'A Minecraft Movie' Is The Cinematic Equivalent of Those Subway Surfer Tiktok Videos

Plus, some thoughts on the marketing of James Gunn's 'Superman.'

When I first started using Tiktok, I noticed an interesting trend: some videos had narration or other content juxtaposed with footage of Subway Surfers (or mobile games like it) being played. Here’s a typical example:

The idea is that the viewer is so hungry for stimulation that they require just something happening in order to pay attention to the other story or information the video is intended to convey. Doesn’t matter how random it is. Doesn’t matter if it’s totally unrelated to the message of the video. The brain must be narcotized to keep it from swiping forward to the next piece of disposable entertainment.

I thought a lot about this trend while watching Jared Hess’s A Minecraft Movie. The film tells the story of Steve (Jack Black) who discovers the Orb of Dominance and the Earth Crystal which together allow him to open a portal into the Overworld, an alternate dimension that’s basically what you might imagine the world of Minecraft might look like in real life. In the Overworld, Steven can construct whatever he imagines using blocks he can make spontaneously appear. But when he’s imprisoned by a malevolent character named Malgosha, who seeks to use the Orb for her own ends, Steve has his dog Dennis hide the Orb and Crystal in in his bedroom in the real world. There, Garrett Garrison (Jason Momoa), the owner of a local videogame store, stumbles upon it and eventually opens the portal back. Along the way he’ll be joined by some local kids, Henry (Sebastian Hansen) and his sister Natalie (Emma Myers), as well as their real estate agent Dawn (Danielle Brooks). Wacky hijinks and fun adventures theoretically ensue.

If it feels like I just rushed through a lot of stuff, let me assure you: so did the film. A Minecraft Movie doesn’t so much have a plot as the outline of one, with any gaps papered over via voiceover or quick cuts. There’s something almost liberating about how the film approaches the basic tasks of storytelling. It doesn’t assume that you need things like character development or detailed exposition to care about theoretically world-altering concepts like the Orb of Dominance. Instead, it makes a tacit agreement with the viewer: “You know how this shit works. There’s good guys, there’s a bad guy, there’s a bunch of cool videogame references. Let’s not waste any time and just get to the good stuff.”

That “good stuff” comes in the form of a bunch of action set pieces that make use of the Minecraft world. While I’m clearly not the target audience for the film, I can totally see young hardcore Minecraft fans having a blast seeing their favorite elements of the game brought to life, or watching Jack Black and Jason Momoa escaping enemies while blasting off in a rocket in the 69 position. And while I’m not going to say that I enjoyed the look of this film (quite the opposite, I find the film’s whole aesthetic upsetting and mildly horrifying), I appreciated that the film at least committed to it. There’s a unifying feel to the Overworld that makes like a living, breathing universe that’s fully thought out. That’s an admirable accomplishment.

Having said all that, the movie has a frenetic energy that feels like it can’t pause to let any moment or plot development breathe, lest the audience get bored. There are way too many characters, tons of visual ideas, a bunch of easter egg references to the videogame it’s based on, and just generally a lot happening at any given time. While this makes it undeniably propulsive, the net result is brutally exhausting rather than engaging.

It’s sadly ironic that A Minecraft Movie, which is ostensibly about the joy of creativity, is a joyless slog that feels like the culmination of a movie studio culture that is more concerned with getting people’s attention rather than creating art. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some Tiktoks to catch up on.

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I’m Worried About the ‘Superman’ Marketing

Before my screening of Minecraft, my audience and I were treated to a 5-minute preview of James Gunn’s Superman, which is a slightly longer version of the trailer that launched a few months ago. And I have to say: I’m officially worried about how this film is being marketed.

Let me start by saying I’m an enormous fan of James Gunn. I love the Guardians of the Galaxy Films. I thought Peacemaker was a blast. I greatly enjoyed The Suicide Squad. I think he was an amazing choice to lead the DC Universe into its next cinematic phase. And when I heard he’d be taking the reigns of Superman, I was excited. Here was a character who’d been such a source of hope and inspiration in my childhood (via Donner’s films, amongst other media), only to be laid low after Zack Snyder took control of the franchise.

In Snyder’s films Superman became less an aspirational figure — a creature who represented the best of us who nonetheless walked among us. Instead, he was more like an indifferent god who sometimes couldn’t be bothered. In my opinion, Snyder’s films amounted to a character assassination of Superman. (I don’t want to re-litigate the Snyderverse here but if you want more reflections on it, I’d recommend this video essay series).

I knew Gunn would have an interesting take. But what I was really hoping for was that he’d get back to basics on the Superman character and restore the elements that I think resonate with literally everyone: Kansas. Ma and Pa Kent. The costume. Saving innocent bystanders. The romance with Lois Lane. The evil Lex Luthor. These are all iconic elements that I’m pretty sure most audiences are aware of and would be interested to see. And to be clear, the trailers that have been released have all that.

But they also have…a strangely off-putting tone, plus a bunch of other weird-looking comic book characters and stuff?

I must emphasize that I am not saying that judgmentally; I’m sure I’m going to really enjoy watching this movie, as I have with Gunn’s other films! I love it when he goes cosmic and takes his stories to all kinds of weird and upsetting places. Hell, I watched Super in the movie theater and enjoyed it!

But Superman is meant to be more than just another James Gunn movie that David Chen likes: it’s supposed to kickstart the first phase of Gunn’s extremely elaborate DC universe map. In other words, this movie has to succeed for all these plans to come to fruition, and there are probably literally billions of dollars at stake if they get this right.

In my opinion, the current trailers that have been released for Superman are not inspiring. In the new extended look, we see Superman in agonizing pain and begging his dog for help. Later, some machines help restore Superman to his full strength using the power of the sun, a process that Superman does not look like he enjoys very much. The trailer concludes with a flurry of character reveals and big moments that are supposed to get us psyched for the film.

I get that Gunn wants to honor the comic books and that ultimately the marketing probably needs to reflect the movie itself if it wants to be successful. But by shoving in all the different characters and ideas that are in these trailers, I think they’ve weirdly made Superman seem less distinguishable from all the other superhero stuff that’s out right now. That feels to me like a recipe for turning off audiences rather than bringing them out to theaters to see one of the most famous superhero franchises get rebooted.

Am I overreacting? Time will tell. But in the meantime, let me know if you’re excited to see the new Superman based on the trailers.

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Other Stuff David Chen Has Made

• On Decoding TV, Patrick Klepek and I reviewed the season finale of Severance. I’m pretty sure it was a masterpiece?

• Also on Decoding TV, Patrick and I discussed Adolescence, which is a staggering and culturally relevant work. An absolute must-watch.

• Also (also) on Decoding TV, Sarah Marss and I have been covering this season of The White Lotus. Check out our latest episode where we make predictions about where this season will ultimately end up.

• On The Filmcast, we reviewed Black Bag, which is an absolute blast (and now available on VOD).

• [PAID ONLY] On my personal Patreon page, I podcasted with David Cho about the challenging personal circumstances we’ve had recently. Plus, we talk about our feelings about God! Listen here.