Quick Review: Veronica Mars (2014)

VERONICA MARS

BY CHRISTOPHER HASKELL
MAY 3, 2014

Ten years after the first season of this cult classic appeared on television, “Veronica Mars” makes its crowd-funded feature film debut. Bringing back almost all of the notable cast members and weaving them into another whodunnit murder mystery, Kristen Bell once again leads the pack as the tiny blonde detective for hire, the role that put her on the map. This time she is interviewing for positions at big business law firms, having put her mystery-solving days behind her. In a serious relationship with Piz (Chris Lowell), she is pulled back to her hometown of Neptune when her old flame Logan (Jason Dohring) is accused of murdering his rocker girlfriend. At the same time, her high school reunion brings cameos by the handfuls, including Wallace (Percy Daggs III), Mac (Tina Majorino), Gia (Krysten Ritter), Weevil (Francis Capra), Dick (Ryan Hansen), and even Leo (Max Greenfield).

Of course, the best writing of the film matches that of the television series, the witty banter between Veronica and her down-to-earth father, Keith Mars (Enrico Colantoni). You get the feeling that no time has passed at all between these two, picking up right where they left off. Creator Rob Thomas does a decent job of keeping the audience invested, playing mainly to the diehard fans that followed the show, with many inside jokes and situations. But with a developing love triangle, an intriguing mystery, and a few stars that were not in the series like Martin Starr and a cameo by James Franco playing himself, there are plenty of attempts to appeal to newcomers. A helpful part about having a film funded by its fans is that you know right off the bat that there is a vested interest. The real question following this feature, however, is if that vested interest is enough to keep this franchise going.