Review of Veronica Mars (2014) by Grant K — 21 Mar 2014

"Veronica Mars," the movie, was my first introduction to the character and the series. I have never been interested in watching the series and continue with my disinterest following a viewing of the film. That being said, I was completely interested in watching something unprecedented: a film created through the funding of it's own fans. With a charismatic lead in Bell, and a decent supporting cast (Enrico Colantoni, Krysten Ritter, and some great cameos), it looked like at least an entertaining time at the movies. Not so.

This is one of the worst films I've seen this year. There's an old adage in film and writing: "show, don't tell." "Veronica Mars" is the antithesis to that. Incessant narration throughout the entire film ruins any and all subtlety, and comes off as nothing but pretentious; "should I really get back into this? Do I really want to be a PI again?" Do I really give a ****? A few simple shots of Veronica looking at her old case files and PI gear would have been more than enough to show the audience of her internal struggle, and Bell is a capable enough actress to convey such emotions without constant narration. Additionally, for non-fans, there's no need for Thomas to go over every single plot point of the entire series. Rob Thomas' script epitomizes beating a dead horse. The writing is over-explanatory, long, redundant, insultingly stupid, extremely predictable and wholly unoriginal. That's the least of the problems.

Director Rob Thomas comes from the world of television, and it shows. Unending techno music fills the background, sometimes interrupting dialogue, and it sounds like he copy and pasted it onto his film from Garageband demos. On top of that, the sound editing jumps all over the place, one moment the dialogue is at a whisper, then the next a quiet conversation sounds like a shouting match. The cinematography is stale, shoulder length standard shots, nothing creative and it's noticeably boring, Thomas comes off as an inexperienced man doing his job, not a filmmaker creating art. If that's your style of filmmaking, stick to television.

In television programs, some of the cast are just starting out, they prove themselves to be fantastic actors and soon move onto bigger and better things. Woody Harrelson got his start on Cheers. George Clooney started out on a variety of programs, his most memorable of which was ER. Some would say Kristen Bell is in the same boat. "Mars" is where people first noticed her talent. For every Clooney, Harrelson or Bell, there's a multitude of supporting cast members who never really went anywhere. The same is the case for "Veronica Mars" and director Rob Thomas puts one of those banal failures in the second biggest role of the movie. Jason Dohring, the human/cardboard cutout hybrid is absolutely atrocious in this movie, never once showcasing any kind of charisma, or chemistry with Bell, and delivering his lines like he's a walking, talking version of HAL-9000 from "2001: A Space Odyssey." His performance in this film is on par with staring at a blank piece of drywall. If a better actor, (even Martin Starr has proved he's got some talent in other projects), had taken the role, it might have been a far more entertaining film.

All in all, I respect the fact that the group behind this film made it as a labor of love, and find it exciting, fascinating and inspiring that a 5 million dollar film can get it's funding solely through crowd-funding. It's a game changing idea. It's a shame, however, that those behind the camera couldn't have made a film better than what amounts to a cheap, 100 minute long television episode. Whether you're a fan of "Veronica Mars" or not, we all deserved better.