TV Series Review – Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (Spoiler free)
While I was wondering whether to make a review for Spider-Man or Aquaman, Netflix decided to make quite a fuss, releasing the stand-alone, interactive movie, from the Black Mirror series, called Bandersnatch.
For those of you who are not familiar with the show, I’ll make a short explanation. It’s an anotolgy series, made as stand-alone episodes. All of them have only one thing in common and that is futuristic technology, incorporated in some sort into the daily lives of people. But that technology is not just a smartphone app. Here are some examples – chip, allowing you to record, store and review memories; a humanoid robot, made to copy a loved one who was lost; application that gives you personal ratings from 1 to 5, and if you drop below an allowed minimum, you may waver your social and working life goodbye; virtual reality in which your mind can live after your body dies; etc. Through out the seasons, there are extremely powerful episodes and also ones that you can just skip. Each episode is directed by a different director and with different actors, many of which you can recognize.
This is a SPOILER free review. In a few days I’ll upload a detailed review, in which I’ll take a look at all details. Here I’ll just look in whether or not it is a must to be watched.
With all that in mind, their latest stand-alone release is actually an interactive movie. What does that mean? Do you remember the choose-your-own-adventure books? Well you can do that here, but in a movie. On different occasions you’re presented with choices and 10 seconds to choose and each choice can lead to a different ending.
The main character is called Stephan. A driven, young programmer, which takes on the heavy task of creating a computer game, based on a specific make-your-own-adventure book. As a fan of the writer, he wants to include all possible twists, characters and choices that a reader can have, in order to create the perfect game. The story takes place in the 80’s, when the arcade games were taking over the world by a storm and each new one was better than the last.
So the story of the movie, is based around the making of the game, as each of your choices as a viewer, can alter it. The feeling is mildly put, exciting, at least until a specific point, after which it gets quite creepy. I don’t know what to say about it, without giving much away, except that it’s brilliant. Simply put, it will break your perception of the world and make you stunningly watch, how simple choices can change everything.
More of all that, will be in the next article. You have time to watch it, because I can guarantee you that it will leave you sleepless for at least a few nights after. I strongly recommend with all hands, from all realities. nJoy:
