El Camino: A Breaking Bad film - Jesse Pinkman: the movie

Never has a series been so perfectly-crafted as ‘Breaking Bad.’ It had the perfect beginning, character growth through the middle and dramatic conclusion which wrapped everything up neatly.  So why did we need a ‘sequel?’  Well, we probably don’t, but, seeing as it stars all of the original cast (yes, I know some are dead – welcome to the world of flashbacks) and was made by the same writing team, why not revisit Albuquerque for one last time?

I guess out of all the characters in ‘Breaking Bad’ Aaron Paul’s ‘Jessie Pinkman’ was possibly the one who’s fate was the most unclear. ‘El Camino’ shows us what happened directly after the events in the TV show.  As you probably have guessed, I loved ‘Breaking Bad.’ It’s definitely one of my favourite TV programmes of all time.  And ‘El Camino’ honours and expends on everything well.

I could leave it there, but I do wonder what someone would think of it who has never seen the TV show before.  Would they actually ‘get’ everything?  Probably, in story terms.  As you might expect if you watched the TV show’s final episode Jesse goes on the run and this film charts what he does next.  There’s nothing too ‘out there’ here.  However, if you aren’t ‘up’ on the previous five series, you probably wouldn’t get half as much out of the film.

It’s just over two hours long and, in my opinion, probably could have done with (at least) being a six part mini series.  There’s a lot here and it does feel a bit rushed sometimes.  Don’t get me wrong – I loved ‘El Camino,’ but possibly its only downside is that I would have preferred to see even more of everything that goes on.

As I mentioned, there’s plenty of well known cast members returning due to flashbacks and even more ‘fan service.’ There was one scene (set in the past) that I felt went on a little too long and probably could have been trimmed for a bit more action than happens in the present, but that’s a minor gripe.  Aaron Paul proves that he can headline a movie on his own (even if some of his Box Office outings may say otherwise!) and if you enjoyed the TV show you should appreciate this, too.

8/10 The Force is definitely strong with this one