Kotaku being Kotaku
Kotaku being Kotaku
At this point I'm going to Ladbrokes and betting against everything Kotaku promotes. They are like Jim Cramer of the gaming industry.
The most frustrating thing about this article is that it completely ignores that good movies targeted at kids still have to be good. Personal complaints aside, the new Mario movie was reasonably good for adults and great for kids. Pixar keeps churning out things that are fantastic on many levels. Bluey is an amazing show that can resonate with kids and parents. I don’t for a minute buy the elitist bullshit of “well you’re not a kid so you can’t comment.” Muppet Treasure Island holds the fuck up as an adult so this writer can fuck right off.
What's also weird is Minecraft is 15 years old at this point. That means you've basically got a huge age range (kids to adults) within the target audience. Why isn't it targeted at the entire fanbase?
Why isn't it targeted at the entire fanbase?
Is that a serious question? Because the answer is obvious...
Ok, let me start out by saying I have an 8 year old, and he fucking loves Minecraft. And hey, I played the game a bunch back when it was in beta and I was like 25. But I did not love the game the way that he loves the game... He's obsessive about Minecraft, some days it's all he talks about. How many adults do you know like that?
And here's the real question, when's the last time you bought Minecraft merch for yourself? Because my kid has a Minecraft lunchbox, a Minecraft hoody, a Minecraft Lego set, some Minecraft figurines, and of course the Minecraft sheets and PJs.
"The Writer" is most likely chatgpt. Pretty sure most of these low effort shit gaming/movie articles are AI written at this point.
Yes a thousand percent. You can entertain young children by showing a dancing clown on a colorful flashing screen for 3 hours straight. Kids will love it. But that doesn't make it a good movie.
A good kids movie is not a movie that appeals to kids. It's a good movie that also appeals to kids.
Hear hear. Soul was a great movie because it was fun for kids but spoke to adults. Pixar does that a lot. A good kids movie is just a good movie that's appropriate for children. Sure you can feed kids entertainment slop and it might even make bank but if you're trying to make a film and not just a vehicle for the line to go up then slop is not it.
Personal complaints aside, the new Mario movie was reasonably good for adults and great for kids.
It was mid, until Jack Black's Bowser hit the screen, and then it was top notch. He absolutely carried that film.
I've been playing Minecraft off and on since the Beta. I usually play the "All the mods" packs when they launch.
I do not understand how people get so emotionally invested in an IP.
If it isn't a good movie who cares? Just spend your time doing something else.
Can't speak for everyone, but the reason that I care when one of my favorite IPs has a terrible movie, is because the terrible movie ensures that a good one will never be made.
They did a great job with Fallout, and now they are making a second season.
Then there's Borderlands.
I still haven't seen it, but I already know that the Borderlands movie I would have loved will never exist.
the Borderlands movie I would have loved will never exist.
For me it's Monster Hunter. I refuse to watch the one they made a few years ago. I wonder if there's a supercut of only scenes that feature the monsters. Or anything involving the Charge Blade.
After reading the synopsis, why tf did they have to make it an isekai?
at least you have the excellent 'tales from the borderlands' to play. I like to replay that 'movie' every year.
I made it about as far into the Borderlands movie as i did with the monsterhunter movie, bailing after about a 3rd of the film.
Not really super popular take, but the sexual politics (as in the way the story treated women) in both were something I struggled to get past. Plus they were both goofy and not in a very fun way. I have very similar feelings about the fallout show lol, but glad you enjoyed it.
But i think i teenager might have liked borderlands
Just reiterating what others have said but... if you have an IP you like and want more of it in the future (regardless of medium!) then its success in any other medium will likely impact whether or not you get more.
Unfortunately, we live in a world where:
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Money matters more to most IP holders than the IP itself
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New IP is seen as risky
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Those in charge don't have to take responsibility for their failures
If there is a commercial failure of an IP, there is a good chance that its failure will be seen as the IP generally failing or falling out of poluarity instead of the failure to best utilize the IP that likely occurred. As a result, priorities will often shift away from the IP to something else in all mediums (ex. ASOIAF/GOT). Unless the IP is absolutely gangbusters in all other mediums, it will suffer. Similarly, success will likely lead to more utilization of the IP in any medium.
It's unlikely that the IP owner will sell or license the IP in the near future because at one point it was popular and new IP is hard to make. It would be better to hoard IP and maybe try again in a decade when they need a trick up their sleeve. Plus, another failure might damage the IP even more.
Admittedly, I'm not attached to any brands or IP in particular and so I'm not invested really. I just makes me a little sad when some IP I thought well of has this happen... or when the person who benefits from the IP turns out to be a person I'd rather not give money to. Occasionally I'll ponder what might have been if things had gone differently and feel a little bad.
If there is a commercial failure of an IP, there is a good chance that its failure will be seen as the IP generally failing or falling out of poluarity instead of the failure to best utilize the IP that likely occurred.
For example, when EA released Tiberian Twilight and it was absolutely awful and didn't sell, they said that people just didn't want RTS games anymore and shelved the entire C&C franchise. That was fourteen years ago and we haven't had a new C&C since then that wasn't mobile shovelware.
Good points, well put.
This is just one of the many reasons why our current IP laws are complete and utter garbage.
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I'm not like, attending a protest rally or anything. I think it's perfectly fine to spend literally 7 minutes of my day telling people that this movie is shit.
You "no one should ever express disagreement with anything" people need to chill.
Lol people don't know how to build a personality that isn't built out of stuff.
I mean, if you're going to make a movie based on a video game, shouldn't you aim it at The demographics that most commonly played that video game?
You mean 5-12 year olds? Cause that’s what they did
Minecraft is mostly popular with people who were 5 - 12 years old 10 years ago.
If were going average or median I would be genuinely surprised if it was under 20 ngl.
They advertise to kids cause kids and adults buy it then, advertise to adults and youre just cutting off part of your market - companies aren't so super sterilised these days cause today's youth are just super loaded
Yes cause 5 to 12-year-olds are the only people who play Minecraft. Nobody over the age of 12 plays Minecraft at all and there aren't millions of Minecraft players out there that are anywhere from 12 to 70 years old.
Why didn't they just make it a fucking animated movie?
In this style and humor please: https://youtu.be/TSsHG7p0jjU
I'm probably in the minority here but the realistic style is the least of my issues with the movie. I've only played modded minecraft and shaders give it that weird realistic look too lol
You’re not in the minority, I just think they should’ve committed to the bit more? The blending of styles is the weird part. Minecraft is already low fidelity and increasing the detail has always worked in the past for these movies. It’s part of why wreck it Ralph, the Mario movie, and even the emoji movie all did pretty well.
I actually enjoyed seeing stuff like the piglins and nether all dressed up and fancy. I just think the people are presented as if the movie contains no animation and it doesn’t work. If they want to make it work, do the Sonic thing and blend the worlds by putting animated spaces in the real world.
That won't put butts in seats in theaters to make up for the money being invested. Microsoft wants a new generation of kid money.
what's Microsoft
if it isn't meant for me, that's totally fine.
That also means it's not my fault when the thing that isn't meant for me doesn't get a audience, right? Right?
It will have an audience.
By this logic: "The Borderlands movie isn't meant for you."
Apparently it wasn't. I don't remember where I saw it, I think maybe a Kyle Bosman video, but Gearbox/Randy Pitchford basically said they made the movie to pull in people who hadn't played the games.
So, people who would have no interest in seeing the world of Borederlands adapted to a new medium?
"Hey guys, wanna buy my new Indiana Jones game? It's meant for people who don't like Indiana Jones, or games for that matter.. What no? Why not"
(Note: The new Jones game actually looks good, it was just the first IP to come to mind)
These people do realize that the Mario movie had an entire segment dedicated to Mario Kart, which is like.. the most popular Switch Game right? And the Sonic movies stayed true to the characters and had tons of little easter eggs for Sonic fans, even had some comic book tie-ins for the movie?
Just saying, when you cater to fans, fans will buy a product and show it to their friends and family saying "Oh hey, you know I'm a big fan of X. Well this is a good entry point for it if you wanna see what it's like."
Seriously I got a friend of mine who "Was too old for video games when Sonic came out" but had "Seen some fanart here and there he enjoyed" (I'm a furry, inter-generational friendships are kinda normal in that fanbase), but he saw the Sonic movie on my recommendation and it had him asking me for recommendations.. Before I knew it he had purchased Sonic Adventure DX on Steam to learn more about Tails and Knuckles' characters to get ready for the second movie, and Sonic Generations as well to get a quick run through of the hedgehog's history in general.
This man is a Catholic dad who's always busy with work, his kid, and his faith, but he found the time to love that Hedgehog, because they made a good movie that catered to fans. (Yes, Christians can be furries, the Christian Fur demographic is actually pretty big. Fun story, the fanart he'd been talking about was a comic about Tails becoming a Priest and later trying to help Sonic stave off Chili Dogs for Lent)
What I'm saying is, if you're good to your fans, they'll be good to you, and if people see a happy crowd they'll want to join that happy crowd. Love makes the world go rounder than money does, and as a chubby chaser I do like round things... I forgot the point I was making as now I just have the Queen song "Fat-Bottomed Girls" stuck in my head.
Yes actually
"The new X thing isn't meant for YOU!111"
Is a common line the media pulls out when the product is failing or have poor reception. Don't take responsibiliy for the company fucking up, that implies the company is capable of doing wrong. Just shame fans for liking a property and wanted to see it respected. Call them bigots and say the problem is the thing they like is bigoted!
It's... absolute bullshit.
Sadly it works, people who aren't well-informed think of the fans of X are just assholes and the new thing is good actually...
It also doesn't work because the people who aren't well informed weren't fans of X, so they're not seeing/playing the new X thing....
Meaning I guess the The New X thing wasn't really for anybody.... "Literally no one" is a strange demographic to market it to.
See: Skullgirls censoring their game in order to "appeal to a wider demographic", outlets claiming Skullgirl fans who hate the changes are "secretly pedophiles", aaaaand... Now the game has a dwindling player count, the Steam forums are reduced to asking when the game will be fixed, and the original creator who was not involved with the censorship has a defamation lawsuit going because a lot of people called him a diddler...
It also works the other way around, when something the big corporations DON'T want to be popular is, just slander it as bigoted
See Also: That time Cuphead fans shat on a game journalist for not being able to clear an overly easy tutorial, so the oulet he worked for tried to save his street cred by.... claiming Cuphead was racist and a front for antisemitism.... Which the Cuphead fanbase just kinda laughed at because it's an asinine claim.
It really sucks because as somewhat of a social justice activist and a gamer, well... "Clowns to the right of me, Jokers to the left of me..."
Sidenote: Can we stop the trend of neutering female characters? Seriously bought a fucking Avengers comic the other day (I mostly read Sonic, but I'll pick up the occasional Marvel from time to time if I think the story looks interst) and I didn't realize till after I paid for it that the "Thor" on the cover was actually Captain Marvel.... all I saw at first was "Blonde, Masculine Face, Masculine Build. I guess that's a new Thor costume? I dunno, don't keep up with it."
Got to reading it in the car and realized "Oh shit, that's actually Captain Marvel. Sorry about that Carol.", this didn't impede my enjoyment of the book mind you. I like Captain Marvel and Thor, so it's all good...
Look she doesn't need to pull a Power Girl and have tits the size of her head hanging out of her costume, but I feel like the de-sexualization of female characters has gone far beyond combatting the male gaze and is now reaching the "Dear God, can't let people see her ankles!" stage, which is actually more sexist than keeping the ridiculous chain mail bikinis in the first place, as it implies that traits we consider feminine are inherently sinful and should be hidden from view.
I mean, I know the example I used was a comic, but this shit is happening in games too. I'm a woman and a gamer, games are my power fantasy, me being highly attractive is PART of my power fantasy. Stop making me not hot damn it!
Sorry it's just... Kotaku's complacent for creating the environment this happened in, and we're talking about Kotaku so I felt like airing a grievance of mine.
It seemed like it would be a cheesey movie with some dry humor and I was okay with it up until the girl character called Jack Black "a massive toolbag." Thats not what I expect from a movie oriented to children, and that made me immediately drop any interest I had left. Then the rest of the trailer somehow got worse with the llama scene, whatever that was.
They should have made the movie animated in the same style as all their commercials, with the characters in a Minecraft style skin based on their real world appearance. Have them start and end in real life, whatever. But boy is this not going to be good.
This looks like the 90s Mario movie all over again. Or the Sonic movie -- before they fixed Sonic. Like, even the Resident Evil and Tomb Raider movies are probably better than this and those movies were generally very inaccurate to their source material, and not well receieved.
Don't remember who (and I'm not about to watch it again) but doesn't someone also say "what the hell" at some point?
Yes they do.
I wouldn't watch it even if the trailer was really good but....I'm gonna shit on it for looking awful, not being targeted towards adults. That opening green screen shot looks AWFUL. I said in another thread it reminds me of those old car commercial edits with the Mark guy. The perspectives of the camera vs the background don't seem to fit
All they would probably need to do is replace the main cast with digital game characters, or at least something that's rendered so they at least blend in a lot better.
It almost seems like the Sonic movie thing, where they first released a trailer that was so awful they had to change Sonic to look much better. I'm still not sure if it was a very expensive marketing move or not.
Based on the quality of the rest of it, I'm leaning it's not a marketing move lol
It completely looks like those fake College Humor or SNL trailers. You know, like this? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UiIRlg4Xr5w
who tf is it for then
Its proof-of-concept. They're trying to get a movie out that's entirely tied to the brand, without spending a meaningful amount of money on scripting, art direction, location scouting, or talent. This is the future of AI Movies in a nutshell.
shareholders?
Great article, because it applies to anyone who reads it.
But the movie looks bad. That's why people are mad.
Reminder: Jack Black broke up Tenacious D to try to save this thing
and...
"Oh, no see, you're mad, but you see this version of the franchise isn't for you. It's for a new crowd that was alienated by the previous version and you need to be nice and let them have their..."
Shut the fuck up, if it's a version of a thing made for people who are defined by not liking the thing, it's not going to get the other crowd to like the thing, it's just going to piss off the people who do like it...
This is the second time I’ve seen someone say this. Tenacious D is not broken up. Where are you getting this information?
Fuck kotaku. It's biased journalism and garbage takes just for the sake of being garbage takes. Seriously the most useless reporting in the industry. And also, fuck Jack. He is a coward and should've had Kyle's back. It wasn't even that bad of a joke.
It's meant for whom, exactly?
Children probably
Most of my favourite movies from when I was a kid are still great movies for me as an adult.
I would bet my next paycheck this is not the case for any kid who grows up seeing this movie. A good kids movie should age with you.
Of course not.
I have taste.
They could be pulling a 'sonic movie' move here, releasing a terrible trailer to gather heat and information.
Though the sonic movie only had Sonic to change
Biggest problem I have with a movie like this is them trying to make a movie out of an endless sandbox game. If a game has a definitive end, then sure it's fine. Just look at the Fallout show and Sonic movie.
Imagine if for some reason The Powder Toy suddenly became a huge thing and they decided to make a movie out of it. Where do you go while not being lame? That's how I feel about this upcoming film.
I really don't see your point people have been playing minecraft in multiplayer, making stories for a very long time. There are TV shows dedicated to this on Korean TV. Kids love to watch those. There is every reason to make a movie.
And it might even bring up popularity in demographique that has never played understood the game
Ender Dragon is not an end of some sort?
The problem with that is how they updated the end to add the end cities and other floating islands. If the end was just the dragon fight without the end cities like it used to be, I'd consider it more of a proper ending. Otherwise I'd consider it just like the warden or wither: a respawnable boss for a certain dimension. Though that's just my opinion.
Go check out your local bookstore. There's plenty of minecraft chapter books already. Movies are a natural next step. In fact, Jack Black read the first audiobook in the series. It's pretty good.
Sandboxes are literally grounds for infinite creativity. Just look at The Lego Movie. No, if there's an issue with this movie it's that they aren't using the sandbox to its full potential, at least as far as our initial impressions can tell us. We have all seen every single one of the story beats shown in the trailer before in other movies.
all D&D movies ever will be bad ig
It looks to be an acceptable movie in the same vein as minions to me. I really hope the plot won’t be as formulaic as it definitely is, because I’ll be compelled to watch it at some point.
Yeah, it's not like Minecraft itself is marketed to the hardcore gamer demographic. It's essentially a kids' movie. I suspect it might still suck at that though.
I feel like kids moves should be higher quality. Teach them about good films from a young age. One can't keep giving them mindless content at a time were they are supposed to be developing their minds.
I’m sure it’s going to be “we got isekai’d into a Minecraft world and now we need to defeat [antagonist] before they ruin everything!”
It’s such a shame because I feel like theres a lot of potential. There are so many faces of Minecraft and ways to play the game (even within the relatively narrow area of vanilla survival multiplayer). Perhaps a better plot would revolve around the friction between these different playstyles.
OK, so it's going to be a shitty movie and no one is going to watch it, other than YouTubers, so they can dunk on the movie.
This is a second shitty movie with Black Jack in it. Lets hope he's not a trend setter.
He got a lot of money to be Bowser in a movie that made a lot of money, desperate film makers wanting to get in on the "Video Game Movie" trend thinking it's the next "Super Hero Movie!" trend hire Jack Black thinking he's the sole reason for Mario's successful movie and not just a component of it.
..and Jack Black's just taking the check and not correcting them.
Don't blame him, he's just grabbing that bag.
I was referring to Borderlands: The Movie, not Mario.
And I'm blaming him a little as he still took the bag.
I've read the article. It is based on the author's personal experience, which, news flash, does not represent reality as a whole. Also, even then he is wrong, kids movies can appeal to anyone: The Lego Movie, The Super Mario Bros Movie, Sonic the Hedgehog films.
Also, he called Minecraft Story Mode a "Netflix cartoon".
I mean tbf we got 40 year old on here salty about this movie, while my kids can't wait to see it.
It reminds me of adults bitching about minions being dumb and childish, that's the point
To be fair Minions is a childrens film and the people complaining about Minecraft are fans who for right reason hate the real characters thing. It would've been better to be animated...we all know the film is gonna flop.
So sometimes the most profitable quarterly isn't the best thing to do?
Minions were made TO BE DUMB, Minecraft is the most popular game in the world MADE DUMB FOR PROFIT - there's a massive difference and blaming the people mad not the problem is pretty stupid
u ok buddy?
wait what... what does the article say? who do they even mean by "you" in the first place? are they right? am i supposed to form an opinion based on the title? am i back on reddit???
Are you guys surprised and angry that this generic movie for children isn't for you, or am I missing some context here?
Why can't the movie be for everyone like the game is? Why make it purposefully empty and soulless so only small children with a short attention span can enjoy it? Take some notes from the Lego movie. It's not that hard.
Do kids movies have to be stupid and vapid? This looks completely soulless.
What does one have to do with the other? Snow white is also a story for children and yet adults can still be disappointed about the upcoming remake. Are you suggesting we can't criticise content for kids? If yes then why?
Criticise whatever you want, but your post is just a screenshot of a headline presented without context so I'm not even sure why you're upset
The fact that capital-G Gamers are still hell-bent on the GamerGate-era war against Kotaku is deeply amusing to me.
Gaming journos bad, something something.
Sir, this is a good Pastafarian server, pls censor that filth. The childrens eyes can't handle the raw sewage that is the word g*mer.
This is exactly what someone who works at or has friends that work at Kotaku would say.
G*mers should have been bullied more.
Sorry but Kotaku has always been 100% garbage, either bad writing, way behind the news, or both at the same time.
Except if its labor related, they immediately remember how to write.
I've been scrolling through the comments to see the reaction to this trailer and this is the only comment that made me legit cringe.
It really bugs me how every scandal co-ops the -gate from the Watergate scandal to try to give it more legitimacy.
The Hotel was the Watergate Hotel. There is no gate in Kotaku or Gamer. Just another fundamental ignorance of reality the media has come to.
Plenty of children movies appeal to both demographics. LTT's most recent stream passed some good ideas around about what would have made a better movie.
2024 is the year of a lot of gaming and gaming-tangential products being made with a ridiculous price tag but not a clear audience of people who ever asked for it. 🤔
I'll remember that with my kids asked me to take them to go see it. I'm sorry kids some writer on some website said that I wasn't allowed to see this movie so you can't either. Cuz you know you don't have jobs or money or anything. I have all that so y'all are out of luck.
U ok buddy?
Looks like a likeable character, why are ppl mad?
