Then she gets a call from her ex-boyfriend, the unpredictable Logan Echolls: his ex-girlfriend, a high school classmate turned singer who performs under the name Bonnie DeVille, is found electrocuted in her bathtub. When police arrive on the scene, they find Logan (Jason Dohring) with the corpse, and he becomes the prime suspect in her death. He asks for Veronica’s help in choosing a lawyer, and before you can say "love triangle" she’s on a flight back to California, where multiplying mysteries force her to make a choice between her old life and her new one.

Veronica Mars was a passion project, and it shows. The cast worked for union rates, shooting in 35 locations over 24 days, and the seams occasionally show. (At a Q&A session following the premiere, Dohring lamented that he was often limited to a single take.) Other, better-financed series that have made the leap to the movies — The X-Files and Firefly come to mind — have made better use of the big screen, filling the frame with spectacle. Aside from some flashy introductory exposition and closing credits, Veronica Mars still looks and feels mostly like a TV show, the two-hour series finale that the show deserved but never got. What it lacks in explosions it attempts to make up for in romance: from the moment Veronica sees the once rebellious Logan in military dress, it’s not a question of if they kiss, but when.

But if elements of Veronica Mars come across as fan fiction, it retains almost all of the elements that made it so compelling during its original run. The twisty plots, sharp one-liners, and heartfelt performances of the television series all return for the movie. Bell and Colantoni in particular stand out for their portrayals of a feisty daughter and a father who worries she is throwing it all away.

That ought to be more than enough to make the film’s Kickstarter backers feel like they got their money’s worth. Still, it’s unlikely to expand the audience for Veronica Mars much beyond current levels. A film of the fans, by the fans, and for the fans can feel like too much of a good thing. But it is, after all, what we paid for.