Resenha do The Economist também aprova o filme.
“El Camino” is a passable but pointless postscript to “Breaking Bad”
Fans of the series will lap up two more hours of action, but this follow-up film lacks much of what made the series great
Oct 14th 2019by T.W.
Warning: this article contains details of “Breaking Bad”
THE 62ND and final episode of “Breaking Bad”, which aired six years ago, was a satisfying end to one of the most acclaimed television series of all time. Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a New Mexico high-school chemistry teacher turned crystal-meth kingpin, used a remote-controlled machine-gun hidden in his car boot to dispatch a gang of rival dealers who had kidnapped and tortured his one-time associate, Jesse Pinkman. But in the process White caught a bullet himself, and in the closing shot was seen lying dead on the floor of a high-tech meth lab of the sort that had made him rich. One of television’s greatest anti-heroes got the better of the baddies and at the same time received his just deserts. It was a well-judged ending.
So why add a postscript? “El Camino”, a feature-length follow-up to the TV series, begins where episode 62 left off, following the next steps of Pinkman, who was last seen speeding off to freedom. It will delight diehard fans, for whom the film is packed with references to the original series. But the original finale did such a good job of tying up loose ends that “El Camino” often feels as if it lacks a purpose. Meanwhile much of what made “Breaking Bad” so good is now missing.
The title refers to the Chevrolet El Camino in which Pinkman makes his escape from the headquarters of the neo-Nazi gang that had forced him to cook meth for them, chained up like an animal underground. But the title has an obvious double-meaning, referring also to “the path” that Pinkman takes next. After roaring out of his desert prison, he holes up with a couple of friends (Badger and Skinny Pete, two of several original cast-members making a welcome return) before getting ready to assume a new identity and start a new life, far away from Albuquerque. The film follows him over a frenetic 48 hours as he dodges police and rival criminals to scrape together enough money to pay for a ticket out of town from “the Disappearer” (played by Robert Forster, whose death was announced the day after the film’s release).
The film has many of the strengths of the original series, with which it shares its writer-director, Vince Gilligan. Aaron Paul is still good as Pinkman, an older and wearier character than the young naif who started working as White’s assistant in the first season more than a decade ago. There are moments of high tension, notably the scene in which Pinkman has to creep around a house in search of a stash of cash, as rival crooks prowl around the same property just feet away. The cinematography is as good as in the original, drinking in great wide shots of the New Mexico desert. And there are enough shootouts and explosions to keep things going.
Yet much of what made “Breaking Bad” truly great is gone. Part of the thrill of the original series lay in the sheer audacity of White’s plan to build an international crystal-meth empire, whose workings were intricately laid out as the seasons progressed. Pinkman’s aim, by contrast, is simply to scrape together enough cash to get a fake ID and skip town. After the soaring ambition of White’s empire, the escapades in “El Camino” feel small-bore. The hoops that Pinkman has to jump through to gain his freedom are diverting enough, but none compares to the extraordinary capers he got up to with White in their attempts to evade the DEA as well as other dealers.
The other problem is that the show’s most interesting characters are dead. Some of them, including White himself, the viewer gets to see again through multiple flashbacks. But Pinkman spends most of his time battling against new villains in whom the audience has little investment. The killing of his evil captors in the final episode of “Breaking Bad” was one of the most satisfying and cathartic moments of the series. In “El Camino” he does not face any foe so wicked. In the way it constantly shows off Pinkman’s determination and grit, the film has the style of a revenge thriller. But with his greatest enemies already vanquished, the quest sometimes feels more like ticking off items on a shopping list than righting any great wrongs that the original series failed to deal with.
Judging “El Camino” against what came before it is perhaps unfair. Few fans of “Breaking Bad” will consider the two hours wasted. (Those who haven’t seen the series, on the other hand, will spend much of the time pretty baffled.) But “El Camino” ultimately feels like a long and not especially satisfying episode from the middle of an earlier season, rather than the great ending that the series was always missing. That is a testament to just how rich and ambitious “Breaking Bad” really was—and how its spectacular finale really left no need for this sort of postscript.
“El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie” is streaming on Netflix now
“El Camino” is a passable but pointless postscript to “Breaking Bad”
Fans of the series will lap up two more hours of action, but this follow-up film lacks much of what made the series great
Oct 14th 2019by T.W.
Warning: this article contains details of “Breaking Bad”
THE 62ND and final episode of “Breaking Bad”, which aired six years ago, was a satisfying end to one of the most acclaimed television series of all time. Walter White (Bryan Cranston), a New Mexico high-school chemistry teacher turned crystal-meth kingpin, used a remote-controlled machine-gun hidden in his car boot to dispatch a gang of rival dealers who had kidnapped and tortured his one-time associate, Jesse Pinkman. But in the process White caught a bullet himself, and in the closing shot was seen lying dead on the floor of a high-tech meth lab of the sort that had made him rich. One of television’s greatest anti-heroes got the better of the baddies and at the same time received his just deserts. It was a well-judged ending.
So why add a postscript? “El Camino”, a feature-length follow-up to the TV series, begins where episode 62 left off, following the next steps of Pinkman, who was last seen speeding off to freedom. It will delight diehard fans, for whom the film is packed with references to the original series. But the original finale did such a good job of tying up loose ends that “El Camino” often feels as if it lacks a purpose. Meanwhile much of what made “Breaking Bad” so good is now missing.
The title refers to the Chevrolet El Camino in which Pinkman makes his escape from the headquarters of the neo-Nazi gang that had forced him to cook meth for them, chained up like an animal underground. But the title has an obvious double-meaning, referring also to “the path” that Pinkman takes next. After roaring out of his desert prison, he holes up with a couple of friends (Badger and Skinny Pete, two of several original cast-members making a welcome return) before getting ready to assume a new identity and start a new life, far away from Albuquerque. The film follows him over a frenetic 48 hours as he dodges police and rival criminals to scrape together enough money to pay for a ticket out of town from “the Disappearer” (played by Robert Forster, whose death was announced the day after the film’s release).
The film has many of the strengths of the original series, with which it shares its writer-director, Vince Gilligan. Aaron Paul is still good as Pinkman, an older and wearier character than the young naif who started working as White’s assistant in the first season more than a decade ago. There are moments of high tension, notably the scene in which Pinkman has to creep around a house in search of a stash of cash, as rival crooks prowl around the same property just feet away. The cinematography is as good as in the original, drinking in great wide shots of the New Mexico desert. And there are enough shootouts and explosions to keep things going.
Yet much of what made “Breaking Bad” truly great is gone. Part of the thrill of the original series lay in the sheer audacity of White’s plan to build an international crystal-meth empire, whose workings were intricately laid out as the seasons progressed. Pinkman’s aim, by contrast, is simply to scrape together enough cash to get a fake ID and skip town. After the soaring ambition of White’s empire, the escapades in “El Camino” feel small-bore. The hoops that Pinkman has to jump through to gain his freedom are diverting enough, but none compares to the extraordinary capers he got up to with White in their attempts to evade the DEA as well as other dealers.
The other problem is that the show’s most interesting characters are dead. Some of them, including White himself, the viewer gets to see again through multiple flashbacks. But Pinkman spends most of his time battling against new villains in whom the audience has little investment. The killing of his evil captors in the final episode of “Breaking Bad” was one of the most satisfying and cathartic moments of the series. In “El Camino” he does not face any foe so wicked. In the way it constantly shows off Pinkman’s determination and grit, the film has the style of a revenge thriller. But with his greatest enemies already vanquished, the quest sometimes feels more like ticking off items on a shopping list than righting any great wrongs that the original series failed to deal with.
Judging “El Camino” against what came before it is perhaps unfair. Few fans of “Breaking Bad” will consider the two hours wasted. (Those who haven’t seen the series, on the other hand, will spend much of the time pretty baffled.) But “El Camino” ultimately feels like a long and not especially satisfying episode from the middle of an earlier season, rather than the great ending that the series was always missing. That is a testament to just how rich and ambitious “Breaking Bad” really was—and how its spectacular finale really left no need for this sort of postscript.
“El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie” is streaming on Netflix now
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