Eliyahu Gasson | opinions editor

The experience was electric. I’ve never had more fun at a movie theater than I did watching Jared Hess’s “A Minecraft Movie” on opening night.

“Flint and steel,” “chicken jockey,” “crushing loaf,” were all reasons for me and the other teens and 20-somethings who spent $20 on Dolby tickets to clap and yell and kick our feet in joy.

The movie itself was pretty bad — a “Jumanji” remake but with Minecraft instead of a jungle.

The first half starts in the real world, with main character Steve (Jack Black) providing the audience with exposition into how he got into the Minecraft world via a monologue. He told us that as a child he “yearned for the mines,” a reference to a popular meme about kids who play the game.

He was turned away from the mines for being too young. So he finishes school and finds a job. Failing to find any fulfillment in his adult life, he returns to the mines and starts digging. Sooner or later he comes across a strange pair of artifacts that, when put together, open a portal to the overworld — a place where he can build anything he wants. He throws dance parties with pandas and cows and befriends a wolf and names it Dennis.

One day, Steve and Dennis stumble upon some strange ruins. Steve repairs it and uses the aforementioned flint and steel to activate a portal to the Nether, a dark dimension inhabited by humanoid pigs called pigmen where creativity is shunned and gold is coveted.

He learns that the pigmen are ruled by an evil sorceress named Malgosha (Rachel House), who captures him and steals one of the relics — the cube shaped Orb of Dominance, which would allow the pigmen to leave the Nether without turning into zombies — that brought Steve to the Minecraft world.

In a desperate effort to prevent Malgosha from using the orb, Steve steals it and gives it to Dennis. He tells his canine friend to run the orb to the real world and hide it under his bed in the fictional town of Chuglas, Idaho, which he does.

Fast forward and we meet the rest of our cast: Garett Garrison (Jason Mamoa), a washed up video game champion who peaked in the 80s and Dawn (Danielle Brooks), a woman with a litany of side hustles to make ends meet and blah blah blah … the plot of the film isn’t terribly important, really.

If you’re looking for peak cinema, look elsewhere. There is no greater meaning behind this movie aside from the predictable “be creative” moral we got from “The Lego Movie” and even that feels like an afterthought to Black acting like Black and Mamoa making jokes about being a has-been middle-aged man.

But that’s about all you should expect from Hess, who’s previous works include “Nacho Libre” (2006), another Black film, “Masterminds” (2016) and last year’s “Thelma the Unicorn.” The last truly good film to come from Hess was “Napoleon Dynamite,” released 21 years ago.

There’s a genre of movie that exists to make money off of rowdy young men that grew up online. They serve as outlets for these young men — a way for them to tell their inside jokes to each other in a public setting.

Bad movies aren’t new. They’ve been around since the birth of the medium. The difference now, however, is the production value behind them. Ed Wood’s “Plan 9 From Outer Space,” a notoriously bad film and cult classic, was made on a budget of only $678,000, adjusted for inflation. Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 film, “The Room,” cost about $10.3 million, adjusted for inflation.

“A Minecraft Movie” cost $150 million.

That’s not to say big studios can’t drop millions on flops. Pitof’s “Catwoman” (2004) cost $168 million to produce, adjusted for inflation. “Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones” cost $203 million, again, adjusted for inflation.

The difference is that these were movies that the creators cared about — or at least appeared to. You could tell that there was thought, effort and passion put into these films.

“A Minecraft Movie” feels more like a cynical cash grab designed to appeal to little kids who play the game it’s based off of and adults who grew up with it.

There is nothing to take seriously about “A Minecraft Movie” nor is there much to respect about it aside from the self-aware marketing. Warner Bros. has demonstrated that it’s good to have contempt for your audience so long as you approach your marketing with irreverent comedy and target ads at mostly male Gen Z’ers who have already had their brains destroyed with enough post-ironic comedy to the point that consuming slop and pretending to enjoy it is actually fun.

Admittedly, I am one of those mostly male Gen Z with a post-ironic sense of humor. This film was made for me. I loved it. Not for its message (which was generic), or its plot (which was formulaic), or its cinematography (which was mediocre) or its cast (though I do mildly enjoy Black).

I liked this movie because I felt like I was in on the joke.

I knew I was being played by Hollywood and I let them because I thought it was funny. I shouted with glee when Black said “Chicken Jockey” and I clapped when he said “Flint and Steel” because my sense of humor is just as self-aware and self-loathing as the rest of my social media addicted generational cohort.

My mind is so terribly warped that I could only make villager sounds for the 10 minutes following the end credits.

Please see “A Minecraft Movie” if you think you or your boyfriend are in on the joke. Otherwise, it isn’t worth your time or money.

Eliyahu Gasson can be reached at gassone@duq.edu.