I tried looking for videos of people playing through the story. All I found were builders and a weird game of hide-and-seek.
In the time since I have heard that there is indeed lore in Minecraft. The idea of a live-action Minecraft movie is still dumb, however. However, it seems that while Jason Momoa is actually in this movie it will be Jack Black playing the live-action Steve, and this is not an improvement.
The annoying thing is that I planned to never to a teaser review again because teasers tell you nothing. We don’t know the plot, we don’t know who is playing whom outside of Jack Black…oh, wait, there’s the plot in the description for the teaser post I’m using. Well, this should be easier then…to go over everything this is doing wrong as an adaptation thus far.
The funny thing, which is not something that would otherwise be said about this teaser, is I’m not really a Minecraft player. There is the main game, some side stories, comics, books, and a lot of people streaming it online. I’ve seen some really interesting done with the mechanics of the game despite having less to work with than games like Second Life or Roblox. Don’t jump on me for mentioning Second Life by the way. I find it interesting that new G4 took time to make fun of it when old G4 was the one that introduced and thought it was amazing. If someone can make giant private parts in Minecraft, you shouldn’t be surprised that open source virtual worlds would do worse. Meanwhile I own a Tim Burton Batmobile, at least three different TARDIS types, a Colonial Viper, and more cars, planes, helicopters, boats, spaceships, and combination vehicles than I’ll ever have in real life. Granted I’ve never heard of a working phone that can connect to the real world in Second Life, so points to Minecraft. I’ll salute you from the cockpit of one of my 1970s Buck Rogers starfighters.
No, I’m not giving you my SL name.
Okay, enough front page padding…which is totally not a delaying tactic no sir. Let’s watch this teaser and see just what this thing does wrong when it comes to promoting a movie based on a kids game where you build with block that isn’t LEGO related.
BW Media Spotlight 
Can We Call Manga “Comics”?
With the current discourse about manga outshining comics, one has to ask…aren’t manga “comics”?
“Manga” essentially translates to “motionless pictures” last I heard. In other words, comics. It’s not used to describe storyboards. I think. It’s comics from Japan. My comic-making program used to be called Manga Studio, but called Comic Studio in Japan. (Once animation was added they changed it to Clip Studio.) The use of “manga” for “Japanese comics” by the same people who can’t translate the Japanese word for “plan” has come to grow on my nerves. The same for “anime” and car…well, that’s a whole other discussion since it involves Western animation fans who throw a fit if you call Don Bluth’s work a “cartoon”, so we’ll open that kettle of fish some other time. The same for “comic” and “graphic novel”. Some people “need to get over themselves. Also, “Trekkers” is the people who worked on the show and “Trekees” is only a bad term if your boring and want to be “sophisticated” to a group who looks down on science fiction. You don’t see the “Whovians” complaining! Okay, now I’m going off topic. Or just off.
I use “manga” on this site because it has become part of the discussion, and thus I kind of have to. However, it’s grown to having French and Korean comics referred to as the French and Korean word for “comics”, a shorthand that only works if you know what “manwah” means. I’m only going by context. The only Korean I ever learned is “Opa Gangnam Style” and I’m not even sure that’s right and only have a mild understanding of what it means. (Referring to the Korean answer to Beverly Hills, I think.) The video I’m building this article from is by a fan of AMERICAN comics though, deciding that manga shouldn’t be called comics, or at least explaining why he doesn’t. He makes the case that they are in fact so different that in his mind it’s wrong to refer to them as comics. I don’t think his perspective is wrong necessarily, but I will go over why I don’t agree with it.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on September 3, 2024 in Comic Spotlight and tagged comics, commentary, debate, discussion, manga, manga vs comics.
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