untold blisses

Exactly a year ago, I was pledging a good proportion of overdue back pay into the Veronica Mars Movie Kickstarter.  I had expected to get my poster, t-shirt – all the goodies I was promised – but I could only hope to get a good film.  I had lowered my expectations – TV shows rarely make good films which is perfectly acceptable as they’re very different mediums.

I had Kickstarted enough to get me a digital download, and the temptation to download it Friday morning to watch on my Nexus 7 was overwhelming.  I was in Manchester this week for a work conference and the film would have been perfect to make my long train journey home go faster.  But I held out and made my way over to the Empire Leicester Square to the SMALLEST SCREEN possible to see it as Rob Thomas intended.

I’ve actually been sat here struggling to put my thoughts into words.  I’ve said before that I’m not good at reviewing films beyond “it made me cry therefore it was good” and for Veronica Mars, I may have started tearing up pretty much the second the film started, so… therefore it was good.  It was really good.  I jumped and gasped on many occasions which I’m led to believe is good for a film noir.  The script felt very close to the original brilliance of the TV series, which I suppose might come across a bit weird, because who would sound like a teenager when they’re almost 30.  But to me, that just says more about the extraordinary writing of the series.  My emotions were all over the place and after leaving the cinema, I immediately wanted to go back in to the next screening.

Which I couldn’t do as there were only four screenings on Friday and I’m pretty sure they were all sold out which is great, but also a really shitty way to promote a film.  There are 10 cinemas screening the film in the UK and Ireland, and I don’t have one near me (London is an hour or so away on the train).  How can the film ever be expected to succeed when they don’t actually SHOW IT ANYWHERE.  And it was shown at Empire and Showcase cinemas – I didn’t even know there were still Showcase cinemas.  It’s such a shame it wasn’t on at a Vue or Odeon.  The full extent of the Empire Leicester Squares promotion is in my photo above – Veronica didn’t even get a big 27″x40″ poster.  Of course it’s going to ‘fail’.

I’ve also read some pretty ridiculous reviews from writers who clearly just want to kick Veronica Mars – for what reason, I’m not sure, but some of the criticisms I’ve read have been that the film was too visually dark, that it was impossible to follow, that it was just like The OC (um, what?).  One of the reviews I read this morning featured photos from season 3 and nothing about the plot, just that the fans wasted their  $5.7 million and that the film was childish.  They’re not interested in being unbiased.

It clear that all this will ensure that only fans will see this film in the UK, and maybe that’s ok.  We paid for it, so it’s fitting that it was made for us.  I do think you haven’t seen Veronica Mars, you’re insane and you need to rectify this immediately, but I don’t really care if no one else sees it because I have had my fix.  Unfortunately, this does mean I’m going to need another fix pretty soon, so please can I have some more.  Pretty please?

My love for Veronica’s world is epic.  Spanning years and continents. Lives ruined, bloodshed.

Epic.