Warner Bros.' Minecraft Movie is facing CGI backlash, and now a franchise exec has revealed what went wrong.
A Minecraft Movie, starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa, is a live-action adaptation of the iconic Mojang video game and has become the biggest box office hit of 2025 so far. It shattered records for video game movies and marked career-best debuts for both leads.
Despite mixed reviews, audiences, especially younger fans, are embracing it with the kind of enthusiasm once reserved for peak Marvel blockbusters.
Why is The Minecraft CGI So Bad?
Much of the recent criticism over A Minecraft Movie's "bad CGI" appears to stem from confusion around a leaked, unfinished version of the film.
In the days leading up to its theatrical release, an early working print made its way online, with clips and screenshots spreading rapidly across social media and file-sharing sites.
These leaked scenes featured incomplete or entirely missing visual effects, some even showing green screens, exposed wires, and placeholder animation. Despite takedown efforts by the studio, the footage sparked a wave of online jokes and genuine concern from viewers who mistakenly believed they were seeing the final version.
Given the target audience for this movie, some online users have called the leak "peak" for its hilariously raw state. Though unfinished footage leaks are rare, this one created a significant wave of misinformation and caused a deeper look into the film's complete VFX.
Minecraft Executive on VFX Struggles
Even among those who saw the final version of A Minecraft Movie in theaters, some viewers have voiced disappointment with the film's visual effects. While many praised the film’s energy and tone, a recurring critique centered on CGI that looked rushed or inconsistent.
Now, Minecraft producer Torfi Frans Olafsson has confirmed (via X) that at least one scene was impacted by a tight post-production timeline, revealing that a character's eye color error was left in "because the VFX studio ran out of time:"
"It’s super strange that all of their eyes were supposed to be purple but when it was rendered one of the characters eyes kept coming out white in the final rendered frames so we wound up keeping it like that, because the VFX studio ran out of time."
That admission suggests other visual hiccups may also have been the result of production crunch. Some moviegoers online have pointed out that while the film's stylized aesthetic worked in places, some scenes looked awkward or poorly rendered in motion.
Clearly, the VFX was good enough for a monstrous opening weekend, possibly leading to a sequel and delaying A Minecraft Movie's online and streaming release.
A Minecraft Movie is playing now in theaters.
