‘This may be the worst movie trailer I’ve ever seen’: A thieving artist who’s sold millions of books knows how to fix ‘A Minecraft Movie,’ and he’s not alone

The trailer for the video game adaptation of what’s expected to be a major 2025 blockbuster dropped yesterday, and while clips of the film’s star Jason Momoa in a questionable wig are nothing short of high-camp brilliance, the preview has been almost uniformly panned online. 

The major criticism around the film has been the decision to make it live action, and the general, non-animated look of the scenes. One such critic who called out the A Minecraft Movie filmmakers was Austin Kleon, an artist and author of books like Show Your Work and Steal Like An Artist. 

The book advocates for artists to build upon the ideas of other people, so Kleon knows a thing or two about the sanctity of honoring source material — something he claims is lacking in the Minecraft Movie trailer. “Imagine how much cooler the MINECRAFT movie would be if they actually used Minecraft to make it,” Kleon wrote on X, alongside a clip of the traditional, boxy style of animation that the video game is famous for. 

In a follow-up post, Kleon said the “terrible looking” Minecraft Movie should be “scrapped”, and that the film should be redone by the makers of Hundreds of Beavers, a slapstick comedy released in 2022. “Give [them] … a copy of Minecraft and a couple million dollars and let them go to town,” Kleon suggested, though he was far from the only fan to criticize the trailer. 

One X , perhaps universally loathed Sonic the Hedgehog designs.

In a broader sense, some fans questioned why A Minecraft Movie needed to be live action in the first place, urging filmmakers to “invest in animation.” It’s not the first video game adaptation to be panned upon the release of a trailer, with the also mundanely titled The Super Mario Bros. Movie receiving Bowser-levels of hate before its release last year.

Jack Black stars in both of those films and while I’d never blame Mr. Schneebly himself, here’s hoping he won’t appear in The Sims movie.