When I was a kid, I read a few Choose Your Own Adventure novels. I’m sure you know the ones – start with a basic plot and every page or two there’s a choice to make and you turn to the appropriate page to continue the story. The fun was never knowing if you’d really made the right choice until you read the consequences. And yes, sometimes the story ended much sooner than you expected it to. 

Now Netflix has given us its first choose your own adventure-style movie with Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch. The plot is a straightforward Black Mirror story – a computer programmer in the 1980s slowly goes crazy as he writes the code for the next big game. The difference this time around is that viewers get to make certain decisions for the main character, Stefan, to lead him along his path. Some decisions seem pretty innocuous, like which cereal to eat, while others carry much more weight, including death.

There are reportedly five different endings to Bandersnatch, based on the choices made while viewing. But there are hundreds of ways to get there, affecting not only the greater plot, but also how long the movie lasts, which can be as short as 40 minutes up to 90 minutes or more. There are some choices to be made that allow you to backtrack and see more than one ending, without having to watch the entire movie from the start.

So, really, there are two things to review here: the movie itself and the interactive nature of it. First, the movie. It is most definitely a Black Mirror story in the sense that it’s about technology, things go wrong and there’s an overarching weird vibe to the whole thing. The interesting aspect is when you realize that the typical “dark tech” premise is actually created by the viewer. The story becomes meta as Stefan begins to think he isn’t entirely in control of the decisions he makes, which, of course, makes his dad and therapist think he’s on the way to a breakdown. It does make for interesting watching (and choices). But the problem is the creators are a little too focused on the newness of an interactive film and forgot to focus on fleshing out the plot and delivering a satisfying ending. None of the endings I watched were entirely satisfying (most were predictable), nor did they have much of the Black Mirror edginess to them.

And then there’s interacting with the movie. Yes, it’s a cool idea and that’s what’s going to get people watching Bandersnatch who may never have watched an episode of Black Mirror. It’s easy to do as well – just hit left/right and X – so it won’t confuse people. But because there is a very brief time limit within which to choose an option, viewers who aren’t quick decision makers are going to suffer some anxiety (this movie is not for Chidi!). But if time runs out, the choice is made for you, like it or not. And there are times when you have only one option (which seemed pointless) and other times, especially as the story progresses, when both options are bad. There are also points along the way when it seems obvious you’re being led in a specific direction, which is ok for story progression, but definitely something that will need to be tweaked in future movies of this type.

Overall verdict? Bandersnatch is an enjoyable addition to the Black Mirror universe. It’s not great, but just ok, sort of like the Metalhead episode (which is a prominent Easter egg in the movie). And it was fun to watch a choose your own adventure story play out, though I won’t be one of the people who bothers to watch the entire movie again to get different plot points and outcomes.