Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

I can't say I'm a big fan of this movie. The idea was there, I'll give them that, but the execution of the plot wasn't on top. It's just much too repetitive and that becomes boring after awhile. Black Mirror: Bandersnatch has a normal running time but it just feels like a neverending movie due to those repetitive scenes. I was interested in the story for almost the entire movie but still it just felt short in the end. Fionn Whitehead wasn't bad and neither was the rest of the cast so that wasn't really an issue. I have no doubts there will be fans for this movie, I'm just not one of them.

It's very clever and very dark (but then Black Mirror always is). I do agree it's a bit prententious in places. Having now watched all of the 5 endings, and not without some exasperation, and yes repetition, the penny dropped that Bandersnatch is all about choices and the choices you think are under your control. The outcome is pretty bad no matter how you choose because the ultimate destiny is not in your hands. Choices in life are not always good versus bad. It asks more questions than it answers and while that might not be satisfactory to some, that's the whole point.

I'm a big Black Mirror fan, that sophisticated dystopian British/Netflix series that explores the darker side of technology. So when I heard less than a week ago that Netflix was releasing a new full-length movie installment into the Black Mirror universe on December 28th, I gasped, "It's a Christmas miracle!"

And when I learned that this new movie, set in 1984 and centered on a young video game designer writing the code for a new video game called Bandersnatch, would immerse the audience in the story by allowing each viewer to choose how the story unfolds for them, I was cautiously optimistic. After all, The Cave of Time was one of my favorite books as a child. Indeed, for a couple of years in the early 1980s I lived on a steady literary diet of Choose Your Own Adventure books (here is a great boxed set for your favorite 9-12 year olds ... or nostalgic forty-somethings).

So last night, I sat down to watch (is that the right word?) Bandersnatch.

The choices begin early on when we are asked to choose which cereal our hero, Stefan, will have for breakfast. Fortunately, from there the choices increase in gravitas as the program unfolds.

One thing is clear: Bandersnatch is essential viewing for anyone remotely interested in Black Mirror ... or anyone with a Netflix account and an hour or two to spare. (Depending on your choices the program varies significantly in length.)

But here's my major frustration: if the show doesn't like your choice, it eventually steers you back to the main storyline. Personally, it felt a bit like getting your knuckles rapped and as the story begins to unfold again, you realize that you have rather less control than you'd been led to believe. After about 1 1/2 hours, I found myself growing increasingly impatient. Along the way, I'd been offered a couple of opportunities to bow out to the end credits, but I wanted to persist to the real end. However, eventually, I realized that my interest in completing this dark story had been outweighed by my desire to do something else, and so finally I bowed out.

It was at that point that I thought back to the video game Dragon's Lair. When it came to the arcade in 1983, we were dazzled by the animation.

But soon, the novelty wore off as we, or at least I, realized the playability was low. Put simply, there wasn't much fun in learning how to link a series of animation sequences and calling it a game.

For all its innovation, I have the same feeling about Bandersnatch. There simply isn't much fun in learning how to link a series of dramatic sequences and calling it a movie.

It never occurred to me that something like this would someday be tried. Kudos to Netflix for trying to push the boundaries of what is possible through this medium. That said, the whole thing felt like a game. A fascinating game because of the novelty, but I felt none of what usually a good film would elicit. Yes, there was a lot of anticipation of what would happen next, but overall, due to the frequent pauses to choose, there was no continuity or involvement in the story per se. Some of the choices too felt pretty childish. The idea that the character was actually feeling like he had no free will and felt compelled to do things as though someone (the viewer) was controlling him - well, it brings a smile the first time, but later, feels like something that perhaps a smoked-up teen would find mind boggling. Overall, yes, definitely something that people would be thrilled to watch and try, but I sincerely hope we do not have a lot of this type of interactive films - at least not at the expense of "normal" films.

The graphics and music were great, and the transition was smooth at the "crossroads". But the story... It didn't feel like much of a story, and then I felt pushed into making choices that I did not want to make. I think it captured the choose-your-own-path game feeling, but to me that didn't really feel right in a movie, everything felt too simple and a bit too forced. It's great that Black Mirror wanted to do something innovative, which this truly is, but because it is Black Mirror all the endings feel wrong. In a game like this, you play for the best outcome, but here, you just play to see what else you can get.