Mortifying 'Minecraft' trailer has fans reliving 'Sonic' snafu



Is the trailer for "A Minecraft Movie" the worst abomination inflicted on gamers since the horrifically "realistic" Sonic the Hedgehog character design?

I don't think so. But then, I'm not much of a Minecraft fan; those who are do seem pretty upset. Let's look at what the big deal is.

"A Minecraft Movie" stars Jason Momoa, Danielle Brooks, Sebastian Eugene Hansen, and Emma Myers as four misfits who find themselves pulled into the game's Overworld, where they must battle zombies, piglins, and creepers. There to guide them on their quest to return to reality is iconic Minecraft character Steve (Jack Black).

In its title alone, the adaptation expresses a worrying lack of confidence. So ... this isn't good enough to be "The Minecraft Movie"? The reaction to the trailer — which got over 1 million downvotes on YouTube — certainly hasn't helped matters.

Viewers criticized nearly every aspect of the just under 90-second clip, including the costume choices, the uncanny-valley-esque creature design, the clichéd dialogue, and the casting of Jack Black. One wag sarcastically lauded Warner Bros.’ bravery for not turning off commenting, a regular practice for fandom punching bags like Lucasfilm and Disney.

The good news is that this seems less of a "get woke, go broke" scenario (unless you count the feminine costume/makeup choices for Jason Momoa), and more a case of Hollywood trying to please fans and embarrassingly missing the mark.

It's likely the filmmakers wanted to avoid another Sonic debacle. If so, they may have stayed too faithful to the source material: Those square-shaped goats and llamas with square eyes and square pupils really are the stuff of nightmares.

If Hollywood has learned anything in this age of unprecedented fan empowerment, it's this: The audience is always right. The good news for "A Minecraft Movie" is that — as with "Sonic" — the backlash has come early enough to do something about it.

Back in 2020, Paramount listened to criticism and delayed the film to redesign the character according to his iconic look. The studio's reward was a hit movie, two sequels, and a spin-off series to boot.

The team behind "A Minecraft Movie" should follow the same playbook, trusting that when you treat your audience with respect, the audience responds in kind. Let's hope the next trailer we see offers character design more worthy of this iconic game. Worthy enough, at least, that we can overlook Momoa's weird bangs and hideous pink motorcycle jacket.

'Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom' destined to FAIL?



Five years and $200 million later, "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" is falling flat.

The film stars Jason Momoa as Aquaman, and the plot features an evil master plan to increase greenhouse gas emissions in order to melt the polar ice caps.

“If you were hoping for a film that was light on the message or that was good, sadly, this is not it,” Lauren Chen explains.

The film continues with the theme of climate change, where the “bad guy” burns an ancient lost energy source not to fuel anything, but rather to accelerate global warming.

“Again, super subtle messaging here,” Chen jokes, noting that it wasn’t just the overt political messaging that’s turned her off to the film.

The film’s editing, humor, and tone, among other things, did not impress Chen.

“Overall, I think pretty objectively, this is a stupid movie,” she says.

Not only that, but in comparison to the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest" which came out in 2006, the CGI did not even come close.

“How is it that the CGI in that movie, which features a lot of underwater creatures, looks so much better than the CGI in this movie? It just doesn’t make sense to me,” Chen says.

“This is an expensive movie — $200 million — but all of the underwater critters look basically like they could be from a cut scene of a video game that came out a decade ago,” she continues.

Amber Heard’s character makes a reappearance in the film as well, which has left many Aquaman fans claiming they’ll boycott the sequel.

“I’m struggling to see a way that this film makes money,” Chen says, adding that Aquaman is also a “lame duck superhero.”


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FACT CHECK: No, Jason Momoa Did Not Expose A Maui Donation Scam By Oprah Winfrey And Dwayne Johnson

This claim is baseless

Jason Momoa slams NY Times reporter for asking woke, 'icky' questions about 'Game of Thrones' rape scene, treatment of women



In an age where actors are being attacked for roles they played in movies or TV shows depicting characters that do not match the sensitivities of the modern day's wokeism and cancel culture, it should come as no surprise when a megastar actor gets defensive over questions about past roles.

After all, actors don't write the scripts, direct the scenes, or produce the pictures — they don't get to pick and choose how a show or movie is made.

Jason Momoa, aka "Aquaman," recently called out a New York Times interviewer for asking "icky" questions about a role the star played years ago depicting a rape on HBO's hit "Game of Thrones" show more than 10 years ago and seeming to suggest the actor somehow had the ability to "remove" the disturbing scene.

What happened?

During an interview with the superstar, Times reporter David Marchese confronted Momoa about an infamous rape scene from the pilot episode of "Game of Thrones" involving his evil character, the barbaric warlord Drogo. During the episode, which first aired in April 2011, Drogo assaulted and raped the woman pledged to be his queen, Daenerys Targaryen, who was played by Emilia Clarke.

Marchese began his #MeToo-friendly questioning by noting that the popular show "inspired a lot of discussion about its depiction of scenes of sexual assault and its treatment of women generally." With that in mind, the reporter wanted to know if Momoa thought "differently today about those scenes."

"Would you do one now?" he wanted to know. "Do you have any regrets?"

Did the star understand that such portrayals belong to some bygone era of cinema, some "older cultural moment"?

Momoa was not impressed.

"Well, it was important to depict Drogo and his style," he replied. "You're playing someone that's like Genghis Khan. It was a really, really, really hard thing to do. But my job was to play something like that, and it's not a nice thing, and it's what that character was."

Then he pointed out that his job was to act the part, not to rewrite the story.

"It's not my job to go, 'Would I not do it?'" he added. "I've never really been questioned about 'Do you regret playing a role?' We'll put it this way: I already did it. Not doing it again."

What happened next?

That was end of his answer — but the questioning plagued him throughout the interview. And it seemed to impact the rest of the conversation, during which Momoa, as the New York Post noted, "seemingly gave Marchese the cold shoulder for the remainder of their chat, often offering only terse answers to the reporter's questions about other roles."

In fact, the "Game of Thrones" questioning bothered Momoa so much that he closed the back-and-forth by chiding Marchese for the "icky" questions that insinuated that he, as an actor, should reject roles based on what might or might not be "kosher" in a contemporary (or future) political climate.

"I wanted to bring something up that left a bad feeling in my stomach," Momoa said as Marchese attempted to wrap up the interview.

"When you brought up 'Game of Thrones,' you brought up stuff about what's happening with my character and would I do it again," he continued. "I was bummed when you asked me that. It just feels icky — putting it upon me to remove something. As if an actor even had the choice to do that. We're not really allowed to do anything. There are producers, there are writers, there are directors, and you don't get to come in and be like, 'I'm not going do that because this isn't kosher right now and not right in the political climate.' That never happens.

"So it's a question that feels icky," Momoa closed. "I just wanted you to know that."