Minecraft Making a Mess of Movies

Idiots on Tiktok have turned the new Minecraft movie into a meme. Kids (and more than a few adults) have been convinced to throw popcorn and drinks, scream loudly, and generally cause trouble in the name of fitting in. The real problem? Some producers are taking notice.

The cinema business has been in freefall for a good while now. People are going to less and less films, and with more variety than ever. If you’re not James Bond, Marvel, Star Wars or a small handful of other hot ticket IPs, you’re going to struggle to make an impact. Like with gaming, risks are non-existent and audiences cry out for originality they refuse to support. Anything that increases engagement is something that will be discussed, and at a high level.

I’m a cinema purist. I want amazing experiences, beautifully shot films and the perfect viewing experience to enjoy them. That means a responsive, engaged crowd – people to laugh and cry alongside. That’s pretty much a thing of the past, with Minecraft and its ilk putting a nail in the coffin. In the last ten years, audiences have earned that the cinema is basically an extension of their living room. Talk, sit on your phone, talk more when you realise you don’t know what’s going on. Rinse and repeat.

Some of this is being baked into the experience. We’ve already seen Facebook talking about its AI-powered phone app for use in the cinema, now we’re going to have to deal with meme movies too.

It’s a funny thought. Men in suits will soon be looking over their terrible movies, wondering if there’s a chicken jockey moment that might fix the bad decisions up to that point. But I guarantee it. And ushers everywhere will tremble at the sight of every overly-manufactured trailer.

Minecraft – Let’s Fix it in Post

That it’s a video game movie that is causing these conversations wasn’t an absolute slam dunk. It could have been a Dreamworks picture or some Youtube sensation getting a big screen adaption. Let’s face it though, it’s not a great surprise.

Very few people have accused Minecraft of being a good film. Even the people paying to trash up theatres seem to be doing it ironically. Police were called, managers have threatened to remove people, director Jared Hess said it was “way too funny”.

This is an extension of the main character syndrome that sees people singing along at Broadway musicals. It’s a symptom of a society that’s decided you can do pretty much anything so long as you’ve seen it on the internet. Chuck the word influencer into Google News and see what you get.

Arguments that this is all innocent fun are nonsense. This isn’t about film as a whole, or even Minecraft. It’s not even about the people messing around because of memes. It’s a wider problem, a selfishness, a disconnect. And it’s a disconnect that Hollywood execs are now looking to monetise.

Now, obviously, there’s nothing more futile than a marketing department trying to force a meme. But that it’s acceptable means this will happen again and again.