I never watched Veronica Mars when it was on UPN (and later the CW network). It aired from 2004 to 2007 and during those years nearly all of my TV habits revolved around watching LOST, talking about LOST and ravenously eating up all the LOST theories that were floating around the internet. I vaguely remember Veronica Mars and that's primarily due to a poster advertisement hanging outside the mall arcade by the main doors. Even if I hadn't been obsessed with LOST, I can tell you that after watching Veronica Mars: The Movie, this was not a show I would have been tuning in to week after week. I chose to go into the movie completely cold. I wanted to judge this film as just that, a film. The only preparation I made was to watch the trailer which didn't really tell me a whole lot other than this was definitely not something I would go see on my own accord. The good news is that you don't have to have any prior knowledge of this movie's universe. It swiftly lays out the all the exposition you need right in the first few minutes without feeling too clunky or forced. Score one for the movie.
Veronica Mars is an excellent finale for a show that never truly got one. That this movie even came to fruition is evidence enough of its fans love for the show; they're the ones who funded this thing after all. The film's director, Rob Thomas (not the J.O. with the mullet from that band) and star, Kristen Bell (yes, the blonde who married the other guy from MTV's Punk'd – not Ashton though) put the film on Kickstarter with the goal of raising two million dollars. It went up to nearly six million! That's some intense fanboy love. What's more, I sat in a packed to capacity theater for an advance screening of this movie. That speaks volumes as to how much fans of the show care about what happens to these characters seven years later. Score another one for the movie.
So how is the movie? Well, that's where the problem lies. This isn't really a movie. This looks and feels like a 107 minute episode of Veronica Mars. That's not to say anything bad about what I watched on the movie screen other than I should not have been watching it on a movie screen. This is television through and through. This is made evident several times, utilizing such TV tropes as:
Insinuating sex with characters kissing and breathing into each other's face while indie music from 2005 plays. A sex scene which is literally just two legs sticking out of the bed sheets. A dramatic event occurs and the screen fades to black as if we're about to watch a Pepsi commercial. I'm not saying this doesn't make for good television, but it is television all the same. That fact will not stop fans of the show from buying tickets, however. And why should it? They've already paid to have it filmed, what's another $10 to see the whole thing through to the end?
Fans of the show will absolutely be satisfied with what they see and most likely enjoy every minute of it. A majority of the people in attendance were adults in their mid-to-late twenties. Many of them were probably fans of the show before they could even drink a beer. That same demographic are also most likely to go to the movies. What I'm getting at here is that this two-part television miniseries, filmed for six million dollars, has a very good chance at being a huge hit. Add another point to the movie's score.
The issue I'm having is that this is a film review site and I'm charged with reviewing films. That Veronica Mars is an entertaining and satisfying piece of television can only carry it so far. As a movie, this will not do. As a movie, these characters and their motivations are wafer thin. As a movie, the plot doesn't really work. So how do I rate this thing?
As a movie it's a 4.
As a final episode to a TV series it's an 8.
I'm just going to have to split the difference.
Veronica Mars is an excellent finale for a show that never truly got one. That this movie even came to fruition is evidence enough of its fans love for the show; they're the ones who funded this thing after all. The film's director, Rob Thomas (not the J.O. with the mullet from that band) and star, Kristen Bell (yes, the blonde who married the other guy from MTV's Punk'd – not Ashton though) put the film on Kickstarter with the goal of raising two million dollars. It went up to nearly six million! That's some intense fanboy love. What's more, I sat in a packed to capacity theater for an advance screening of this movie. That speaks volumes as to how much fans of the show care about what happens to these characters seven years later. Score another one for the movie.
So how is the movie? Well, that's where the problem lies. This isn't really a movie. This looks and feels like a 107 minute episode of Veronica Mars. That's not to say anything bad about what I watched on the movie screen other than I should not have been watching it on a movie screen. This is television through and through. This is made evident several times, utilizing such TV tropes as:
Insinuating sex with characters kissing and breathing into each other's face while indie music from 2005 plays. A sex scene which is literally just two legs sticking out of the bed sheets. A dramatic event occurs and the screen fades to black as if we're about to watch a Pepsi commercial. I'm not saying this doesn't make for good television, but it is television all the same. That fact will not stop fans of the show from buying tickets, however. And why should it? They've already paid to have it filmed, what's another $10 to see the whole thing through to the end?
Fans of the show will absolutely be satisfied with what they see and most likely enjoy every minute of it. A majority of the people in attendance were adults in their mid-to-late twenties. Many of them were probably fans of the show before they could even drink a beer. That same demographic are also most likely to go to the movies. What I'm getting at here is that this two-part television miniseries, filmed for six million dollars, has a very good chance at being a huge hit. Add another point to the movie's score.
The issue I'm having is that this is a film review site and I'm charged with reviewing films. That Veronica Mars is an entertaining and satisfying piece of television can only carry it so far. As a movie, this will not do. As a movie, these characters and their motivations are wafer thin. As a movie, the plot doesn't really work. So how do I rate this thing?
As a movie it's a 4.
As a final episode to a TV series it's an 8.
I'm just going to have to split the difference.