Director: David Slade
Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller, Mystery, Drama
Runtime: Varies – Roughly 90 Minutes
Main Cast: Fionn Whitehead, Craig Parkinson, Alice Lowe, Will Poulter, Asim Chaudhry, Tallulah Haddon, Alan Asaad, Catriona Knox
Plot: Set in the 80s and played out like a Choose Your Own Adventure story, Bandersnatch is the story of a young gaming programmer who is adapting a dark fantasy novel with a morbid background into a video game.
My Thoughts: I love Black Mirror. I love video games. I love fantasy novels. Although it’s been well over a decade since I read one, I bloody love the Choose Your Own Adventure books. If ever there were a Netflix movie made with me in mind, Bandersnatch is the one. I can’t even tell you how excited I was to settle my toddler off to bed so I could eat cold pizza and watch it.
The ‘choose your own adventure’ concept obviously isn’t new, but this is the first time it’s been released in TV format, and I really hope it isn’t the only time either. I never thought I would find myself so stressed out about picking a cereal that I wasn’t even going to be eating!
So I made the mistake very early on of telling Satpal that I would work with him which clearly I wasn’t meant to do, I feel like most people would have made the same mistake which I thought was clever because we’re then introduced to the ‘game over’ feature quite early on. I suppose the downfall of Bandersnatch is that if you take the movie at face value without the gimmick, it’s not that strong of a story, as much as I enjoyed it.
Best Bit: Spoilers ahead, because the best bit for me was the ending that I got. Our Bandersnatch game got rated 5/5, but we ended up in prison for murdering Dad. Years later, Colin’s daughter Pearl falls down the same rabbit hole as we did, as she adapts the video game Bandersnatch into a choose your own adventure movie for Netflix. I’ve since looked into the other possible endings and still feel like mine was the best.
Worst Bit: I really didn’t want to kill Dad…I wanted an option to question him further about everything he had done! I also slightly regret the choice to chop him up…that was a bit grim.
Fun Trivia: Some of the Black Mirror Easter eggs in the movie are Black Mirror episode titles, misspelled. The game titles METL HEDD and Nohzdyve, refer to Metalhead and Nosedive respectively.
My Rating: 4 and a half boxes of Frosties, which are superior in every way to Sugar Puffs. Seriously, who picked Sugar Puffs?!
I really disliked this episode and I’m so bummed about it because I was really looking forward to more Black Mirror. Hopefully the rest of season 5 is better.
I also choose Frosties though. lol
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I saw on Twitter you really didn’t like it! I know a lot of others didn’t, either. The gimmick of choosing your own options really sucked me in!
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I really enjoyed Bandersnatch! And chose Frosties, of course. 😉 The sheer amount of effort that went into writing the film is impressive. But I agree that the story is weak without the choose-your-own-adventure mechanics, especially when compared to other Black Mirror episodes.
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Yeah I can definitely see why a lot of people were disappointed. I hope they try something similar again though. Frosties lovers unite!
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It’s a very well made episode and I thouroughly enjoyed it. Although I wish they would do something similar with the viewer watching through first person perspective, meaning that the choices you make are for yourself not for somebody else. I think that would allow me to get into the story even more 🙂
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Now that would be brilliant! Almost like a crossover with Hardcore Henry!
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Yep, my Bandersnatch game got 5/5 too. But he got off scot free though! 😉
And yes – Frosties all the way.
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Oh you got the double win – nice!
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