Minecraft: The Story of Mojang (2012) User Reviews

Asking the right people the wrong questions

[StrongKanegou · 6/10 · 19 January 2013]

I recently was in the lucky position to watch three documentaries on video games in rather short succession (Get Lamp, Indie Game: The Movie, and Minecraft: The Story of Mojang). In this trifecta, Get Lamp has to probably be the odd man out, since Indie Game and Minecraft revolve around recently released indie games, whereas Get Lamp presents itself more like a nostalgic retrospection. Still, out of those three, Minecraft, I am afraid to say, turns out to be the weakest - for a variety of reasons.

The movie documented facts and events after Minecraft had circulated the internets, turning out to be a tremendous success and having created an immense fan base. This may be partially due to the fact, that the film was founded through Kickstarter and thus needed some time until it was in the clear financially (I am not familiar with the exact details, though). The thing with Minecraft is, however, that the game is probably the most thoroughly documented gaming phenomenon on the internet (being responsible for numerous Let's Players and game commentators on YouTube) – those videos alone vividly depict the endless possibilities Minecraft has to offer and are able to make you understand why it turned out to be the phenomenon it is, even if you are not familiar with the game itself.

So what does this documentary add? Well, other than Indie Game, which focused on the people behind the games, their relation to what they were doing, and the reason why they did it or do it, Minecraft basically renders Markus Persson as a nice guy who simply lucked out making a game that he thought would be cool to play himself. Period. And then moves on to all the other aspects that are the Minecraft phenomenon – all of which, however, you are able to witness yourself first-hand by using your internet connection. Do I need a documentary to inform me about the existence of The Shaft or Yogscast? Or that Persson founded a company and is working on a new game? The most insightful comments are probably Peter Molyneux's in which he explains why he thinks Minecraft is such a big hit and discloses the fact that Minecraft played a role in him founding yet another game dev studio. Guys, seriously, for having Peter Molyneux, Tim Schafer, and Jonathan Blow (although he just makes a very brief appearance) available for interviews, these are pretty meager yields.

For fans of the game it absolutely may be interesting to see more of the people behind the game (especially 'Notch' Persson – and it is good to see that he has remained a likable, down-to-earth guy, despite being responsible for possibly one of *the* gaming sensation of this decade), for the average gamer or documentary aficionado, however, this might be too little. Where Indie Game was able to tell a captivating story about the minds behind the games, Minecraft is asking the right people the wrong questions and leaves the viewer with an unsorted array of factoids about the phenomenon that is Minecraft.

An informative Documentary

[LordElrondd · 8/10 · 17 February 2013]

A very good movie for a all technology lovers and certainly all of the Minecraft fans (such as myself) will enjoy this film.

We get to learn about the Minecraft creators and their story and how they got here. did they really expect this amount of love and attraction around the game or not.

one interesting point of this movie was Notch. I personally could not believe how humble and normal he was. as he said himself , he makes games of the sake of games and because it is what he enjoys doing.

he decided to create 'Mojan'. because Minecraft was getting too big and a company to represent was needed. we see how that happens, and what people are hired to help expand the game.

Notch was able to create a game in his spare time and went on and became one of the greatest and most popular games ever made. and the fact that people can't decide between Minecraft and super Mario shows that. I'd personally pick Minecraft.

the movie shows how Minecraft takes a role in education. and how kids (and adults) can learn to create things using Minecraft. that was quite interesting for me because I was not aware that this was happening.

we also get to see amazing maps and locations that has been created by users and feel all the love and excitement around the game. A great film if you are a Minecraft fan; or just a fan of being creative! 8/10

Awesome.

[plugfixer · 6/10 · 29 December 2012]

This is a documentary on the company that made Minecraft which is Mojang. If you have never played Minecraft then this documentary will make you want to pretty badly. I for one have played Minecraft and it is by far one of the most funnest indie games i have ever played. This documentary gives you a outstanding look on what went on and how it was made. I in my own way could have add some things but in all this documentary said it all. Also if you are a gamer or Minecraft player you will enjoy this documentary at most because it goes behind how a small place can make such a big game and how some companies can get started for a slow or fast perspective.

Awe Inspiring & Inspirational

[woody-lad · 9/10 · 23 December 2012]

Just finished watching the film and all I can say was, inspirational. The film takes you on a journey from how the game first started and carries you through this parallel to the journey of notch, the creator of the game

It shows how one single man built nothing short of an empire. It gives real inspiration to those who are indie game developers or anyone who has a dream. Even if you aren't a Minecraft fan I can't see you could walk away from this without feeling that little bit of inspiration. It shows how the games popularity increasing grew through the last year. Giving views of those from the public as well as those who have supported Minecraft. Game developers give their humble opinions and talk about how Minecraft has made them go on to view game design and development in a different way.

It's great for those die hard Minecraft fans and a soon as I'd seen the credits roll all I wanted to do is log in and start playing. If you've never heard of Minecraft, this will make you want to at least try it, but even for a causal or non-gamer this inspiring and collective journey will leave a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. Nothing short of fantastic. 2PP has done a great job.

An Amazing Movie

[Smartdwarf · 9/10 · 3 April 2013]

This movie is a real and unique look at the development of one of the decades best computer games. Having played Minecraft for a year before the release date, I was thrilled that the movie followed the game development during this time. The movie flows along through the different stages of the games development and really shows that the staff are on their own journey and have no idea where they will end up. The interviews with the staff of Mojang were very insightful and informative. Also I especially enjoyed the interviews with the various gaming experts and developers especially Peter Molyneux who offered his own take on the development of computer gaming. This is not really a movie for someone who plays Solitaire, but I highly recommend it to anyone who plays or has an interest in computer games and their history.

A series of vignettes about how great Minecraft is.

[corner_cut · 5/10 · 17 December 2018]

If you don't know what Minecraft is but are interested in the phenomenon, go read a wikipedia page.

If you already know what it is and you're a big fan of Minecraft, but you still want to hear other people tell a camera how great it is for a couple hours while a specific period of the development cycle of the game is documented, you will enjoy it.

The explanation of WHAT, exactly, is Minecraft, is never fully explored. In the beginning you get a 20 second bit about how you're just dropped on a map where bad things happen at night, and that's pretty much it. You know that there is some building involved but again, that's about it.

Why did someone build a mechanical computer or the USS Enterprise if the goal is just to survive? I guess there are many ways to play the game? How did the game go from survival to a lego kit? Is it the same game? Is it a different mode? How do the blocks interact with eachother? Are there different types of blocks? Are you taking them somewhere and just rearranging them at your leisure or is there an endless supply of materials? How do dynamic construction with switches and mechanisms work? Why is it so easy for very young kids to fabricate complex machines? When did the world first learn about it? Can you play it with your friends? How does that change the experience? How big is the world? How are they going to continually expand the experience?

Believe it or not, there isn't even a mention that the size of the map is basically as big as you want and is generated as you explore it. There is no real history of the game, no in depth explanation of the visual style, or game mechanics, no condensed timeline of development or anything.

The movie doesn't take 20-30 minutes to explain the game to you, so you watch it always hoping to get to the bottom of the game and it's mechanics soon, but that information never actually comes.

You get a factoid or a slightly longer sequence about the creator or the company every now and then between interviews of people saying how amazing it is, but with no context or understanding of what exactly Minecraft is, there is a point where you're just exhausted of trying to know what it is and exactly HOW IT WORKS because the movie assumes you're already a fan and is making the most effort reinforcing you for being one, while people who came to learn about it are left confused..

Sadly, it's a documentary about Minecraft for people who already know what it is and already know they like it.

Too many scenes that felt redundant, unimportant and just shoved in without any meaningful connection to the subject matter of the documentary

[fartnutsaywhat · 5/10 · 21 November 2017]

I would say that overall, I found this 1 hour and 47 minute documentary to be annoying and less informative than a Wikipedia page I could read in 10 minutes The scenes with the kids and the lets-players felt unnecessary and detracted from the original purpose of the documentary, which seemed like it was to provide insight on the development of Minecraft. I get that those scenes were present to show the wide range of appeal that Minecraft has, but there were so many of them that it started to feel like the filmmakers just wanted to make the documentary last longer than an hour and were running out of interview material. There were also a lot of times when an interviewer asked Notch the same type of question and received the same kind of answer from Notch each time. The type of question I'm referring to is along the lines of: "did you ever expect Minecraft to become so popular?", or "did you ever expect that ______ would happen because of Minecraft?", with Notch basically giving the same answer of "no" each time. This probably sounds like nitpicking, but it happens so often that I couldn't not mention it. My verdict is that I don't think this should have been almost two hours long, because the content added to fill for time is just that, filler. I'd give it a 5/10, with it's only saving graces being the production value and the scarce amount of scenes that actually have some kind of significance.