El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie Review

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019)

Watch El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie on Netflix
Written by: Vince Gilligan, Vince Gilligan (based on "Breaking Bad" by)
Directed by: Vince Gilligan
Starring: Aaron Paul, Jonathan Banks, Matt Jones
Rated: TV-MA
Watch the trailer & more information

Plot
Following the Breaking Bad series finale, Jesse Pinkman is now on the run as a massive police manhunt searches for him.

Verdict
If you've seen Breaking Bad, you'll enjoy this movie. Even if you haven't seen the series, you'll still like this, but you will miss a lot of backstory and meaning. There's no reason to watch this if you haven't seen the series. This is a movie that shouldn't work, much like Better Call Saul is a series that shouldn't have worked. Both do. Gilligan has crafted a great story that's not trying to imitate it's predecessor. It's something new and it's just as well made as the aforementioned series. I was riveted from start to finish. Still, it's a movie made for a specific audience, but in no way is it a waste of time.
It depends.

Review
When it was announced, this movie seemed like a bad idea. I thought the same thing with the spin-off series Better Call Saul. What Gilligan did differently with that series is that he didn't try to imitate Breaking Bad. Because of that it's a great, though very different, series. El Camino is in a similar situation. It seems like a bad idea, but it's a very enjoyable movie, though a lot of that enjoyment is that it feels like a love letter to fans.

I've been wanting to re-watch Breaking Bad for a while, but I always find new shows to watch. This movie pushed me over the edge. It was a lot of fun to see the characters again. Going back to the first season of the series, Jesse looks so much younger.

Aaron Paul plays Jesse Pinkman.

The movie picks up exactly at the end of the series, using the final scene of Jesse speeding away from his imprisonment in an El Camino. He's free of his captors, due to Walt, but he's not free of the cops trying to track him down.

At the beginning of the series, Jesse was a brash braggart. His crimes and misdeeds took a toll. He was broken before he was imprisoned as a meth cook, but after roughly six months of captivity he can only be worse. How will he survive?

The movie coerced me to watch the series again. There's many call backs to the show like "magnets" when Jesse tries to dispose of his escape vehicle. This movie is a love letter with many references. It's not quite a love letter in that all of the references are justified. The movie doesn't trot out familiar faces just to make fans happy. Without the series you don't know what you're watching. While it doesn't impede the movie, it would be a loss.

Moments from past to present blend so smoothly I didn't realize we had changed time periods at first. The switch is disorienting, but that has to be close to Jesse's perspective after his ordeals.
The movie switches back and forth and those moments in the past are now aiding him in his escape.

The juxtaposition of past and present both present Jesse in an untenable situation. He's trapped either way, and escape seems impossible. Before he was literally chained in a cage. Now the cage is gone, but he's still not free.

As I watched this I imagined what I'd think if I hadn't watched the series. It's still well made with more than a couple really great scenes. It just loses a lot of detail. The series allows the movie to use a bit of shorthand to impart impact and emotion.
Part of Gilligan's success with expanding the franchise is that he doesn't try to repeat the success. Each expansion is something unique.

The movie does finally answer the question of what happened to Jesse. Prior to this movie I would have said the answer is unnecessary, but I really enjoyed this. Gilligan crafted something impressive.