Early reviews of A Minecraft Movie suggest it's better than expected

In a nutshell: A Minecraft Movie, the live-action-with-CGI adaptation of the best-selling video game of all time, is released this Friday. The pretty underwhelming trailers led to plenty of people calling this the next Borderlands, but according to early reviews and first impressions, it's actually..

. okay. Movie adaptations of video games have come a long way since Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo horrified the world with Super Mario Bros.



in 1993. But while Hollywood does pump out the likes of Sonic the Hedgehog these days, there are painfully bad adaptations like Borderlands, which has a 10% Rotten Tomatoes score, still being made. The trailers for Minecraft, starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa, led plenty to believe this would be another poor cash-in with no reverence for the source material.

But apparently not. Reviews ahead of Friday's release range from it being " good, actually " and " surprisingly specific and funny ," to " baseline entertaining " and not actively boring. Even often-harsh The Guardian calls it rollicking if exhausting fun, awarding the movie three out of five stars.

One of the most critical reviews is from the Hollywood Reporter , which calls it an unimaginative film that fails to spark the imagination. Right now, The Minecraft Movie has a 53% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 51 reviews, while its IMDB score is 6.2.

As is so often the case with movies of this ilk, a lot of the general public seem to like the Minecraft movie more than the critics. Take away my cinephile card because I thought #MinecraftMovie was pretty fun! Walked into this one expecting it to be absolutely abysmal and, even though it looks like a two hour long Super Bowl ad, I left entertained. Jack Black at his most Jack Black.

.. pic.

twitter.com/DWcuNRpvjc Several viewers mention that the film could join Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre, other movies where director Jared Hess was behind the camera, in becoming a cult classic as it features quirkiness, awkward humor, and weirdness in abundance. It's also been pointed out several times that adults aren't really the primary target demographic for A Minecraft Movie.

And while plenty of over 18s say they enjoyed it – or at least didn't hate it – expect most kids to love it. #MinecraftMovie is an AWFUL..

lot of fun!Director Jared Hess's signature awkward/random humor had me audibly cackling several times. The VFX are impressive even if the humans stick out. Its biggest faults are in its story & underdeveloped leads.

Still though, pretty entertaining pic.twitter.com/EfZNSGNjub Being rated "not as bad as you expected" and "okay, sometimes good" certainly doesn't mean Minecraft will lose money.

The top ten highest-grossing films based on video games include Rampage ($428 million), Uncharted ($407 million), and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ($336 million), all of which received similar mixed reviews upon their release. The Minecraft Movie opens in the US on April 4..