Hear me out. I too rolled my eyes when A Minecraft Movie was announced. We're all tired of seeing Jack Black in video game movies — he was fine in Super Mario Bros., but good god Borderlands was a disaster. And the Minecraft film's trailers did it no favors, another soulless movie produced on a virtual set about a game that's completely open-ended and plotless. But it turns out A Minecraft Movie is actually good.

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A Minecraft Movie isn't exactly groundbreaking, to be clear. It certainly never reaches the heights of The Lego Movie. But it's surprisingly funny for a children's movie, and it delivers a decent message about championing creativity in a world that wants to beat down free-thinking non-conformists. And if you were around for the inexplicable Napoleon Dynamite craze of the mid-2000's, you'll notice plenty of that film's quirky sensibility from director Jared Hess.

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From the beginning, A Minecraft Movie seems well aware of the ridiculousness of its own existence. The story starts off with Jack Black's Steve (dressed just like the game's default skin) retelling his obsession with "the mines," and his inability to go digging while he was a kid. He later grows up, gets a boring office job and remembers his erstwhile calling to make holes in the earth. Once he makes his way into a cave, he stumbles into a portal that brings him to the blocky "Overworld" of the Minecraft universe. It's classic isekai stuff — the genre of anime where the main character is transported to another (often digital) world.

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And yes, I know all of this sounds incredibly contrived as I write this, but Black's zaniness really sells the absurdity of the film. It's as if he's saying out loud, "Yes, I know the idea of a Minecraft movie is beyond dumb, but at least you get to spend time with me in classic Jack Black mode!" Now if you're tired of his schtick, that may be a major knock against the film. But for me, it was a nice reminder of his Tenacious D days.