Part of the poster for "A Minecraft Movie" 

One day, Steve (Jack Black) was tired of working in his dead-end desk job. He got his pickaxe and went into a nearby mine as he always wanted to do since he was a child. 

Inside, he saw two "thingies" which turned out to be the Orb of Dominance and the Earth Crystal. When he put these two cubes together, Steve was swept through a portal that brought him to another dimension called the Overworld, where everything was built out of cubes. 

Discovering a newfound ability to build his own houses, Steve decided to stay in Overworld. He tamed a wolf with a discarded femur and named him Dennis.

Steve stumbled upon some interesting ruins which he tried to restore. It turned out to be another portal that brought him into the Nether, a hell-like dimension where brutal pigs led by Malgosha ruled. Steve got caught, but he was able to send Dennis back to the real world with the "thingies." 

Such was the totally random and convenient shortcut backstory of "A Minecraft Movie," a fantasy-comedy film that integrated live actors into an animated world based on the 2011 video game called Minecraft, developed by Mojang Studios. 

If you are not aware of this video game at all, then you will probably not get it nor like it. This film was directed by Jared Hess, creator of quirky films like "Napoleon Dynamite" (2004) and "Nacho Libre" (2006). Despite the shallowness of the plot, five writers were credited for its screenplay--quite a red flag.

Joining Steve in this silly topsy-turvy adventure were a group of other misfits from Chuglass, Idaho who also found their way into the Overworld. They were: has-been video game champ Garrett (Jason Momoa), orphan siblings Natalie and Henry (Emma Myers and Sebastian Hansen), and animal-loving real estate agent Dawn (Danielle Brooks). The humans needed to protect the blue Orb from the wicked Malgosha and her piglin minions. 

We know that Black is at ease playing singing nerds like Steve, who could have been written with him in mind. 

We had a blast laughing at a rollicking slapstick version of Momoa who was doing one stupid pratfall after the other as muscle-bound doofus Garrett. This was a total departure from his Khal Drogo or his Aquaman personas, but Momoa did not hold back from the foolishness of his physical comedy, all in the name of juvenile fun. 

6/10 for me, but kids familiar with the video game and the Easter eggs in the film would probably rate it much higher. 

This review was originally published in the author's blog, "Fred Said."

'A Minecraft Movie' opens with $301 million at global box office