A Spoiler Free Review of ‘El Camino’ From A Breaking Bad Superfan

When I heard that 'El Camino' was coming, I immediately started re watching the entire series of 'Breaking Bad' on Netflix. I was excited to see where the story was going to go after Jesse Pinkman escaped from Todd & his uncle Jack.

I don't want to give away any spoilers, so I'll do my best to generalize my thoughts on the roughly 2 hour movie. First, it does deliver fan service. There is a lot of the cast reappearing in flashbacks. The movie follows what happens to Jesse after the final scene of breaking bad when he's driving off in the El Camino. But, that's not all El Camino is about.  The movie is set in present time and also features a lot of scenes from the past explaining more of Jesse's story. We see more of what his life was like as a captive, and we get a much more gruesome understanding of how mentally traumatized Jesse ended up being.

While the story is compelling, I honestly feel this movie could have been a half an hour shorter. There were several times when it felt like it had lost some momentum. It's not an edge of your seat thrill ride like Breaking Bad was towards the end, but it does have it's tense moments.

El Camino was satisfying in the sense that you finally scratched that itch of "what happened to Jesse." There were fun cameos and characters you may have forgotten appearing back in the film.  Aaron Paul once again delivers a stellar performance. I would say even better than any point in the series.  It feels like Breaking Bad, and it's definitely worth watching when you get a free couple of hours.

In conclusion, if I were to give this movie a grade it would be a solid B.