Monday, April 7, 2014

Veronica Mars, Girl Detective, Intrepid Girl Reporter

A store with stuff I want. Passed by on the way to Kip's Bay.
You know you're hanging with an awesome crowd when a preview comes on for a dance movie about which you jokingly say "Oh I've seen this before" because it's like every single other dance movie ever made and when the dancing begins, the audience snickers, and when Derek Hough does a dance move that simultaneously removes his shirt, the entire audience erupts in laughter.  Yup, it was that kind of scene when S and I trekked over to Kips Bay after finding the two more local theaters in midtown were SOLD OUT for the PREMIERE of VERONICA MARS.

It was a big day for us.  Veronica Mars was THE girl detective, the end-all be-all of all things that needed detecting.  We made our own lyrics to the theme song.  Watching the series on DVD offered the opportunity to pause, rewind, rewatch, replay, and remind ourselves why this series was one of the greatest series ever made.  Hyperbolic?  Perhaps.  But Kristen Bell is uh. may. ZING! as is everyone else associated with anything V.Mars.
A long time ago, we used to be friends....

bring it on bring it on....
For an extra added bonus, we were in an AMC theatre, and the AMC app has this function that allows you to point your phone at a movie poster in the theatre and it "comes alive."  We did this twice.  The poster does not come to life.  A weird little animated character appears on the screen of your phone and when you point your phone at the poster, the animated character moves in front of the poster even if it has nothing to do with a poster, so a tiny can-can lady danced across the face of V.Mars and then a guy pulled a rabbit out of a hat in front of a poster for some other movie I can't remember the name of.  Dumb.  On the plus side, Captain America was about to come out, too, so we found his shield.

This is how to use a shield.

This is how to get killed in battle.
So why was the premiere of VMars SOLD OUT?  Because it was all kinds of amazingly awesome. Everything you could want from a movie followup years later appeared.  The characters.  How they changed realistically.  The logical backstories of what happened and how.  Original cast members.  Originals!  Old storylines coming up again. The guy on the sidewalk singing the theme song.  The reference to the never-realized tv show where VMars works for the FBI.  Just everything everything, including Leo.  Including Vinnie Van Lowe.  Including Weevil in a button down shirt and slacks.  Then there was the new guy, Jerry O'Connell as the brother to Sheriff Lamb who became the second Sheriff Lamb.  But there wasn't much new stuff.  Mostly old stuff.  Like did I mention Leo?  Yeah, him too.

From start to finish, it was friggin mesmerizing, but because we were watching with all the hardcore fans, things got a little loud so when there was a line that caused a huge reaction (laughing, yelling, clapping), the next few lines went missing.  The good thing about being in such an active audience was when S and I jumped from being scared out of our seats, everyone else did the same exact thing.  Us Marshmallows, we are cut from the same cloth.

The following Tuesday, I saw it for a second time with my officemate.  We'd recently found out that we both liked the show, and she'd been following the kickstarter campaign for it, and we were both very excited.  Seeing it for the second time?  Still amazing.  Here's why: watching her reactions to all the nostalgia was worth the price of the ticket itself.  Then getting to hear the actual dialogue I'd missed the first time around was nice.  Also, nothing scared me out of my seat this time, so I didn't miss anything while trying to recover from a panic attack.  It's fun to watch other people falling in love with the movie I fell in love with just days before.

So now it's onto the books.  Apparently, there are VMars books and I  need to read them.  What made this show great was the writing.  What made this movie great was the writing and Kristen Bell and the slow-mo dancing and Tina Majorino's rockin new hairstyle and Wallace and of course Leo and Keith Mars being Keith Mars and Dick being the biggest Dick he could be and the writing again.  So the books are a must.

Plus, the ending left a lot to think about, so I'm not sure if another kickstarter is going to come about, but another movie should be made.  Veronica Mars Forever.

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