The film does not conclude the series and leaves a repulsive aftertaste.

I love Breaking Bad with all my heart and consider it the best series I have had the good fortune to watch in my 22 years of life. Needless to say, I was waiting for the full-length sequel film El Camino no less than I waited for presents on New Year's Day as a five-year-old?

How disappointed I was when, in 2 hours of running time, I got 40% of scenes never shown in the series, 20% of static shots of the main character and, at best, 40% of pointless events after the series finale. But let's take it in order.

What I expected from El Camino

Vince Gilligan told viewers in advance that Walter White is dead once and for all, dashing any hopes of his return in the film. Nevertheless, Jesse Pinkman's story remained unfinished.

The world did not stop after the Breaking Bad finale. And although all the enemies have been defeated, one of the main characters survived with a broken fate and emotional wounds, so I was curious to see the consequences of his criminal path.

But the full-length film only leaves a bad aftertaste and confirms the worries that a sequel six years later (even from the former director) will bring nothing but disappointment.

What is good about El Camino

We will get to the bad part soon enough, and there is catastrophically little good in the film, so let's start with that. In short, these are the characters from the series. They are still cool and soulful, evoke nostalgia and remind you why you loved Breaking Bad so much and waited for new episodes for five years.

Skinny Pete, Badger, Old Joe, Mike, Todd and even Walter White could have helped El Camino become better and put a final point in the story. But Jesse's friends disappear from the screen after 20 minutes, while Mike and Walter appear in the frame for only a couple of minutes, one scene each.

One cannot fail to note the grown-up Aaron Paul and his character Jesse Pinkman. He handles his role incredibly well, and it is pleasant to watch him, while the film's problem lies not in him at all.

Why El Camino does not deserve the attention of fans

Programmers often say: "If it works, don't touch it". And this is exactly the case where Breaking Bad has a story that, if not entirely, is at least complete, while the sequel film only spoils the whole impression of the finale.

Walter White, at the end of his perhaps nevertheless worthless life, sacrifices himself to save his student, partner and even friend Jesse Pinkman from captivity. The first dies without achieving his goal, while the second gains freedom, not only physical but also moral.

For me, the plot of the series was that a model family man and chemistry teacher, upon learning of his imminent death from cancer and realizing the uselessness of his life, decides to make money for his family, going all in and taking along his already worthless former student. The main character was good but becomes bad and bears the consequences of such a life, while his younger partner gets stuck with it "for company".

In the film, however, Jesse is left without his senior mentor and completely does not understand what to do next. He goes to his junkie buddies, outside whose house cops should have been waiting for a long time (but for some reason they are not), calls a former partner from the junkyard, who watches the news and realizes the scale of the problem he could be drawn into, but still comes anyway.

Then Old Joe abandons Jesse, while Skinny Pete and Badger, who never distinguished themselves by loyal friendship, decide to help the main character. Although their storylines break off just as they begin. After that, Jesse is again left completely alone on his path, which is periodically diluted by mostly out-of-place flashbacks that do not reveal the plot but increase the running time.

Jesse goes to Todd's apartment in search of money, but "costumed" cops arrive there (as is not obvious to Jesse with his background) and take two-thirds of what he found. Jesse finds a businessman known from the series who takes people to other countries and changes their identities. But he is short 1,800 bucks of the 250 grand in total needed for everything, and the guy, damn it, refuses to help without the full amount.

Then Jesse recalls the "costumed" cops, one of whom (as it turned out from the flashbacks) created the chain for his imprisonment in the final season. Revenge and the need for cash lead him to old acquaintances who, five of them in a room of about 30 square meters, did not even try to deal with the unexpected guest. Yet Vince Gilligan for some reason decided to stage a wild west scene.

In the end, Jesse takes the same amount again as he already had and gives it to the dealer, who takes him to Alaska and helps him change his identity. Jesse leaves a letter for little Brock and goes on his way.

And one more thing: after the encounter with the pseudo-cops at Todd's apartment, the main character is left without a gun and steals one from his parents' home, having first forced them to leave the dwelling. He never crosses paths with the Pinkman family throughout the entire film, although viewers were shown twice how much the parents worry about their son.

In the end, viewers got a 2-hour flashback journey of Pinkman chasing money in order to flee to Alaska from pursuit and start a new aimless life, without a gram of revenge, conclusions or character development.

Even when 20 minutes of the film were left, I was sure that now El Camino would surprise and please me at least with its resolution. But no, now I can confidently say that as a fan I found it disgusting to watch this film.