Like many directors J.J. Abrams has his ups and downs, I’m not sure if it’s ever a question of is he a good director but rather is he suitable for the specific film. With the exception of Super 8 which had its story and tone a little mixed up but was nonetheless the perfect fit for his narrative goals, there hasn’t been another film where he’s sat comfortably on the directors chair delivering the best movie possible.
With the upcoming Star Wars 7 coming out soon, I believe J.J. is a perfect match and will end up making a great film. However I don’t think that this was the case for his Star Trek films, again I enjoyed but they simply weren’t Star Trek and if anything had more elements of Star Wars. Abrams gave a little insight into a portion of his past career when talking with Wired in an interview:
“I didn’t want to enter into making a movie where we didn’t really own our story. I feel like I’ve done that a couple of times in my career. That’s not to say I’m not proud of my work, but the fact is I remember starting to shoot Super 8 and Star Trek Into Darkness and feeling like I hadn’t really solved some fundamental story problems”.
It isn’t unheard of for film screenplays to be either rushed or pushed into production half finished and perhaps that was also the case for Abrams’ Super 8 and Star Trek films. His Star Trek films in particular are considered the black sheep of the series, I won’t argue what Star Trek fans consider good or bad but I certainly get that they don’t match the sort of intellectual science fiction that Star Trek used to be all about.
The next Star Trek won’t have Abrams involvement since he’s busy with Star Wars and perhaps that is the best situation for him, well obviously from a financial point of view but also for delivering the right story.
#Peace.Love.JJAbrams
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