Veronica Mars, a hit TV show, came back on the big screen to answer the calls of fandom.  In 2004, Veronica Mars premiered on the CW.  The series was a smash hit, and maintained a large following but was abruptly cut after its third season.  The show ended with a series of loose ends and dangling plot points, which rather upset fans.

Eight years later, the cult-like fan base, commonly referred to as Marshmallows, gathered enough funds to kick-start the production of a Veronica Mars movie.

The plot of the film expanded on much of the drama from the original series; a super cute crime-fighting high school student, played by the charming Kristen Bell, finds herself in a tough spot.  Her long time boyfriend, Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), is in trouble with the law yet again.  This teen melodrama borders on Young Adult Soap Opera as the plot centers around the many murders and petty crimes happening in the town of Neptune, California.

But amidst the ever complicated plot full of twists, viewers get very attached to the life of the teen private investigator in training.  The Marshmallow fan base cries for her, applauds, and, occasionally, questions some of her regrettable decisions.

This movie centers on one of her biggest mistakes, from the fan’s vantage point at least, the romance she cut short with Logan.  In college, Veronica breaks things off with bad boy Logan and goes on to date sweet, funny, kind, likable Stosh ‘Piz’ Piznarski(Chris Lowell).

In the film, Veronica is now dating Piz again after taking a six-year break when she finds out that Logan has been accused of the murder of his girlfriend, Bonnie DeVille.  Veronica flies out of New York, leaving her job prospect at an elite law firm in the search for Logan.  As Veronica and Logan attempt to get to the bottom of the crime, their evidence is ignored by corrupt county sheriff, Dan Lamb.

This movie is the forum in which the Team Piz v. Team Logan battles really comes to a head.  It is also the perfect way to wrap up all that was left in question at the end of the last televised season, questions addressing Veronica’s romantic future, her continued crime fighting and the rest of the life of this lovable character.

Though it did its job in consolidating all that was left undone in seasons past and tying everything up in a neat little bow, it felt contrived at times.  This forced way of trying to clean up messy plot points takes away from the movie.

However, only Veronica Mars series enthusiasts would enjoy the film otherwise.  Had the audience not seen every episode of the T.V. series, they would not have understood, much less enjoyed the film.  This movie could not make it as a stand-alone because much of the plot depends on an in-depth knowledge of what happened before.  As for characters and plot, the movie as its own entity and not as the continuation of the series, it would simply fall flat because there is a

lack of action independent of that in the televised seasons.

Veronica Mars could have been cropped down to about an hour long episode as all it really was was a glorified finale.  But instead, bits were added in as nods to old jokes or scenarios, again only to be enjoyed by folks who were already familiar with the material.   However, to the die-hard fans looking to go out and see this wonderful film: the Veronica Mars movie, strictly as a final episode of the series, was nothing short of epic.