Veronica Mars is great for the fans, but not as much for everyone else

I’ve always found it interesting how passion from fans can manifest in many different ways. I spent most of life unfamiliar with comics or authors like Neil Gaiman, but when I suddenly started down those roads after college by reading a few things here and there … suddenly I have nearly all of Neil Gaiman’s work and a large collection of graphic novels with a true appreciation for the medium. By now, I’d support Gaiman in a lot of things, although that pales next to his biggest fans. Certain content creators have rabid fan bases, like Joss Whedon among the cult fans or One Direction among the masses of teenage girls. Of course, the application of paying money for anything related to their idols is a pretty typical way to handle it, something I’ve been guilty of myself at times. But it’s rare indeed when fans are essentially directly responsible for the creation or success thereof.

Veronica Mars is one of the few exceptions; it was a mildly popular television show that was cancelled after three seasons (one great, one good, one mediocre), but managed to obtain a cadre of rabid fans. Those fans, and others like them, put up over $5 million on Kickstarter to fund the movie, although Warner Bros. ended up giving more money later on because of the “demonstrated value.” After all, over ninety thousand people ponied up dough for the effort, which probably implied that twice as many at least will buy tickets for the movie. Or will they? The real question is whether or not people will care if they haven’t seen the show. After all, for most people, will they even know what Veronica Mars was? The show was about Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell), a young high school girl in a rich Southern California town filled with corruption who ends up becoming a detective because she wanted to solve the mystery of her best friend’s murder. And the second and third seasons were about other mysteries, of course.

So the movie starts up a few years after the ending of the show, with Veronica living in New York having a boring but pleasant life with boyfriend Piz (Chris Lowell), a boring but pleasant guy. If you’re thinking something will shake that up, you’d be right! Despite just graduating from law school and interviewing at a prestigious firm, she gets drawn back to her old life when her former boyfriend, dark and brooding Logan (Jason Dohring), is accused of murdering his old girlfriend. Whoops! Veronica finds herself getting mixed up in the corrupt nonsense of her hometown despite successfully leaving it behind. The expected things happen, plenty of fan service and cameos pepper the film (I won’t spoil it for those who don’t already know), Logan and Veronica find sparks between them, Veronica’s dad (Enrico Colantoni) is great, and there’s a mystery to solve.

The mystery isn’t honestly that interesting or clever, but that’s to be expected when you don’t have an entire TV season to play through it. That said, the movie moves quickly and everyone falls back into their old roles with aplomb. Kristen Bell provides the anchor here, showcasing wit and emotion, often elevating weaker beats and dialogue. If you swooned over Veronica’s love life in the show, you’ll probably like the little bits here about it, but I didn’t particularly care about it, as I wasn’t invested in that part of the TV show either. I did like seeing a few people that have since done things I’ve enjoyed, like Max Greenfield, Ryan Hansen, or Krysten Ritter as various town characters with complicated relationships with Veronica. At times I found Veronica’s choices to be frustrating and illogical, and the explanations a bit simplistic.

Veronica Mars isn’t subtle with anything, not with themes, not with surprises, not with … well, anything. That said, I liked the movie, it was tense when it needed to be, explained the critical character interactions to those who wouldn’t already know, and ended in a decently open-ended way (sequel-baiting?). Those unfamiliar with the show may like it, but consider it more along the lines of a two hour TV movie. Which, let’s be honest, it basically is. It’s a good movie, but it’s not great. That said, if you liked the show, you will almost certainly enjoy this movie, even if you liked it just as a good show. And if you loved the show … then you’ll probably love it.