El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
Cool, engaging and entertaining for every fan of "Breaking Bad", but fairly redundant in terms of overall story progression of Jesse Pinkman.
“EL CAMINO” is another film that I have dual feelings about. See, I am torn because did we really need to see what happened to Jesse after series finale? Part of the magic of the show was that the whole idea of Jesse being truly free of his mental and physical shackles was extremely satisfying, even romantic. But for any “Breaking Bad” or “Better Call Saul” geeks, we finally find out what happened to Jesse after the end of the series, what he has to go through and why. For the first time, free of burden of Walter White, Jesse is the cornerstone of the film and everything is about him. Directed by the showrunner and creator Vince Gilligan himself, film shows his true maturity both as a storyteller and director. He finally is able to embrace true western look of the series. Film is full with iconic to the series cinematography, slow tension-building edits and jump cuts, flashbacks and huge amount of cameos from TV show. In that sense, film not only doesn’t disappoint but delivers a much needed reprieve to fans of the show who binge watch it over and over again.
But aside from nostalgic points, film doesn’t bring that much to the table. Let’s start with that it would be impossible for anyone who hasn’t seen the show to even understand what is going on. Film doesn’t even try to establish known characters, and why would it? In the end, “El Camino” is essentially, just a 3-episode miniseries edited into one single film. Yes, the storyline is engaging and exciting, but I didn’t see anything grandiose akin to explosive “Breaking Bad” plot progressions or even close to what my expectations were. Weirdly enough it feels like film embraces this whole motion of serenity. Then again, maybe, just to quote one character “quiet is all that you (Jesse) needs right now”.
