I did not think I would ever say this, but “A Minecraft Movie” was the best time I’ve ever had in theaters. It was iconic from the moment commercials aired: Flint and Meal, the classic Minecraft references, cameos and excellent casting. Jack Black, playing the legendary Steve, had the perfect amount of insanity and intensity in every line. The audience perfectly matched his extremity and volume in echoing all of the iconic trailer lines. My theater was deeply excited to see him, the audience erupted in cheers upon seeing Black, speaking his iconic line:
“I am Steve.”

But the excitement never died down.

While I can’t say that it was definitely a good movie, it was most certainly fun. The green screen was often obvious, but I was distracted by the fact that my theater started chanting “kiss, kiss, kiss!” whenever Black and Jason Mamoa were together onscreen. In fact, one of my favorite scenes had terrible effects but also what Momoa’s character Garrett calls the “full man sandwich”: an awkwardly close flying position with pretty bad editing to escape being chased by piglins. At the sight of their daring success, my audience went absolutely wild and reached decibels that could not be topped.

My one critique feels almost picky to point out. Immediately in the beginning of the movie, Henry (Sebastian Eugene Hansen) is portrayed as a tech genius, Garrett is a video game champion and Steve is, of course, the connoisseur of the Minecraft realm. The two lead female characters, Nathalie (Emma Meyers) and Dawn (Danielle Brooks) don’t have any kind of gaming intelligence. Nathalie runs a local potato chip factory’s social media and Dawn is a real estate agent and animal lover. The girls immediately have a hard time adapting to the Minecraft world, having difficulties in combat and disbelief with the foundations of the world. I have no idea if this is something I’m making up as a girl who grew up on Minecraft, but it was something I couldn’t get past.

Despite this, I really did love the experience. It was still amazing to see my childhood put together into film. I think the audience was what made it most enjoyable, so the best time to see this movie is with your friends while it is still in theaters. While a really fun movie to watch, I doubt it would have the same effect without the solidarity of screaming “chicken jockey” before the big screen.