For better or worse, it is basically three-part Veronica Mars episode projected onto a big screen. The film doesn’t go out of its way to deviate from the template of its television roots. There aren’t massive action scenes, exotic locations, or overly cinematic compositions. The film revolves around the ten-year anniversary of Veronica’s Neptune High graduating class, and it makes sense as the film’s greatest strength is its worth as a reunion. It’s not much of a movie, but it’s a mostly good time with old friends.
The story kicks into gear when Logan Echolls is arrested for allegedly murdering his pop-star girlfriend. This sends Veronica Mars, about to get her first high-powered attorney job, flying back to Neptune to solve the case. I certainly won’t reveal who did what, but it’s a painfully easy mystery to solve. The film adds a gratuitous and too-thin B-plot about local corruption and gentrification to pad out the film to feature length. Yet you get the feeling that Thomas would have emphasized this material if he wasn’t pandering to the fans. The film’s budget shows here, as scenes where you’d expect countless reporters are nearly barren of extras and incidents that would be major news occur without a peep from the outside world.
Speaking of pandering to the fans, the film’s greatest flaw, but not a fatal one, is how it attempts to turn Veronica’s on-again, off-again romance with local bad-boy Logan into a defining love affair. It reeks of placating to the kind of “shippers” who consider “Who will she choose?” to be the most important question of any long form story. The would-be Logan/Veronica relationship drama doesn’t completely swallow the film, as we still get just enough time with old friends (Weevil, Wallace, etc.) to remind us why we liked the show in the first place. But it’s a little sad how yet another interesting property has been boiled down to an angel/devil love triangle.
