Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018)Directed by David Slade This morning I watched "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch" on Netflix (doesn't it sound like a variation of Benedict Cumberbatch's name?). It's a Netflix Interactive Film (not an episode of the series though), which means there are choices you make during the presentation that guide the outcome. It is July 1984, and programmer Stefan (Fionn Whitehead) is working on a video game adaptation of a "choose your adventure" type book called "Bandersnatch" – something which may be causing him to lose a grip on reality.It's a novel concept and I thought it was very well done but the storyline (at least the three or so paths / endings that I saw) wasn't as engaging to me and didn't have a proper resolution like some other excellent "Black Mirror" episodes. Well, maybe there is one optimal path that presents the best overall storyline which one can discover on re-watch. There are apparently five different endings of the film and varying runtimes (the average is 90 min). Check online, people have already made flowcharts of the differing paths of the film.It's very much a "Black Mirror" film since there are references to earlier episodes in it. And it's very much a Netflix film as there are meta references to that as well.The production values are splendid as is par for any Black Mirror episodes – gorgeous cinematography (I did notice some shifting aspect ratios), production design evoking the 1980s feel, and the game itself seems authentic (they refer to fitting the entire game in 40K, which is as much space as old games had to use for everything – logic, graphics and sound). Definitely do check it out – it's certainly an experience.This is a quick sketch of the title image that comes on Netflix. I had actually scribbled a drawing on one page of my sketchbook which I was not happy with (swipe to see it), so I used a black marker to black it all out and I drew this with white gel pen. When scanned it produced all these vivid colours so I kept it in, and I made a B&W version, and a high contrast one as well. I'm also posting a picture of how the choices appear while watching the movie.#407 / 29-Dec-18
Posted by Intagrate Lite