1/1/2019
Date started: 1/1/2019
Happy New Year, everyone! And now that it’s 2019, I look forward to a fantastic new run of the 100-movie challenge. Let’s start things off with a spoiler-free review of a very unique film. Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is a spinoff film of the popular Netflix anthology series about the dangers of technology. The movie is about a young man in the 80s named Stefan, and the computer game he’s creating. But of course, the plot takes a backseat to the fact that it’s interactive. That’s right - at several points in the movie, two choices will pop up for some sort of alteration in the story, and you simply tap the one you want.
It’s a truly ambitious idea. Not the first movie to have multiple endings, but definitely the first I can think of where the audience’s choice plays such an integral part. Of course, there’s a different medium which has had choice-based stories since the very beginning: video games. Games like Undertale, The Stanley Parable, Telltale’s games (RIP), Life is Strange, and Detroit: Become Human all present stories which are radically altered by decisions the player makes. Most critics I’ve read who talked about Bandersnatch apparently haven’t heard of these games, so hopefully I can offer a different perspective. And in my opinion, Bandersnatch fails to take advantage of its clever premise.
Let me start off by saying I absolutely love this show. Black Mirror is one of the greatest-ever ideas for a show, in my opinion. A Twilight Zone for the Digital Age, but its own thing at the same time. But not every episode is a hit. And yet I found this to be even lower in quality than the worst Black Mirror episode. Let me just dive right into my problems with it. Most of your “choices” don’t actually matter. I understood why they’d do that near the beginning since they’re just trying to teach you how the system works, but this is a problem throughout every possible path. You’ll get two choices that lead to the same outcome, or one choice immediately ends the movie forcing you to go back, or the choices are the same thing just phrased differently, or sometimes your choice doesn’t even happen. This is the rule, not the exception. And the whole time, it feels like the story is just railroading along, going where it wants to go, and you don’t really have any say. For example, the main character will be sitting around doing nothing, and then the choices “hit desk” and “destroy computer” will come up. Why the hell is that a logical choice that would come up in this situation? Why are there two crazy options and no “do nothing” option? You can’t approach it with any certain “playstyle” in mind, because it forces you into insane dilemmas which don’t even have to be there. In something like Undertale, the element of choice is seamlessly blended into the narrative. Here, it feels like it’s trying to tell a straightforward story, and the choices are just getting in the way.
I’ll take this opportunity to say that the movie itself actually didn’t work so well on my iPad - it crashed repeatedly. Then again, I have a pretty old one that won’t update, so that’s probably why. Because of the nature of this kind of thing, there are a few multiple endings, and I took the liberty of checking them out. None of them really impressed me. The story on its own isn’t the strongest. Occasionally, certain paths send you back to things you’ve already seen, but changing them slightly, leaving you in what seems like an endless loop sometimes. I would have probably been wowed by this had I not played “Doki Doki Literature Club” a year ago, which did the same thing but much better. According to some interviews with the creators of Bandersnatch, there’s a running theme in the movie that your control of the plot is actually an illusion. Well, that’s no secret, because I never felt like I was in control in the first place. And again, there was a game called Deltarune which came out in 2018, it also has the theme of your choices being meaningless, and it did it much better. And when you look at Bandersnatch as a whole, there aren’t any real stressful, nail-biting choices or anything. (Except when you actually can choose to bite your...dammit I walked right into that one) Even the most rudimentary “choice-based” games have at least “Sophie’s Choice” type situation, where you have to choose between two horrible options, for a reason that actually makes sense rather than just making you do it on a whim. There isn’t even one stressful choice in Bandersnatch that leaps to mind, which kinda ruins the point. A lot of these games, also, remind you of every little thing you did and judge you for them, making you feel guilty for your wrongdoings. I never felt the slightest pang of guilt while watching this, because again, I never felt like I was in control. Maybe if I had never played a video game in my life, I’d be impressed by this movie, but I’ve played things that are light-years ahead of it in terms of ingenuity.
Perhaps you think it’s unfair that I’m comparing a movie to video games. But it’s clearly inspired by all the choice-based games of the past, since after all, the story revolves around one. I usually see the gaming industry as a pale imitation of the film industry, with all their movie-style cutscenes - but in this case, the movie could learn a thing or two from video games. On the whole, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch failed to live up to the lofty standard set by the show, doesn’t accomplish what it sets out to do, and feels, as everyone’s been saying, like a gimmick. That isn’t to say that I don’t want more of this kind of movie, though. I’d love to see more interactive films, where you feel like you’re in control of the entire story, where your choices actually matter, where the line between film and game is blurred. I hope Bandersnatch isn’t just a fad, but the early stages of a new, beautiful medium of art. Despite my not liking it, I encourage you to watch it and support the creators, so we can get more, and better, interactive movies. Also, I just want to see what y’all thought. You don’t have to have seen Black Mirror or anything to understand it. I’ve always been fascinated by metafiction and experimental storytelling, so even if it was poorly executed, I can respect the effort.
For the new year, I’ll be switching to a new rating system based on a letter grade scale instead of 1-10. Because I dunno, I like to change things up. A+ is my highest possible rating, F- is my lowest, and a C is totally neutral. So, with that being said, I hope your 2019 is a great one!
Grade: C-
Submitted January 01, 2019 at 06:51PM by Phenenas http://bit.ly/2F1vnqS
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