Life on 'Mars'
Veronica (Kristen Bell) is back and it's no mystery why. Kickstarter.
THERE'S good news for the more than 90,000 people who helped fund the "Veronica Mars" movie through a Kickstarter campaign that raised $5.7 million after reaching its original $2 million goal within hours.
They got what they paid for.
They won't make any money - how many backers do? - but for fans who've never quite gotten over the series' open-ended departure from the CW in 2007, the movie is an opportunity to return to fictional Neptune, Calif., for what may be the best high-school reunion weekend ever - complete with murder, a sex tape and the always gratifying discovery that the popular kids haven't aged as well as the cool underdogs.
If you weren't among the few million viewers who got to know teenage private eye Veronica (Kristen Bell) on UPN and the CW, or who caught up later on Netflix or Amazon, "Veronica Mars" might feel more like being the plus-one at someone else's reunion. You could still have a good time, but there will be moments of wondering why people around you are laughing, or gasping.
Though they'll have no better idea than you what James Franco's doing there.
A few celebrity cameos aside, series creator Rob Thomas, who directed and also co-wrote the script with Diane Ruggiero, has smartly resisted any temptation to pump up "Veronica Mars" to the size of the screen. The movie plays like an extended episode of the show, which blended noir and the angst of high school - and, in its final season, college - and featured some of TV's smartest dialogue.
Becoming a movie hasn't dumbed it down (hey, it happens), and there are nods in the script to Kickstarter and even to Thomas' previous plan for his main character had the show gotten a fourth season.
As the film opens, it's been nine years since a bitter, embattled Veronica left Neptune, transferring to Stanford and giving up sleuthing altogether. Now, fresh out of law school, with her eyes on a fancy New York job that will pay off her loans, she's planning to skip her 10th high-school reunion but is drawn back when her old love, Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), is accused of murdering his pop-star ex-girlfriend, also a former classmate.
It would be mean to say one more thing about what happens next, because there truly are surprises, starting with the moment Veronica lands in California.
As usual, what's happening to the characters is more interesting than the murder mystery.
Thomas, in interviews, has hinted that a sequel's not out of the question if the movie does well.
I'm not yet pining for "Veronica Mars 2." I wouldn't say no, though, to three more seasons.
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