held up as the standard for similar concepts.
What's even crazier is that McElhenney has said his primary source of inspiration for the film, outside of all the time he spent playing Minecraft with his kids, was The LEGO Movie, which came out around the same time he started independently producing mini-Minecraft shorts to try and land the directing gig. I wish they had stuck with him, man. I really do.
I’m going to say it right now. I think people are over reacting here. It’s not the worst thing ever. It’s not good but it’s not bad either. Yes it does not look good at all but it’s not the worst thing in the world. Also why do people call it The Minecraft Movie when it’s called A Minecraft Movie
It's just easier to call it the Minecraft movie. Sort of like how people call Galaxy's Edge in the Disney parks by the name of Star Wars Land- it's a colloquialism.
I'm so excited for this garbage. I really hope it doesnt get salvaged into an okay movie before release. I was so disappointed when the Sonic movie turned out decent and not funny bad.
The entire Sonic situation has such fascinating implications on the malleability of film as a medium and whether or not such relentless, reckless, retroactive tampering is even ethically sanctionable. But that's a whole other tangent, so I digress.
@@FrostbyteFreeman True and it can be a divisive topic. Ideally all versions would be available. My view of wanting funny bad over just okay is probably in the minority too.
If after this amazing video you turn out not to be right and the movie is not good (which you have convinced me not to be the provable case) I'm going to be a little sad
I hope I didn't oversell it too much! Like I said, I think that the thematic core of the film *could* be solid- it's the *form* those themes have taken that's cause for concern. I don't know if it'll be able to live up to the best I think it could have been; in fact, I doubt it will. But I'd like to believe. I'm glad you thought this video was amazing, though. That's a very kind thing to say! Thank you so much for the compliment.
@@FrostbyteFreeman We all still need to see more to form better opinions, but I'll let you know that for the moment my expectations couldn't be any lower
@@FrostbyteFreeman I get that. Personally I just don't want to encourage people to make bad media by supporting heavily flawed and lazy projects. That's just how we tell the movie industry where our standards are, which means we'll get more stuff of the same quality.
I think we can all agree that this would have been better fully animated and we can all agree that the story is basically Jumanji. But I'm not convinced that changing the story is needed to make it good. For example, Cameron's Avatar movie was pretty decent at least despite it being basically a live action sci-fi remake of Disney's Pocahontas.
This is Undoubtedly going to be a disappointment because of the state of the industry. And because I detect lazy writing, the plot is a copy and paste of jumanji.
I feel like decrying the "state of the industry" is a cop-out. Yes, at its absolute zenith, the studio industrial complex is rotten to the core, but there are still so many great movies being made regardless- especially on the independent scene. The only way to fight that soullessness is with sincerity. And there's nothing necessarily wrong with a conventional story, either. Most of the colloquial contemporary conversation around film is far too literal, too centered on "plot" and movies as a linear, line-by-line sequence of events. What matters most of all is the execution. Doesn't change the fact that A Minecraft Movie seems insipid, though.
Studio Execs: what did people love more, the animated Mario movie or the live action Mario movie? Everyone: the live action was a travesty. Studio Execs: Oh! Oh! Lets do that!
Both Mario movies have the same basic structure, though. Brooklyn plumbers from the real world get sucked into a strange and magical land. The difference is in adaptation. What about either Mario movie is different to this one, thematically speaking?
I recorded this at two in the morning when people were sleeping (because it's the only time I could) so if my attempt to whisper-talk at a pretend normal volume only exacerbated any existing issues I have with vocal fry I sincerely apologize
![FNAF vs TF2 - Episode 2 [SFM]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/z5b3V2-VLb0/mqdefault.jpg)
What are your thoughts on A Minecraft Movie? Do you think that the core thematic content could still make for a good film, or do you believe that the form that content has taken (i.e. formulaic script, unsightly visual style) detract too much from the movie as a whole?
i think that it's a silly style and that's not a bad thing at all
minecraft, really, is not a serious game. i don't know if many people were expecting an action focused movie but i was not. i was expecting a goofy, slightly cringy but still good movie. i mean the director is the guy who made napoleon dynamite, the guy typically goes for absurdist humour in all his films. i think it's great for a silly game like minecraft
@@lucy_derg Minecraft is not serious, but it's sincere. It's rules are fantasy and can result in a little silliness sometimes, but it still treats them sincerely.
You're right, a pure action movie wouldn't have been the right choice, but I really don't think absurdist comedy is either.
And the teaser doesn't understand that. Minecraft's rules are not treated with sincerity, but ridicule (the sheep, steve, the llama, etc.).
"Well that just happened"-style humor is just not minecraft.
From what we currently have, I feel that it's too high in energy. Minecraft is very calm and quiet, almost melancholic. Hell, you could probably make a movie that feels like a sort of fantasy Charlie Brown using Minecraft. Though I think a better fit would be something similar to the webseries, Tux & Fanny.
Prior to the insight you shared in this video, pointing to the end poem, I would have immediately said "Nope, there is no helping a live action adaptation." But now I have watched your video and I find that there is a remarkable bit of nuance to be had here.
The thing is that this premise, that Minecraft is a thing to experience once and then quit to carry the lessons learned over into the real world rather than get stuck in this small dream, could work, but a lot of things have to go right in order to actually make it. And the movie's visual style is a key reason why this execution of it can't.
The world of Minecraft needs to be presented as a dream in the sense that it needs to be something unreal, yet something you could see somebody getting lost in. The fact it is uncannily realified in this case, however, turns it into unsettling nightmare fuel. As a result your immediate reaction isn't wonderous awe, it's revulsion. You want to get out as fast as possible, not stay forever, so Steve here seems just utterly insane instead of being a genuinely presented possibility of where the path ahead could lead. Becoming a master of this reality is not as immediately appealing as it really should be, so there isn't food for thought. The obvious answer from the outset, no matter how much the characters warm up to the strangeness of it all, is escape.
Granted though, it would always look awkward to have fully real world people existing and interacting with any interpretation of the Minecraft world. You'd just have to pick your poison somewhere between children's show fakeness and uncanny nightmare fuel and I don't think there is a real sweetspot to be had.
So no matter how you put it, a well superior option would have been a movie that has a live action prologue and epilogue, but mainly takes place in a fully animated Minecraft world. Specifically with a style somewhere close to the one used by Squared Media, just so we don't end up with the problem of no articulateable mouth and a lack of knees and elbows, which would make things feel too stiff to be desireable. Fingers are up for debate there.
As for what we've seen so far of the script, yeah it's pretty cringe, but within this premise the Jumanji amusement park tour of "whoah, look at this strange thing, that is actually just part of the game, but it's so weird live in person" is kind of necessary, at least for the beginning. After all, that is the only natural reaction to suddenly finding yourself in a complete dream world of strange, new possibilities.
Welcome to the 90s all over again>>>
ruclips.net/video/1-7k8MNPIek/видео.htmlsi=ZhAzUzUbsm5hb4So
I understand Minecraft doesn't have a general plot, but that's the beauty of being able to make the movie. You can create a plot with the materials that Minecraft has to offer. (which is a ton). There's no creative direction, and they're taking what seems like the most straightforward generic route, aka Jumanji 3.
Oh no. Saying there's no creative direction is absolutely a mistake. There is a creative direction, but it's so hopelessly muddled by studio interference and misunderstanding on a fundamental level that it isn't applied consistently and thus is rendered completely incoherent.
@@FrostbyteFreeman I agree. I was more so saying that in the context of being artistic. A movie that creatively uses the IP like The Lego Movie. But yes, this movie fells like large amounts of studio interference and mishandling.
They just made Jumanji but Minecraft even down to the really large guy for no reason
Wtf? There's no really large guy in Jumanji.
@@joshbuckler the rock...
Personally, I would rather the Minecraft movie turned out to be McElhenney’s proposed LEGO Movie analogue than the Jumanji-esque thing we’re getting now. I think there were definitely ways to make this version of the story work, but stylistically, this doesn’t inspire much confidence in me.
It's literally jumanji 2, there was a leaked script, and it's the EXACT same story
it seems like it's literally just a Minecraft themed Jumanji-like movie
What it means is Steve isn’t smiling on his skin, it means that it’s a beard on his skin
To be fair, the interpretation of bearded Steve did always exist. I’m still as flabbergasted as you by the casting of Jack Black, though- seems to have been motivated more by his status as funny Internet video game celebrity than anything else. This video was, in part, my attempt to make sense of that decision.
@@FrostbyteFreeman you also forgot that it’s a beard and not a smile
I know I’m just joking around I thought it was funny that there was a debate on if it’s a smile or a beard and how you could interpret jack black as confirmation that it is a beard lol
It's canonically a goatee
@@Asahm81 nope, jack black proved you wrong
@@shuckLedurkins
So I guess Jack Black also confirms that Steve’s blue shirt is canonically a V-neck sweater from JcPenny?
Taking one look at the bedrock edition's marketplace makes me feel pretty comfortable in saying that it really is just about money. Maybe it didn't start that way, but I think it is now.
Oh, absolutely. Zaslav and Mojang both want that sweet, sweet, juicy cash injection directly into their veins. Just because the hands at the helm now are cutthroat and cynical doesn't mean we should necessarily engage with this thing on those same cynical terms, though. Sincerity is the only way to defeat that mindset and actually appreciate art for what it is.
I disagree with your interpretation of the end poem. I think it's a more pessimistic view of what it is saying.
To me, it's not about leaving the game or any other "stop wasting your life" thing, but rather about connection with others. The poem not only refers to the game as a dream (the short dream), but also to "real life" (the long dream). I think a dream represents a world that we are immersed in. Usually, that is the long dream of life, but when interacting with any kind of fiction, we go to sleep in the long dream and wake in this new dream. This does not make these short dreams any less important or real however. One of the two voices states that "Sometimes when they are deep in dreams, I want to tell them, they are building true worlds in reality". I think that these "true worlds in reality" represent our connection with other people, since the same voice also wants to encourage us to make them. Dreaming does not prevent making these connections, it can't, since life is also just a dream. The "wake up" at the end is not telling us to stop the game, it is telling us to, if just for a moment, wake up from the long dream and see true reality, the connections we make with other people.
Eventually the short dreams end, as all dreams do, and we awake to the long dream. But we also continue to dream more short dreams. And this is not put in contrast to us being the universe, to us being love, but said alongside it.
If minecrafts goal was to make you quit it, to awake from the dream, it would go against the message that life is also just a dream. Instead, it urges you to love, to truly connect with other people, be it in the short dream or in the long dream. How you do it is up to you.
What I agree with is that this would make for a great message for a movie. Make steve not dream for "too long", but dream an isolating dream. Make him realize this, but instead of waking, make him connect to other people through the dream. Dreams are not bad or a waste of time, they are what allows us to make these connections in the first place.
I don't have many hopes though for this movie. Whether or not warner bros sincerely think that the movie will be any better than awful, its target is the lowest common denominator, the people that will watch it because it's the minecraft movie. I am open to being surprised, but I doubt it will happen.
Thank you! I totally agree. I was glad that someone finally pointed out the Poem of minecraft, only to find myself a bit disappointed that he didn't quite get it right. I have not read the Poem in years, I should probably read it again, I remember that it is beautiful and that there you can find hints of what the movie should really be about, what the two "Gods" are talking about... "What did this player dream about? He dreamt of fields of grass and trees, (don't remember well, he said a lot but then the other god replied) "Ah the original interface" The story should focus with that in mind. I really like the part of the poem that references the mother creating life and the part of the universe and love. If anyone has not read it I totally recommend it.
I don't think my interpretation is pessimistic at all- in fact, I literally said in the text of the video itself that it's beautiful. It's true that the poem doesn't denigrate players for devoting themselves to the game, but it's also true that its goal is to get them to step back for a second and at least disconnect from the context of Minecraft to critically examine themselves. Why else would the Universe repeatedly attempt to disassociate the viewer from their screen by reminding them of their hands on the keyboard, the breath in their lungs, the feeling in their toes... by reminding them of their body? It's not about the waste of one's life, but the realization of what's ultimately important, and in the broad context of that life, maybe the player realizes the game ultimately isn't. To me, the poem is meant to remind the player that the game isn't life- it's just a *part* of their life, and if it remains a part of their life after the credits roll, that's okay, so long as they understand. And I think Minecraft's attempt to contextualize itself in that way is a noble, if not hauntingly beautiful and ultimately doomed, effort.
To that end, though I think your interpretation has less textual foundation, and your reading of the lines on interconnectivity extrapolate too much towards the assumption that you're almost in a pseudo-multiplayer configuration by default, I don't fault you for it, and I still see the validity and merit in your argumentation. It's art, we're entitled to differing interpretations because it's ultimately subjective. In fact, I don't think your argument that the importance of the dream is found through the relationships we make is inherently incompatible with mine. Rather, I think within the broader context of the narrative I've tried to construct around this trailer, they're actually nestled within one another, complimentary takes, parts of the same whole.
I'm not very hopeful for the movie much myself, though. But I'd like to be, and this video was me trying to articulate that yearning for it to be better than it is. Can't well fault me for dreaming the dream, can you?
You're very much on the right track, you just lose me at the connections part. In fact, the entities speak explicitly on the value of privacy and our confrontations with darkness therein. They don't command us to love, they say that we are love, and that the universe loves us. Sure, the universe has people in it, but it doesn't require connection with another soul for you to feel that love in the dream of the sunlight that comes through the shuffling leaves of the summer trees. "Sometimes, through the noise of its thoughts, it hears the universe." Within the statement that we are love does come the implication that we are capable of love, and that we are capable of being loved, but the entities are being overbroad for a reason - they're establishing that love of every kind permeates into every dream, long or short. This is consistent with Minecraft's potential for peace or enlightenment even in isolation because it's built for either singleplayer or multiplayer to be an equally important dream. Deliberating on the poem's meaning now will certainly help us to get closer to that ideal, but that required the step of digesting it in privacy first
This is where I get the basis for my interpretation of Steve as a mentor of nobility, because he's already beaten the game and killed the dragon and seen what happens when you don't treat the dream back with the same kindness it showed you. That's not a trait that's inherent to him, it's one he learned the hard way and now has to teach to a new generation of miners who gradually discover he used to be the villain of his own dream. Picture Mark Hamill in the role, but instead of playing an arrogant prick he gets to redeem himself as the wise mentor he should have been
it is refrence to sans untertale shong: you are made of love ah ah love ah ah ah
argument that "story isn't for you" is a lazy cop out. Children will consume mostly anything that has sugar. Children will consume mostly anything with their favorite characters. It doesn't mean parents don't recognize crap then they see it, and don't get upset about companies making a quick buck off iconic intellectual properties. In toys, merch and media.
I used the phrase "isn't for you" (or something to that effect) only once in the video, and within the context of literally everything else that comes before it in the video, I feel like it's being misinterpreted here- at the very least, it's being stretched too thin to make it seem like I'm condoning sins that I have no intention to. I think (think does a lot of heavy lifting here) that the themes of this movie will revolve around arrested development and the value of being protective over one's own creativity while still maturing, learning, and growing up. So to that end, yes, this movie isn't *for* the adult audience. Because of course it isn't, obviously, so why would you pretend it is? This is a children's movie about a children's block game, yes, but that doesn't excuse it from criticism, and that's what this video attempted to provide. At the same time, though, I also think the controversy is ridiculously overblown and mostly caused by the sort of insipid, safe contemporary cultural infantilization the industry has attempted to inculcate in us. People (by which I mean my specific segment of Gen-Z adults) just need to just watch more grown-up movies.
@@FrostbyteFreeman Any example of “grown up” movies?
@@FrostbyteFreeman What do you think people are complaining about IN this controversy?
@@FrostbyteFreeman There isn’t any good adult movies that I like, sorry.
the thing about minecraft's story is that while the game itself has no "story" the amount of lore and interesting things they have added and pushed towards gives more than enough to make something great out of, the lore from minecraft dungeons was labelled as canon to minecraft officially by mojang and they could have done so much with it, just look up characters like "the nameless one" and imagine how much they could have done with that single character, there's so much wasted potential there
On the one hand, you're right that Dungeons would have offered a lot of interesting storytelling options, especially with its implications on the broader lore. On the other hand, I completely understand why the filmmakers felt that basing the game on a more niche spin-off adaptation would have alienated the general audience.
@@FrostbyteFreeman they went with an even more niche spinoff though, there are mobs from minecraft legends in this, and they are using the same plot of "piglins invade the overworld"
This is my favourite analysis of this trailer yet for good reasons
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it and possibly found my analysis insightful!
22:00 "Hermits" I see what you did there
Always trying to shamelessly promote my "Hermitcraft is the platonic ideal of a Minecraft server" agenda
@@FrostbyteFreeman It is, though lol
@@FrostbyteFreeman Indeed, Hermitcraft has the perfect recipe. Friendship, Amazing Bulids, a dash of lore, everything people want in Minecraft.
Mojang really doesn't want a definitive minecraft universe, the way want it open ended, to keep it timeless like lego. so "a minecraft movie" leans into the philosophy into a endless multiverse. Philosophy, check, Presentation, meh, Story... to be determined.
Yes! Exactly! This is exactly my take! Thematically, I think there's actually something structurally sound here, but the *form* the thematic content has taken is what's given me pause. Thank you for actually getting it. Thank you.
"This looks like It'd be made by Shawn Levy"
>Started direction under Levy 4:48
"ah"
It’s funny how we came all the way back around to Levy-esque direction sensibilities after a full decade of development turbulence. Also, is that Crusty783?
yo the ninjago guy is commenting on a mc video thats crazyyy
This was a fantastic video. I love that you had a more calm take and looked a bit more into it than the average person. Well all see how it ends up once we've all seen it. This video gave me hope, not only for this movie but for any film/series/show that will use the Minecraft IP
Thank you! I'm glad you found my take to be more measured and reasonable than most- while I'm less than optimistic about the form this particular film has taken, I wanted to close this video with my hopes for the future of Minecraft in the cinematic medium. That, at least, I see potential in.
If this analysis was shown to be wildly inaccurate id be shocked. Well done and thank you.
No, thank you! I’m very happy you enjoyed the insight in this video, and that you sincerely appreciated my analysis of such a polarizing trailer and topic!
This is a really interesting bit of insight, especially with that interpretation of what potential the premise of "A Minecraft Movie" could hold.
As for what could have been a good reason to make a Minecraft movie otherwise, an idea I have landed on since the release of the teaser trailer would best be classified as a celebration of the things that make Minecraft nostalgic. So it's a very relateable storification of a player's journey from spawn to the end, together with a varied cast of friends. That would ultimately actually be focussed on discoveries and the interpersonal interactions along the way, how people help each other out, how the different roles born from people's specializations work together, all that while making steady progress in the sense of gameplay and exploring the varied vastness of the Minecraft world.
Think the old Minecraft game trailer, the one by Vareide that used to be featured on the Minecraft website's homepage. That sort of casually wholesome nostalgia is what I'd love to see out of a Minecraft movie.
That's definitely a really interesting take on what a Minecraft movie could be- I'd love to see a story centered more on the multiplayer experience! My concern would be making any Minecraft movie too heavily dependent on nostalgia, though. Narratives that center on the nature of nostalgia can be powerful, but narratives that wax too openly nostalgic with unabashed rose-tinted glasses never stand the test of time.
@@FrostbyteFreeman Oh yeah, definitely. I should've specified that I'm not thinking of a story that uses nostalgic moments as waypoints to path along, but rather that it should be one where those nostalgic moments, that every Minecraft player has either experienced or heard of, can happen naturally. Like a second morning creeper sneak attack, taming a horse and riding it across the hills and plains in a travel montage or having a scene dedicated to a couple characters figuring out the basics of newly discovered redstone.
In fact, I was not kidding with the Vareide trailer comparison. While exploring this story idea in writing, I have so far kinda just ended up with a bunch of situations that could very easily be matched to the text of it without being forced. Take a ride on a rollercoaster? Well, there is a miner who happens to be the carefree type to absolutely set up a minecart track that ends up turning into quite the thrill ride on the descend. Build a majestic castle? There is a need for a secondary, collective base once nether travel is discovered, so that only makes sense as a fancy group home. And plenty of the more vague prompts can be filled in with your usual journeying and action scenes that are bound to happen when making your way through a Minecraft world with a fair bit of exploration being done.
What I'd be more concerned with is if this kind of a story can actually work out well in a movie format, because it needs to be able to take its time and I have next to no clue how text translates to time if turned into visuals
i wouldnt mind the realism as much if they actually made them accurate like i will not get over the fact that the sheep has human teeth, i hate it so much. they clearly used sheep refrences so why couldnt they made the sheep have actual sheep teeth
i know its human teeth cause sheeps dont have upper teeth and the lower teeth seem to be bit too many, and even the back teeth do not look like that of a rumen animal
but anyways! this video was great and awesome, hope your channel keeps on growing! :]
The teeth is always what stands out! It was the biggest complaint with the first Sonic and it creeps me out on the sheep/llama.
I think that’s definitely a major contributing factor in the uncanny feel some of these designs give off! I don’t think that those distinctly Minecraft sensibilities of silliness translate across into this sort of faux-photorealism style they’re going for. Thank you so much for the comment, though- I’m glad you enjoyed it!
@@FrostbyteFreeman no problem! i am still looking forward to the movie
hoping the full thing will be better than the trailer tbh
Bruh is those blue and green words actually from after beating the ender dragon? I never played minecraft but have watched a bunch of content from it and have never seen this but it made me tear up its so good
Yes. When you beat the Ender Dragon for the first time, and go through the End Portal, those are the words you see.
@Iliadic that's epic fam there is no longer any doubt in my mind that I will have to experience my own minecraft journey... videos of it just doesn't cut it
@@NinjaTravis it's far longer than just what you see in this video; it's a solid 5 minutes of dialogue
@Iliadic yeah I noticed that because I was pausing to try to read "all" of it lol. It really made my day at least to learn about it
The blue and green text is indeed from the End Poem that plays at the end of the game. My narration is extrapolation from the themes of that poem- or it’s meant to be, anyways. Surreal to think that this video, of all things, would be how you saw the credits for the first time.
You’ve video is the favourite I’ve watched on this topic. You explain the history of the production and what direction they could have went. Good stuff innit 👍
Thank you! I'm glad you appreciated the history lesson.
with the "what minecraft means" i really thought he should become a song writer, i havent been touched by words like that in a long time. Thanx frostbyte
No, thank you! I'm glad you had such a sincere reaction to this silly little video I made.
I usually don't comment frequently on RUclips, but I feel the need to state here that this video really captivated me and kept my attention all the way through. I was eating and watching RUclips lol and wasn't very attentive watching the 3 other videos about the Minecraft movie, however, your video is so well thought through I had to shift my focus to watching it. Almost everything, including the writing, framing and everything but the small blip in audio quality (which hardly affects the overall quality of the video anyway) was outstanding. It's one of the if not the only videos on this movie where I actually learnt something (e.g the other directors involved in the ongoing production). You've earned a sub man.
Well I do
That audio blip was actually my attempt to use the new audio removal feature here on RUclips to resolve a claim with the backing track. I hadn't encountered it before and had no idea it was going to completely nerf the quality (though I expected some downgrading, at least). If I had known, I'm not sure I would have done it. I think it makes the finished product worse overall. Still, it was worth it for the lesson it taught me, if nothing else. Thank you so much for the kind words- I'm happy you thought so highly of this silly little video, enough to leave a comment informing me you enjoyed it. Glad you found it informative, too! :)
My favourite review of the trailer so far.
Thank you! Glad you liked it :)
This is the absolute best take on any form of media I have ever watched. The composition of your words, your intricate and nuanced discussions, broad but catching hooks, stellar point transitions and topic organization, and vast understanding of the material itself.. It all comes together into a beautifully told story and argument. Fantastic work, you've earned my sub.
Oh, and the edit of the video is amazing too. I love the way you edited/timed the music with the arguments. Good job!
Wow! That's seriously such high praise for a meandering and perhaps overly self-serious thirty minute analysis of a minute-long Minecraft movie trailer... thank you so much for the kind words! I can only hope that someday I will be worthy of even half the compliments you've lavished upon me here :)
I came in expecting an entertaining but surface level analysis of the trailer. I left feeling like someone had finally articulated my feelings about film as an art form in a way I never could. You have some serious skill as an a video essayist.
Thank you so much for the kind words about my quality as a video essayist! I'm happy that you think this silly little video somehow effectively managed to encapsulate your thoughts on the medium of film as a whole. :)
They should make ‘minecraft’ a movie genre and then it’s just all these random people making different Minecraft movies, different style, different story, different everything. cuz that’s also what Minecraft is, it’s different for everybody but everything is possible. It would be like every Minecraft movie is their creators story/history in Minecraft. Idk how to explain it better cuz no English but y’all know what I mean?
McElhenny would’ve been perfect for Minecraft imo
Oh, absolutely. I totally agree with you there- hope this video made that clear.
This is one of the most heartfelt and poetic commentaries I've heard regarding the movie. Fantastic work, man 👍
Thank you! I'm glad you appreciated the earnestness of it all :)
you should really consider doing videos essays on things you’re interested in, you have the right voice/style of video and this video is absolutely incredible
Thank you so much for the kind words. I've been quietly trying to prepare this channel for a shift into more general video essays about movies and the like, so I'm glad it's something you think I could actually accomplish. Really means a lot to hear.
This might sound harsh, but I hope Zaslav decides to cancel the movie for a tax write off.
It’s not harsh. It’s smart. It’s possible. It’s scarily real.
Not gonna happen
My main problem, outside of maybe the visuals, is that the story seems kind of generic and safe. With that being said, the Super Mario Bros Movie, which also played it safe, had likable characters and worlds from the Mario series to still make it a fun time, but Minecraft doesn’t necessarily have that. That’s just a guess at what the movie may be like from 1 teaser trailer though, and you did bring up a lot of great points about how the story and vibe is somewhat reminiscent of what Minecraft truly is: a silly and creative escape.
I don't think a "generic," "safe," or even predicable story is inherently a sin in of itself- the real issue is whether or not that story is handled with care and craftsmanship in the context of the film. I definitely agree with you that the Minecraft movie's attempt to use the same sort of positioning as the Mario movie is doomed to fail, though, especially since Mario has the benefit of characters and narratives with which to draw parallels, and Minecraft as a sandbox game is sorely lacking in that sort of backlog.
holy crap the McElhenney Minecraft Movie would have been incredible
Right?! It really seems to me like he was coming at the subject from an angle akin to the LEGO Movie, in spirit if nothing else- granted, given its influence, that was definitely the prevailing thematic sentiment of the day, but I’m confident that if anyone could have articulated the quintessential Minecraft approach to creativity, it would have been Rob.
I hope to Notch that you are right. I hope that Jack Black as Steve is on purpose, that he is now old and fat and goofy, maybe even insane from being the only human in this world for a long time. That would be more in line with his acting style.
I'm really disappointed with the negativity this movie seems to be getting because it just proves how little people are paying attention to the meta layer of the worldbuilding Mojang has been trying to lay out for years now with their youtube channel and spin-off content. A sentient computer named M.a.r.i.l.l.a sitting in a closet at Mojang, A guy being Isekaied into the game and having to learn the game's mechanics as he survives on an island, Advanced Full-dive VR versions of the game that can imprint a person as their avatar. The gods of the world in Minecraft legends being referred to as "Hosts".
Not to mention the lack of appreciation for how much Mojang has paid attention to the kinds of stories players have crafted themselves over the years, with them trying to follow similar themes.
Minecraft's community has always had a habit of giving their storytelling a bit of a meta referencing element, with things like Mojang staff being referenced as religious figures, the world being a server and the concept of administrators being a part of it, and acknowledging stuff that would normally be thought of as just a gameplay mechanic like being able to carry tons in an inventory hammerspace and blocks defying normal physics.
This kind of thing was even done in Minecraft Story Mode which people seem to be praising as the better alternative comparing it to this movie, with the main antagonists going from a Command Block fused to a Wither to a literal Administrator.
Even the End Poem which is in the game itself goes into this, referencing the player, how they perceive the game and what it means to them within the greater lens of their existence in the universe.
The premise of real people being transported into the game has been a running theme they've playing with the idea of since they first started putting out the novels in 2017 with The Island and the Crash, the former of which Jack Black literally voiced the audiobook for. I for one am excited to see where they'll be going with this, as I love meta stories.
The visuals are just fine for what the premise is, I think it *should* look just a little bit uncanny as to properly represent the juxtaposition of a person directly entering the game’s world and viewing it through the lens of how a human being would perceive it. It needs to be a living breathing world for this to work and for them to exist there.
It's not bad, and I even find it a bit charming for what it's going for. I think it makes sense for the context considering they didn't keep the PS1 style the game had on-screen IRL in Jumanji, for example.
They even nailed the creeper's canonical details in it's plant based *mossy* appearance despite people calling it furry/fuzzy.
My only real complaint is that they didn't try very hard to make Jack Black's outfit accurate to Steve's, as all they would've had to do is leave the neck part of the shirt open and have one side tucked in the pants with the other draped out.
Otherwise, he's a perfect fit for Steve. As an isekaied player, at least. Momoa would've made sense if it'd been Steve as a character native to that world like an NPC, But Jack fits not because of his appearance, but because even though he's not a hardcore fan like his kids, he still has a genuine passion for the game.
To me, the controversy with this movie is more comparable to the FNAF movie than Sonic. It's gonna be a hit with hardcore machinima/lore nerds and bomb with casual fans and critics that don't understand where it's coming from with the decisions made.
Super hyped and looking forward to seeing this in Theater with some friends and theorizing how it could connect to other content afterward 😄
WOW this is well edited and this videk is servely underrated
That’s very kind of you to say! I’m very happy you enjoyed it, and that you think it’s underrated too :)
I have decided to embrace the weirdness of a minecraft movie and find whatever strange meaning in it that i can
Incredible take, this is genuinely philosophy-grade stuff. You get it. Thanks so much for your comment.
HOLLYYYYYY ur back???!! damn bro the last time i saw u u had a bucket on ur head or smth!! the editing of this one with the combination of clips n audios is absolutely immaculate especially so fast after the trailer came out?? im js soo disappointed w the choice to go live action w the movie,, maybe js become im an artist.. anyways man glad to see u back and thriving and can't wait to see whatever content ur gonna be making!!
Thank you! I appreciate your waiting until I had actually uploaded twice (technically three times) to officially determine that I was back for real- that's the sort of well-measured skepticism I can appreciate, given my notoriously unreliable track record! Glad you appreciated this video for what it was worth. I'm disappointed in the finished product too, and though I'm not necessarily opposed to the thematic content or even the narrative arc it's taking in broad strokes, it's the form factor that gives me serious trouble.
I guess I am one of the viewers left that still watch you good content keep it up
Thank you. I really fell off, huh?
@@FrostbyteFreeman yeah 😭
This analysis honestly made me kinda hyped for the minecraft movie, at least the plot of it
Thank you! This is less so an analysis of the potential particulars of the plot and more so speculation on what I think the central themes will be, though. It's important to me to note that there's a distinction. A lot of the interpretations of this film have fixated too heavily on the very literal elements of the plot, and my desire was to stray away from that. Maybe add a bit more nuance to the discourse, too.
What ever you're about to say, keep in mind this is being directed by the same guy that did Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre.
Also the team that worked for Mojang in 2009 thought is alpha and beta testing is not the same anymore. They let go of a lot core values. There's also signs they just don't think of the game the same way anymore.
I also feel like you're giving this movie too much credit of having a deep meaning.
All movies have a deeper meaning. It's art, dude- meaning comes free with the medium.
@@FrostbyteFreeman That's nice. You're gonna ask for what people think and berate them for having an opinion.
@@mr.papaveraceae3009 How does me simply pointing out that art has meaning constitute berating you in any way shape or form lol
I honestly think this movie should just be scrapped. Let the poor thing die already it’s already suffered in the dark for 10 years, don’t let it spoil the legacy of its original
I don't think that even if this movie is bad it can possibly soil the game's legacy; just look at all the terrible Minecraft videos on the Internet like this one that have had no bearing on how the game is perceived
Jack black…playing jack black. He’s not typecasted he just plays the same guy over and over
this movie, to us, is going to be what the Super Mario Bros movie was to the people in 1993
In the original cut of the Super Mario Brothers movie, there was a scene the studio deleted from the very end where the Mario Brothers are meeting with Nintendo in Japan to sell them the rights to their life story. The creative team there, deciding the "real" story as seen in the movie is too weird, change the brothers' story to be less convoluted and crazy, leading to the games as we know them today. It's a very strange take on the idea of an adaptation, and yet, it was at least intended to be one at one point. I don't know that this movie is exactly analogous, but I can see where you're coming from.
They should just make a dark fantasy film of steve exploring and wandering the ruins of the old world, as shown in HELLO THERE's trailer parody.
We tend to underestimates childrens appreciation for a story and setting with meaning, which is untrue.
It's so weird to know you're primarily a Minecraft youtuber because you're so insightful when it comes to film
Thank you! I'm glad you actually appreciated the more film-focused sections of this video- I've been trying to let a lot more of that stuff bleed into my videos for a bit now to prepare everyone for a gradual transition into some movie-related stuff on the channel, too! Hopefully that works out, and you continue to appreciate my philistine insights on the greatest art ever conceived.
God you always make bangers don't you mister frost
Really? I thought this video was kind of a hot mess, actually. Some stuff in here that I don't think I articulated very well whatsoever. Thanks so much for the kind words, though! Glad you liked the video regardless, Emily :)
When it comes to story and what you could do with everything Minecraft has to offer, we should look at the books licensed by mojang. Ive read that one villager hero book series when I was a kid, I dont wanna describe it or talk much about what it is about bit it just reminds me of how many directions you can take this thing to. And also what has been done before.
Nvm those books I read were not licensed.
I don't think the fact that they were unlicensed/unofficial stories makes them or the impact they had on you at such a formative age any less valid. In fact, I think it only lends credence to the idea that you can come up with so many different stories and interpretations from the same core components- which is actually the entire premise of Minecraft itself.
I'm really hoping this is what the Minecraft movie is going to be
Me too. I'd like to think this is what it could be at its best, but we'll see if it's actually able to live up to the potential of its own intentions.
people keep saying it should be fully animated & yet if the story is being pulled into the minecraft world and not the Lor of minecraft history, then real people ending up in this world that seems animated, fits better then, animation in an animated world that would make them seem more part of that world rather then pulled into it from outside.
That's a false dichotomy- you're assuming that the film has to remain within the same medium the entire way through. I hate to go there, but what about the LEGO movie? If the fish out of water Peter Pan story is the route you're going to go, why not start in live action and transition into animation when making the jump into the blocky world? Wouldn't that make the transformation more creatively captivating?
@@FrostbyteFreeman & in my opinion I think it seems better as a live action move when u consider the possible story line they might be going for. & not minecraft Lor. Can I have an opinion on that?
@@FrostbyteFreeman Yes it would be better if we do see the real world & them entering the block world. but we will not get that context from a trailer
it was so easy, just make a medieval fantasy plot and put it in the minecraft universe, add minecrafty stuff and jokes to the script and thats it. THEY COULD STEAL THE WHOLE DAMN PLOT FOR LORD OF THE RINGS AND I WOULD BE SAT!
I feel like medieval/fantasy-adjacent is always everyone’s first impulse when it comes to Minecraft, both in terms of building styles and the stories we tell. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing that this movie wants to weave the meta-textual thematic core of the game back into its narrative- after all, the LEGO Movie handled similar such ruminations on the nature of play and creativity brilliantly. I just don’t have faith that those same ideas will be handled tactfully here.
@@FrostbyteFreeman yeah, but if they wanted to be lazy with the script they could have done that, instead they want to pretend it's some metatextual self aware bs when in reality is just a cashgrab slop movie with bad faith comedy.
I'm a father, full time craftsmen, and minecraft player. My daughters also play minecraft and my son doesn't. We three all think it looks really bad. The wife also think it looks dumb and my son has no interest in it. But as a longtime player and movie ticket buyer, this movie isn't for me. It also isn't for any of my kids, apparently. Who exactly it for?
David Zaslav. I answered your question in this video.
I genuinely believe you have given this more thought than anyone involved in the film.
Much as I want to believe your central premise that there is a soul to this venture, that there is thematic core of sincerity, introspection and escape? I just can't. You I fear are projecting your desires for depth onto an empty and shallow cash grab.
Not true. Rob McElhenney thought about it a lot, I think. I think even the current team at the head of the project thought a lot about it, too. But their thinking about Minecraft was watered down and sterilized by the studio formula and focus-grouped objectives, which renders all that thought useless.
Man i wish this movie would come out on April 1st and its actually Animated other than being in the real world, but most likely will be just like the trailer 😢
Me too, dude. Me too. :/
You were supposed to be a hero brian.
I appreciate this analysis, but at the same time, I feel like you're a bit too optimistic. But who knows? Maybe I'll come back here after the movie and be able to say you were right. Here's hoping :/
Edit: Spelling
I think you’re definitely right. Was trying to be a bit more optimism here since I think the reaction to the teaser has been overwhelmingly negative, but I definitely wanted to qualify that positivity with skepticism, too. I don’t take issue with the thematic content that the film seems to be focused on- rather, it’s the form that thematic content seems to have taken (the visual style and the formulaic nature of the script) that concerns me. Ah well. Hopefully, this movie does live up to the best I believe it *could* be. I’d like to think it can. But I have my doubts.
on a first impression level, i think the fundamental problem with movie is just how out of place the people feel in a way that is off putting. its like they’ve been green screened in
2:52 This should come with blurb about the knee jerk discussions still having some semblance of merit to them as they touch on visuals and asking why they are they way they are and if that was the best road to take.
I wouldn’t be shocked if Mojang lost any and all creative control of the movie the moment they signed off on it. Such massive changes to the internal workings seems like it would quickly cross away from “the right idea which got the go-ahead.”
I mean, that's not *totally* true- it was Mojang that eventually settled on McElhenney, after all. I think it's more like control steadily seeped away over time, coupled with the apathy on the game studio's end brought on by perpetual pre-production problems.
I think that Alan Baker mad a great job at giving life to the world of mincraft and to use it as a base to developpe his carracters. It's probebly the best portay of the differents gamestyles and it will live forever in my heart as the best story in minecraft.
I really want them to quote minecraft achievements
The story is Peter Pan!
Yes! Actually yes! I agree with this!
minecraft: warships of various types whose primary mission is laying or sweeping mines
movie: a recording of moving images that tells a story and that people watch on a screen or television
trailer: a selected group of scenes that are shown to advertise a movie
joke: something not to be taken seriously
No, no. You're thinking of the MineSWEEPER movie. This is the MineCRAFT movie. Common misconception, really.
The "What Minecraft Means" section made me cry. Why did you get so real :(
I'm sorry! Thank you so much for watching and commenting, though- if nothing else, I'm happy you had such a sincere emotional reaction to this silly little video! Hope you enjoyed, if nothing else.
You know, when ever I envision a Minecraft movie, I always imagine it to be something like Surfs Up were it's more of a documentary style movie that showcases the life of a person in the world of Minecraft. I knew this is not how the final movie would turn out because of how unconventional it is, but I feel like the format would of fit a Minecraft movie very well.
That's really interesting! My initial instinct for a Mincraft movie definitely wouldn't be a mockumentary, but I'm not saying there isn't potential there! I think that concept would probably work best as a short film, though- something in the ten to twenty minute range, maybe? Still, that's a fascinating idea... thank you for sharing!
Or maybe it could be about a bunch of villagers
What it means is that there's NOT a Minecraft movie, it's just a Minecraft THEMED movie
I think you are reading far too deeply into it, and what could make sense stops making sense.
Are we not supposed to read critically into art? Deeper meaning comes free with the medium, dude. That's how art works.
@@FrostbyteFreeman Reading critically doesn't mean reading deeply. And no, that is not how art works, that is how some educated snobs think that art works. Reading deep into media can be fine, if you are careful, and deep meanings were woven into the media.
If you start reading deeply into something shallow, you start inventing stuff. Meanings and ideas out of nothing. What you read into it stops making sense, because you are trying to assign meaning to the smallest concepts.
Frankly it is like people trying to read gender fluidity out of Loki in Norse myth, while if you ask any one of the time, Loki is simply a man, that embodies the more female traits of their culture (being manipulative, lying, deceiving), that's it... he is a lesson for men to not only embody the masculine, sometimes you need to embody the feminine to win. When you start reading deeply, the meaning, the cultural lessons, and more is lost. Norse mythology tend to wear its meaning on the outside.
@@FrostbyteFreeman Let me actually continue just a little bit.
You are not even presenting this as your reading. Your title is "What the Minecraft Movie Trailer Means", and you read some really weird concepts in to the very minor stuff that happens. You are not presenting this as a "For fun fan theory", but an actual reading of the meaning, which is for certain is not.
Try and read into Jumanji instead, and discard readings that are not supported during most of the movie. There are actual deeper meanings hidden in that movie, themes beneath the surface level, some that were intended to be found.
Minecraft Movie Trailer is not going to themes beneath the surface.
I really doubt there is any themes of "Steve having to wake up from a dream",
And saying "The actual intended purpose of Minecraft, is to stop playing Minecraft" is such a weird reading. That has never been the "intended purpose", that's if anything the byproduct of not wanting people to die playing the game. The intended purpose of Minecraft, as stated by the actual creator of Minecraft, was to create a fun creative experience with light mechanics to engage people in the world while being creative.
maybe…maybe the true Minecraft was the ones we made along the way..
Yes, this but actually though
They couldve literally made a movie about the ancient builders and their demise
I mean the paper-thin lore of Minecraft is so niche (especially the ancient builder stuff implied in Minecraft Legends) that there's no way a studio would green light a Minecraft movie that isn't geared for the most basic level of mass appeal
@@FrostbyteFreeman if they wrote a good story from it then a good story is a good story
It's definitely important to point out, even though the visuals in the Minecraft movies look strange to put it lightly, what would they have done if not this, I really can't see a Minecraft movie animated normally selling well, I mean we have seen that type of animation done a million times already, and the main thing about big budget movies, no matter how bad or good they are, is that they are something that you cannot just easily recreate on a low budget, so you are going to see something that you can't see outside the theater, so what motive would people have to see the Minecraft movie if it was something that we have already seen so many times? And even if they did some of the best animation of regular Minecraft animation, we have seen that, and I don't see how much better it could get within those realms. So I honestly cant really blame them for taking this approach, since even if the movie is terrible, it is at least going to draw people to see it because it is something people have not seen before and has that big brand behind it.
The movie would sell well irregardless of how it looks. It's the movie for the most sold game in the world. The visuals not being special wouldn't have mattered in the slightest. Minecraft itself has (one of) the worst graphics of any modern release. And yet it still outsold all other videogames, because the graphics do not matter. What matters is the things we do in it, the stories we create ourselves. It being able to be recreated on a low budget is not a detriment, but a boon, because it lets us focus on just the storytelling. A sincere minecraft movie doesn't pride itself on its visuals, but its storytelling.
@@terra_creeper I agree that a good movie doesn't have to have great visuals, but the fact of the matter is that Minecraft is very likely not going for making a great story, and the audience this movie is targeting would not be looking for this either. Even though it is such a big game, when big brands venture into other media, no matter how big the name is, it does not guarantee success. There is no need to make a Minecraft movie, no artistic desire behind it or message it is trying to send, the movie is made purely to make money, and we have seen time and time again that the movies about spectacle and grandiose are what sell the best. So I disagree that the movie would sell well regardless, since there is not trust in audience yet that Minecraft would make a good movie with a good story, and when an audience doesn't have trust that a movie will tell a good and compelling story, they go for the one thing they can tell the quality of for sure, which is the visuals.
@@hamsterdini If that were true, then they failed even harder than if they had just made it animated. The visual style looks awful and the public opinion is terrible. What little story can be gleamed from the teaser doesn't look great either.
But I disagree with both assertions. Minecraft has no objective intrinsic story, its story is the one you give it. I think this is why mojang originally said that they would wait until the right idea came. There is potential, it just has to be used correctly. And while it might not be what the target audience necessarily seeks, it won't be harmful as long as it's presented in the right way.
And being a big brand definitely has influence in other media, as long as you're big enough. The mario movie is a good example. It's plot really isn't anything special and the visuals are really only as good as needed. It also had a few things that lowered its reputation before release, for example being from illumination and having Chris Pratt as mario, and also not really having any intrinsic story beyond "mario good, bowser bad, peach kidnapped". And yet it still grossed 1.4 billion dollars.
@@terra_creeper I feel like you are confusing my points a little bit, though I do apologize if I was making my points unclear at all, and I do understand and agree with some of the points you were making too. But I was trying to say that while I do really hope that they do a good story and that general audiences do care about good story’s, the movies that sell best sadly do not have the best stories, they have fine enough to decent stories, and are paired with visuals and spectacle that are grand and show their big budget. The Minecraft animation style just doesn’t lend itself to going much further and grander as is, and Minecraft knows that and hoe important it is to have spectacle in big budget movies, and thats why they took a different approach. I think it is a tricky situation since this style they went for is obviously controversial, and kinda ugly if were being honest, but we have to think about if they did go for their regular style, even if the story was really well written, what would draw general audiences to see it in the first place? I don’t doubt it would do decently, since the brand is big and there would be a lot of people who are curious about it, but in the days of streaming movies online for cheap, theater tickets are expensive, and I don’t think there would be enough people willing to spend that kind of money on what appears to be a style they have already seen so many times, and a style, all though nostalgic for many, was never that visually pleasing in the first place. And most would have hard time sitting through an hour or two of that. I was saying all this because I have seen so many people upset over the live action approach Minecraft took, and many wishing it would be in the normal style, but I think they took the best approach they could have, maybe not to make the best movie, but to make money. And I don’t blame them for taking this approach.
Also just a side note, using this style garnered a lot of controversy, and discussion, there would be so much less discussion if it kept to the normal style, and the amount of taking about this whether it’s positive or negative, greatly helps the rollout for the movie overall.
@@hamsterdini I disagree entirely that just because it's animated, it would lose its potential for grandiosity. In fact, making it life action actually leads to less possibilities, since you have to make the world look compatible with real humans. This kind of realistic style was not a choice, but a consequence of the real humans being in the shot because a faithful style would be too jarring with real humans. It being animated gives you the most possibilities to make something good looking, faithful and grandiose. It looking like nothing people haven't seen before is only a problem for a filmmaker not creative enough to make something new.
Minecraft story mode is a great example. It is fairly faithful to minecrafts style and didn't look bad and it's still a style I haven't seen that often. A blend of that and the newer announcement (which use less harsh textures by the way) videos would have probably looked amazing if it used realistic lighting physics. You could even borrow from dungeons or legends which both tweak the style to be more appealing and even grandiose imo. Saying that there aren't ways to make minecraft look grandiose is not a critique of minecrafts style, but an admission of lack of creativity.
bro used the word eunuch in his video
Tell me when I’m telling lies.
23:46 THATS STILL LIVE ACTION
I articulated that poorly- let me rephrase. If you're going to film on location, with physical props and sets, then paint over most of those background visuals with computer-generated imagery, what was the point of filming on location? The filmmakers wanted CGI purely to create this reality of grotesque "realism," quote un quote, while dampening the stylized potential of animation, ostensibly because they hold that the live action aesthetic is superior. But animation is a medium in of itself- so at the point where the film is entirely contingent on animation to create the look and feel of Minecraft anyways, *why would they not simply choose the filmmaking medium of animation to portray Minecraft instead?*
Cool :D
Thanks :D
I'm almost 50 and have played Minecraft for years. I was just hoping for... More. Something better than what we're seeing. And my 5 year old grandson plays Minecraft- he saw the trailer, and his look of disappointment said it all. So... I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think it'll be very good. And Jack Black's backlash at Minecraft fans is definitely not a way to get people to watch. That has turned me off to it more than anything.
Minecraft movie should of been a psycho logical horror prequel to the Original Minecraft and the cast should of been bast around the default skins of Xbox 360 characters...centered around Prisoner Steve and how he escaped and was the reason why the Ender dragon became evil and why the villagers Monopolized the emeralds...and then Steve Junior goes to find him
EVERY movie has a heart behind it? Me thinks you have too much optimism about the movie INDUSTRY.😮💨
The artistic intent of the creative teams that make movies possible have always been at odds with the capitalistic and purely commercial intent of the people that produce movies- that's been the case since the literal dawn of this art form. Every movie has to have at least someone who cares about it, though. Whether that's overworked and underpaid animators forced to sift through MCU slop and resurrect an actual film from the ashes in post, actors genuinely passionate about a script regardless of whether it's good or bad, directors of photography who use even the most middling of fare to hone their command over the visual medium, or directors trying earnestly to make something special and failing in the process, at least SOMEONE has to care. Movies are too big, too collaborative, too weird to exist without at least some semblance of a heart, without at least one person trying their hardest. They can be made cynically, made as just a job, made for money or intellectual property rights or box office gross or what have you, but even in the most festering carbuncle of a film, even in the ones that didn't deserve to be made, there's at least something that someone tried their hardest on, something they're proud of. Studio heads have become increasingly corporate and insincere when it comes to the safe, unimaginative fare they ship out to sustain their bottom line, but that doesn't mean we have to follow suit. Earnestness is the only antidote to their insincerity- earnestly loving and appreciating movies is the only way to ensure better ones get made. If you don't want more bad stuff to exist, stop watching it. There's so much about the medium to like. Why sup on a diet that consists solely of slop when you could be savoring the sweet flesh of true artistic fruit?
W video
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.
Now minecraft "finally"(?) gets its film adaptation? I can't say I've yearned for this moment. Doesn't seem important. Won't be as good as the game. The grownups will complain. The kids will hype. The movie series will continue. It will live on alongside the game. Just invest your stonkers in the memes.
I'm wearing a blue shirt right now so I guess I'm Steve. 🤷🏻♂️
👩🔧
I know that this was and would never be your intention, but the way you note the controversy that spawned from this trailer, with a broad brush, as mostly shallow makes it seem like your talking down to the people who take different elements that yours into account with the information they know.
Another one of your comments reflect this with this standing out in particular: “At the same time, though, I also think the controversy is ridiculously overblown and mostly caused by the sort of insipid, safe contemporary cultural infantilization the industry has attempted to inculcate in us. People (by which I mean my specific segment of Gen-Z adults) just need to just watch more grown-up movies.“
Without proper elaboration this just rings of “Whatever this controversy brings to discussion is insignificant as the only discussion is surface level” instead of just bringing to light what you see as an underrepresented angle.
I know this is a small thing but it bothered me when reading the comments as well as when I watched the video.
well\sead
Thank you! I'm glad you think so.
Me right now: ruclips.net/video/cM5hHuIrf5c/видео.htmlfeature=shared
Imagine Gru being me and Vector being the developers of this so called Minecraft movie.
What’s the song at 3:11
@@clicquotflies2301 The song is otherside by Lena Raine. All music I use is listed in the description.
Stop trying to make your content short We don't mind 3 hours long videos about film making and Minecraft pleaseee I beg
HAHAHAHAHAHA thank you! I'm quite certain that's a more unpopular opinion, though!
@@FrostbyteFreeman I know there is like a 2% chance of that working but if you enjoy it and get blessed by the algorithm (Something you have been multiple times somehow lol) dude you have the skill to make it big your video essays are so good
@@Wulk Thank you! That's very kind of you to say- I'm flattered you think so! I'm not sure you're right, though, but I'm not sure it matters much to me at this point!
There have been good adaptations of game franchises. They should have been modelling this concept after the Lego Movie, which got good reviews & public acclaim, or Wreck-it Ralph, which adapted a videogame setting into an original story that actually resonated with audiences. Given the quality & success of those projects, it's crazy that they arent held up as the standard for similar concepts.
What's even crazier is that McElhenney has said his primary source of inspiration for the film, outside of all the time he spent playing Minecraft with his kids, was The LEGO Movie, which came out around the same time he started independently producing mini-Minecraft shorts to try and land the directing gig. I wish they had stuck with him, man. I really do.
I’m going to say it right now. I think people are over reacting here. It’s not the worst thing ever. It’s not good but it’s not bad either. Yes it does not look good at all but it’s not the worst thing in the world. Also why do people call it The Minecraft Movie when it’s called A Minecraft Movie
It's just easier to call it the Minecraft movie. Sort of like how people call Galaxy's Edge in the Disney parks by the name of Star Wars Land- it's a colloquialism.
I'm so excited for this garbage. I really hope it doesnt get salvaged into an okay movie before release.
I was so disappointed when the Sonic movie turned out decent and not funny bad.
The entire Sonic situation has such fascinating implications on the malleability of film as a medium and whether or not such relentless, reckless, retroactive tampering is even ethically sanctionable. But that's a whole other tangent, so I digress.
@@FrostbyteFreeman True and it can be a divisive topic. Ideally all versions would be available.
My view of wanting funny bad over just okay is probably in the minority too.
I didn't even know that a Minecraft movie would even exist until three days ago.
Me neither. And it's been in development for over ten years.
Nope. The reason is just money.
If after this amazing video you turn out not to be right and the movie is not good (which you have convinced me not to be the provable case) I'm going to be a little sad
I hope I didn't oversell it too much! Like I said, I think that the thematic core of the film *could* be solid- it's the *form* those themes have taken that's cause for concern. I don't know if it'll be able to live up to the best I think it could have been; in fact, I doubt it will. But I'd like to believe. I'm glad you thought this video was amazing, though. That's a very kind thing to say! Thank you so much for the compliment.
@@FrostbyteFreeman We all still need to see more to form better opinions, but I'll let you know that for the moment my expectations couldn't be any lower
omg i love jacksfilm!!!!
The omega-cope
Look, guy, I’m trying to stay positive here.
@@FrostbyteFreeman I get that. Personally I just don't want to encourage people to make bad media by supporting heavily flawed and lazy projects. That's just how we tell the movie industry where our standards are, which means we'll get more stuff of the same quality.
Is your brothers name Gordam? Is he mute aswell
Gordon Freeman? The guy from the Skibidi Toilet game?
@@FrostbyteFreeman i just realized i made a typo lol, but yes the guy from skibidi toilet game!
'it will succeed, its the minecraft movie afterall.' we both know thats false so why say that lol
Given the truly insane size of the Minecraft player base, I guarantee it could make a profit on hate-watches alone
I think we can all agree that this would have been better fully animated and we can all agree that the story is basically Jumanji. But I'm not convinced that changing the story is needed to make it good. For example, Cameron's Avatar movie was pretty decent at least despite it being basically a live action sci-fi remake of Disney's Pocahontas.
That's... a very confusing example to pick, but I think you've got the spirit?
This is Undoubtedly going to be a disappointment because of the state of the industry. And because I detect lazy writing, the plot is a copy and paste of jumanji.
I feel like decrying the "state of the industry" is a cop-out. Yes, at its absolute zenith, the studio industrial complex is rotten to the core, but there are still so many great movies being made regardless- especially on the independent scene. The only way to fight that soullessness is with sincerity. And there's nothing necessarily wrong with a conventional story, either. Most of the colloquial contemporary conversation around film is far too literal, too centered on "plot" and movies as a linear, line-by-line sequence of events. What matters most of all is the execution.
Doesn't change the fact that A Minecraft Movie seems insipid, though.
Don’t try to persuade me, it’s complete garbage
Okay, I won't! Thanks for the comment!
It’s so unfortunate they’re just making blocky jumanji and not a cool and unique plot
exciting for a minecraft movie sure..!! excited for this minecraft movie? No
Studio Execs: what did people love more, the animated Mario movie or the live action Mario movie?
Everyone: the live action was a travesty.
Studio Execs: Oh! Oh! Lets do that!
Both Mario movies have the same basic structure, though. Brooklyn plumbers from the real world get sucked into a strange and magical land. The difference is in adaptation. What about either Mario movie is different to this one, thematically speaking?
@@FrostbyteFreeman this one doesn't have mario
Interesting video. However I suggest you try to cool it with the vocal fry.
I recorded this at two in the morning when people were sleeping (because it's the only time I could) so if my attempt to whisper-talk at a pretend normal volume only exacerbated any existing issues I have with vocal fry I sincerely apologize
it's only for money.
Isn’t this the same opinion as the article saying this movie isn’t for you? I could be wrong but I disagree and I’m 22 minutes into the video