Veronica Mars is back! She thought she had escaped Neptune, California for the calmer, grown-up world of New York City; she thought she had escaped her bad boy past for the calmer, drama-less college boyfriend, Piz; but then they pulled her right back in. Even after nine years, one phone call from Logan Echolls is all it took; after all, their love is epic. It can span years and continents, lives ruined and bloodshed.
It's probably not a good idea to answer a phone call from the son of a Hollywood actor who had murdered his girlfriend, the son of a Hollywood wife who jumped off a bridge, and has a penchant for getting himself accused of murder. But Jason Dohring plays Logan Echolls. One of the most promising actors to come out of TV who has still not "made it", he has a way with words and a charisma which evokes a passion that makes otherwise good girls fall for bad boys.
Luckily for us, unfortunately for Veronica, Logan's most recent murder charge coincides with her high school reunion, and it reunites us with all the Neptune High characters we loved to hate (Madison Sinclair, Gia Goodman), everybody we loved to love (Weevil, Wallace) and everybody we forgot how much we loved (Mr. Clemmons, Corny). It's been eight years since we've last seen most of these people. Some actors didn't change (Jason Dohring), some characters didn't change (Dick Casablancas), and some scenes didn't change. And those were the great parts. Veronica tricking the Sheriff again, Veronica flirting with a certain Deputy with a pizza in hand again, and Keith scolding his number one daughter again were hilarious.
It can be a bit weird going from the small screen to the big screen. A different actor playing the same character doesn't help and old characters that we never actually met doesn't help either. Logan wearing the Navy dress whites seemed a joke at first, and then when it turned out to not be a joke, I was still waiting for the joke to play out. The jokes came when Veronica finally made it to the reunion and when Dick was helping Veronica help Logan. But then it got dark, and they pulled me right back in.
The comedy is primarily inside jokes, and yes it is very funny, but probably not hilarious to non-fans. The plot can be easily followed by anyone, and we and Veronica set out to solve who really murdered Logan's pop-star girlfriend. Well, actually, Veronica sets out to solve the crime. One of the biggest differences between the TV version and the movie is that we don't get 20 episodes worth of clues to solve it ourselves. We just get to sit back and watch Veronica get pulled back to the Hellmouth that is Neptune, California.
