Director Jared Hess, cult auteur of films such as Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre, helms a high-concept studio movie based on what’s considered an “open sandbox game,” meaning he could choose his own adventure and use IP freely in the box trot of world building. Hess generally fares better in sequences set in his already off-kilter human world, even though most of the plot stays firmly planted in the cubic region. His approach is as tentative as the title: Sure, he’s ostensibly made A Minecraft Movie (C) populated with denizens, domiciles, atmospheres and accessories which a nostalgic generation will find familiar, but equal parts whimsy and writer’s block make quicksand of the situation. Of the misfit protagonists who journey Jumanji-style into the unknown, only Jason Mamoa gets an interesting character: As a paunchy, washed-up gamer-bro from the days of standing arcade championships, he is channeling a go-for-broke humor that lifts most of his sequences to a higher plane. Alas the child actors don’t stand out with inert characters amidst low-stakes peril. Jack Black brings only the screech of high decibels, and a game Danielle Brooks does what she can with a cheery throwaway role. Always funny Jennifer Coolidge makes the most of her divorced schoolmaster character on a date with a “Villager,” and her scenes feel like they’re as much from a different universe as he is. The movie has fun with creative crafting and contraptions, and there are a few funny and exciting sequences leveraging science and gadgetry, especially a flight of fancy with Black riding Mamoa’s back Pegasus-style through a sky battle. The subtext to make stuff not war and to wield one’s imagination to solve challenges has occasional appeal, but the jaundiced journey and strained visual pallet reeks of warmed-over Super Mario Bros., which looks like a high watermark in comparison. Black’s half-baked songs show further desperation in a meandering story that at least answers the question about whether pigs will fly (they do). Despite its box office potential, this is a bricklayer of the bracket season when it comes to much appeal for the adults who accompany the little ones who will undoubtedly will want to see it.

Note: “The Creeper” echoes this review on TikTok at FilmThirst.