Just got out of IMAX (as someone who's barely played the game). I thought this was surprisingly fun. People even clapped at the end, so I'm guessing the reception will be pretty positive amongst fans.
It's not a great film by any stretch of the imagination, but it's well paced, has plenty of action, tons of references, of course, decent visuals (although you can definitely see the greenscreen effects), and overall, the experience felt like lighthearted fun. It's definitely similar to the Mario movie in that sense, which also wasn't that well written. If you don't think about it too much, it's a good time.
Jack Black and Jason Momoa are really fun together and definitely got the most laughs from the audience. The kids, on the other hand, are pretty bad actors, and the movie wastes time introducing random side plots about them, only to never talk about it again. Some of that stuff definitely needed to be cut.
The star of the movie though, is the world itself. And that stuff, just like in Sonic and Mario, was really well done. I heard fans oohing and aahing all the time whenever we were just exploring the world, seeing things from the game. Kids will eat that up like lava chicken!
This teetered on the edge of being terrible like Borderlands, but somehow, it made it out the other way as a fun watch. Replace the kids with better actors next time and tighten up the writing, and you've got a solid concept for a franchise.
With Snow White being terrible and bombing (I regret sitting through that), I think this movie is going to do really well.
6.5/10
(8/10 if you're a big Minecraft fan)
Stay after the credits for a fun surprise!