Movie Week - Veronica Mars

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The second part of our hardboiled double feature is Veronica Mars, which is slightly weird, because I never got into Veronica Mars.  I was definitively outside of the target audience for the original show and, until recently, I’d never seen an episode. 

I mean, it was always one of those shows that I fully expected to watch one day.  All the right people said all the right things about it.  Plus, I really enjoyed Party Down.  I was happy for the fans of the show, when the Kickstarter campaign lead to the film getting greenlit.  Then I binge watched the series once it hit Amazon. 

So I was totally ready for the feature length Veronica Mars movie. 

Honestly, I’m of two minds about the Veronica Mars movie. 

On one hand, as someone who grew to be a fan of the show, I love it.  It feels like a return to Neptune.  Everyone did a great job of capturing the energy and fun of the tv show and transferring it to a different medium.  It’s a pretty seamless transition as everyone falls into their old roles as though no time has passed. 

The movie keeps the same rhythms of the series.  The quick dialogue, the nods to previous events and characters, Veronica Mars is everything a Veronica Mars fan could hope for.  The cameos were fun and it even set up stories for future trips back to Neptune.  What’s not to love? 

But that’s where the other side comes into play.  Did Rob Thomas and company forsake making a great movie to give Veronica Mars fans what they wanted? 

Granted, it’s a unique case because Veronica Mars is partially a fan funded movie, which makes appeasing said fans all the more important.  But doe the film suffer from nods, inside jokes and adherence to continuity? 

Yes, the inclusion of yet another conspiracy in Neptune and Weevil’s ominous future were awesomely fun nods to how the series’ habit of setting up storylines.  But without a guarantee of them being followed up on, does their presence hurt the movie? 

Yeah, the series recap at the beginning of the film does a good job of getting everyone up to speed (as does Veronica’s interview for the law firm) but perhaps the film would have been better served without the intro? 

Still Veronica Mars is a continuation not an adaptation, so perhaps I’m overthinking things a bit.  But I can’t help but believe that some appearances by characters didn’t really add anything to the story. 

As someone who enjoyed Veronica Mars, and still had the series fresh in his mind, I enjoyed the film immensely.  I’m just worried that someone who went in cold would be incredibly lost.