Last night Paul and I went to see The Veronica Mars movie, and I’m going to share my thoughts about it. I’m going to try and keep it as spoiler free as possible so don’t worry if you haven’t seen it yet. I won’t ruin anything for you.

Looking back at the posts on this blog I was shocked to discover that it doesn’t seem like I wrote about supporting the Kickstarter campaign for this movie. Unless you’ve been living under a rock I’m sure you’re familiar with the story. Veronica Mars was a much beloved, but low-rated television show that ran for 3 seasons and was then canceled. It never felt like the story was tied up to me, though I know some people think the ending fit for a series that was based on film noir. Like many other television shows that people have loved there has been constant clamor for the show to resurrected as a movie. Creator/writer Rob Thomas and star Kristen Bell always said they were on board to do it if they could ever find a way, but I never thought it would really happen.

Then thanks to the existence of Kickstarter they had a method for raising the funds to get the movie made. I was so excited when I saw the Kickstarter announcement because it meant that the movie was probably actually going to happen. I gladly chipped in my $50, which in addition to supporting the movie got me some stickers, a t-shirt, a digital download of the movie, a copy of the shooting script, and  a DVD copy of the movie. All the backing rewards alone seem well worth $50, but I probably would have given that much money just for the pleasure of seeing the movie. That’s how much I wanted it to happen.

Mostly I think people should just let TV shows lie. I see people clamoring for movies for shows like Friday Night Lights, Chuck, and many others. Most of these shows all had nice tidy endings where the storylines were wrapped up and the characters had a good send off. In that case I don’t really see the need for a movie, which I imagine for the most part would never live up to the love of the television show. I didn’t feel that way about Veronica Mars though because of the way the story never felt finished to me.

The only other television show I would really want more from at this point is Gilmore Girls. Even though I don’t really want a movie made. I really just want Amy Sherman Palladino to share how she would have finished out the show had she stayed on. She always said she knew the last lines of the series from the very beginning, but then she left before she ever got to write them. I have always been dying to know what she would have done. I’m guessing that’s not something that would work in a movie this far removed from the end of the series, so I don’t even really want that.

Anyway, at this point you’re probably thinking get on with it lady. I came here to read your review of the movie and you’ve rambled on for four paragraphs about everything but that. So here it is. I LOVED the movie. It was everything I was hoping for and more. It felt completely like Veronica Mars, which is a good thing. The characters all felt completely right even after all this time. There were many call backs to the show and also some meta jokes for fans of the show, but I also think it was humorous on its own even if you didn’t get all the references. It finally wrapped up things in a way that felt fitting to me, while still leaving things open enough for the book series I know they’re working on. It’s hard to say too much more about it without getting into specifics, which I don’t want to do. I could say more without spoiling major plot lines, but I think half the fun is discovering what they’ve chosen to include. If you loved or even just liked the tv show, you will love this movie.

I was trying to decide if it could stand as a movie on its own without someone having seen the tv show. I eventually realized I was too inside to really be able to figure that out. I would be curious to hear what someone who saw the movie without having seen the show first thought about it. I don’t think they would enjoy it as much, but I think it would still work for them.

I rewatched the entire series over the last few months, but if you don’t get a chance to do that and want a little refresher going in to prepare take Alan Sepinwall’s advice and rewatch the “Mars vs. Mars” episode and then any of the season 2 episodes with Gia in them to remind yourself of who she is if you don’t remember. Then go forth and enjoy the movie. Now that I’ve seen it in the theater I can hardly wait to rewatch it via the copy I already have as part of my Kickstarter reward.