Bandersnatch is nothing short of an interesting, unique, and weird idea. For starters, it’s a movie that’s part of a TV series (Black Mirror), which in itself doesn’t happen all that often, especially during the run of the series. Black Mirror did something similar to this with their one-off episode “White Christmas” a few years back, but Bandersnatch is a totally different beast. This isn’t just an episode, it’s a movie, and one that’s unlike any other that Black Mirror has come out with, because Bandersnatch is…wait for it…a choose-your-own adventure movie?! This totally blew my mind when I first heard of it, as it’s an idea that I don’t think I’ve ever seen done before. In a culture where video games have been trying to become more like movies, it’s really interesting to see a movie try to become like a video game by implementing interactive elements to its story. Regardless, I guess this is all to say right off the bat that if you don’t want to interact with a movie and make choices that influence its direction…then I can tell you right now that Bandersnatch won’t be for you, and there’s no point in you continuing to read about it. With that being said, if you’re interested in an interactive movie, then let me tell you a bit more about Bandersnatch.

Here’s my big disclaimer though. Bandersnatch presents an interesting challenge as a reviewer because my movie most likely didn’t go the same way that your movie would have. I don’t remember the source, but I think I read somewhere that there is over 3 hours of footage that was recorded for the movie, and yet most journeys will end before the 90 minute mark. This would mean that I literally haven’t even seen half of the footage for the movie, and so that’s a lot that I’m not reviewing. In a certain way, it’s like I’m reviewing Bandersnatch purely from my own experience with it. And, sure, to an extent that’s what a review always is, but it’s a bit more drastic with this kind of thing, because if you make different choices than I did while watching Bandersnatch, you could potentially be watching an entirely different movie than I did, which would make this review a bit void. So, to put this disclaimer out of the way, I just want it to be said that I’m more reviewing Bandersnatch for its concept, with any other specifics being based solely on my experience with it, rather than as a whole product.

If you’re like me, you probably read the title of Bandersnatch and thought “what the fuck is a Bandersnatch?” The name is simply a reference to a fictional choose-your-own adventure book in the movie, which an aspiring video game artist named Stefan is hoping to adapt into a video game. You’re essentially making choices for Stefan about how to go about making this game. Early on the choices are more about whether or not you want to do it independently or work with a team, but as the movie goes on you’ll have to make choices such as whether or not to take your anxiety meds, and to some truly darker choices beyond that. This already sounds like a Black Mirror episode as it is, but if there wasn’t something more to it then it could have easily just been another normal Black Mirror episode. Why the creators chose to go the choose-your-own adventure route, outside of the meta kind of story that it’s telling, of course, is because Bandersnatch inevitably winds up tackling the question of whether or not we really have will, or if our actions are just being predetermined for us. I don’t want to say anything outside of that since it would spoil the plot, but it’s an extremely interesting topic to tackle, and one that winds up being perfectly suited for this interactive style of movie.

Bandersnatch kind of reminds me of the movie equivalent to a Telltale game, which if you’re not familiar were simply games where you made choices that impacted the story. I remember with those games a big question fans had was always how the choices were in the game, since a truly difficult choice could make the story far more interesting. So, I want to briefly talk about the choices in Bandersnatch. First of all, I’d like to say that I think the creators found a really good balance with them. The movie doesn’t overwhelm you with choices every 10 seconds, but it also never goes too long without having an interactive element. The choices themselves are pretty interesting. There are, of course, some minor and silly ones thrown in throughout the movie, such as your very first choice in the movie, which asks the viewer to choose which cereal Stefan will eat for breakfast. However, you will always have two choices to pick from, and some of them don’t seem to have obvious solutions. I will say that Bandersnatch is much more like a choose-your-own adventure style book (which is what it’s going for) than a Telltale game, though, because in Telltale games no choices will end the game. So, there’s never a “wrong” choice, just repercussions for said choices. However, in Bandersnatch, there most definitely is “wrong” choices, which is how choose-your-own adventure style books tend to work. There’s only one correct route to get the “best” ending, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t go in other fun directions too. However, there were definitely certain choices I made that led to a “game over” kind of screen where you were given the option of either going to the credits or going back to a particular choice. This is my only real criticism of Bandersnatch, although I will say that I don’t have an easy solution for it either. It’s just that it definitely broke immersion at times when I would make the “wrong” choice and have to rewatch a scene over to try something new. I don’t know how to fix that, but it could definitely help to try some new approaches for this with any future interactive movies that come out.

For the most part, Bandersnatch is absolutely fantastic though. It has some great acting, interesting choices, and a really clever Black Mirror story to tell. The most clever thing about Bandersnatch is that it used a new format to tell a story that couldn’t have been told without its interactive element, or at the very least it couldn’t have been nearly as effective at doing so. Concerning the concept of interactive movies as a whole, I’m a little split on it. Whenever a new gimmick comes out, people ask “is this the future for this medium?” This happens most often in the gaming industry, but the same question has been asked for things like 3D movies. My simple answer to this for interactive movies is that it’s a great idea, but it should never be a full replacement for traditional movies. I absolutely want to see more interactive movies in the future. I’ve always loved choice-based stories, and so it’s really intriguing to see it implemented in a movie. I’d definitely be down to see more movies like this, but I never want to see traditional movies go away either. Interactive movies could be a fun, new genre of movies, but I don’t think it should be what all movies become. For what it’s worth, though, Bandersnatch is a really interesting experiment, and definitely something that will tide Black Mirror fans over until season 5 comes out. I loved its story, I loved it as a concept, and I loved how well it was executed for being such an early attempt at this kind of movie. Definitely give it a try if you’re open to the idea of an interactive movie.

4.5/5