Abrams turns Star Wars because of his "loyalty" to Trek

[sidious618]

All the major questions on LOST were answered. A few things are somewhat ambiguous and you have to do some thinking but it's all there.

 

[Nerys Myk]

.

Nevertheless.

I find J.J. Abrams a bit overrated. He does good work, sure, but I don't quite see him being such a god-awesome film-maker to be handed two major franchises inside of a few years.

Paramount and Disney probably have different standards than you. They're probably looking at results ( box office, ratings, buzz ect) rather than well, whatever it is that makes you think he's overrated.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

I find J.J. Abrams a bit overrated. He does good work, sure, but I don't quite see him being such a god-awesome film-maker to be handed two major franchises inside of a few years.

God-awesome filmmakers are not handed franchises, they just make good movies.

 

[Aragorn]

Saying that it was "Purgatory or some shit" shows that a lot of people don't even understand the show. They plainly tell you that everything that happened on the island was real. The only part that was the afterlife was the sideflash scenes where the flight 815 lands in LA. It isn't the show's fault if you don't understand.

Plus blaming Abrams for Lost would be like blaming Dan Reeves for the Falcons losing to the 49ers in the NFC Championship.

There are a lot of TV shows that Abrams lends his name to in order to help them get made that he really doesn't have anything to do with other than he thinks it would be a cool show. He's credited for being one of the creators of Lost, but it was essentially a Lindelof/Cuse show.

 

[davejames]

Actually Abrams WAS pretty heavily involved with (and directed) the Lost pilot-- and most people regard that as one of the best TV pilots ever made.

If that didn't prove once and for all his ability to direct, and to tell a really dynamic and compelling story, I don't know what would.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Actually Abrams WAS pretty heavily involved with (and directed) the Lost pilot-- and most people regard that as one of the best TV pilots ever made.

Seriously? The "Lost" pilot is the only episode of the series I've watched and it didn't make me want to watch anything more.

 

[davejames]

^ I'd say you're definitely in the minority on that.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

^ I'd say you're definitely in the minority on that.

Obviously it was quite popular, but I still think there's a difference between that and "one of the best TV pilots ever made". There wasn't anything extraordinary about it and it's, in my opinion quite obviously, not in the same league as the pilots for "Twin Peaks", "Oz", "Freaks and Geeks", "Hill Street Blues", "Six Feet Under" or "Homicide: Life on the Street", to name a few.

 

[RoJoHen]

LOST's pilot is probably the best pilot I've ever seen. I remember being in awe of the opening scene with the plane wreck on the beach.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

LOST's pilot is probably the best pilot I've ever seen. I remember being in awe of the opening scene with the plane wreck on the beach.

Oh well, to each their own.

 

[intrinsical]

Interestingly, Plinkett suggested this as early as 2 years ago.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-e7Upf6i7dE[/yt]

 

[DalekJim]

Doesn't the Clone Wars cartoon not really pay attention to the EU? Haven't they already "overwritten" somethings?

What? The Clone Wars cartoon is in the EU.

 

[Skywalker]

The Clone Wars actually exists on a separate tier of canon from most of the rest of the EU (i.e. the books, comics, video games, etc.) TCW actually has ignored some things established in the lower-tier EU and done its own thing instead, such as how Mandalorian society exists and operates. One of the novel writers actually got all in a huff about it and declined to write any more SW novels.

 

[Shazam!]

I find Abrams terribly overrated. At this point I'm honestly not even sure how he got to his point what amazing thing has he done? Other than sort of being behind a TV series that wasted six years of most people's lives only to toss out all of the mysteries and intrigue just to say, "Fuck it purgatory or some shit."

Lost was massive and didn't 'waste' the 6 years of those who enjoyed it (and the many more who were into it at the start before the ADD kicked in). Fringe is pretty terrific too.

His movies are a bit more hit and miss for me, with Super 8 being a hit, Star Trek being a miss and Mission Impossible III being the and.

Also, that's not how Lost ended.

 

[DalekJim]

It's like all the BSG fans who complain about the God element of the BSG finale even though that was a major theme since season one. Head Six even tells Baltar exactly what she was very early on, he dismissed it and assumed it was a chip in his head.

People don't hate the BSG ending because it explores spirituality. They hate it because of the simplistic cliched execution of said God that handwaves everything. The whole finale amounts to "A wizard did it!". Ronald D Moore used to be a writer I looked up to but he went utterly insane during the second half of BSG S4.

I did enjoy Caprica though and wish it lasted.

With both people wanted a mystery show when it was a show about characters.

They were mystery shows with good characters. That doesn't mean the shows can just handwave all explanations and get away with it because we get 30 minutes of crying at the end. You can't drag people along a shaggy dog story for years and years only to say "God did it!" or "A magical cork did it!". No amount of touchy-feely crying will make up for that being a poor ending.

Lost was massive and didn't 'waste' the 6 years of those who enjoyed it

I liked Lost until the final season but it's a moot point as Abrams had nothing to do with Lost for the vast majority of it's time on the air. The man seems to have made an art out of being credited for work he hasn't done. See also, Cloverfield. Everybody I know thinks he directed and wrote it due to how many trailers and TV Spots his name was slapped all over.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Everybody I know thinks he directed and wrote it due to how many trailers and TV Spots his name was slapped all over.

You really should stop using your circle of friends as the yardstick for measuring the impact of cultural trends, it's not very effective.

 

[DalekJim]

And you should actually contribute to a discussion instead of heckling.

 

[Shazam!]

See also, Cloverfield. Everybody I know thinks he directed and wrote it due to how many trailers and TV Spots his name was slapped all over.

That's not really unique to Abrams though. Joss Wheden / Cabin In The Woods suffers similarly. I agree it's annoying but I don't think it's anything to do with attempting to scrupulously steal the accolades.

 

[DalekJim]

That's not really unique to Abrams though. Joss Wheden / Cabin In The Woods suffers similarly. I agree it's annoying but I don't think it's anything to do with attempting to scrupulously steal the accolades.

Yeah I don't think he's intentionally doing this, just pointing out a trend that he tends to get lots of credit for stuff he hasn't done. Abrams had no input on Lost's story from late S1 until the end of the show.

 

[F. King Daniel]

You do realize the vast majority of fans know nothing of the EU?

Debatable considering the sales of the video-games alone but it's irrelevant. I don't expect the films will require EU knowledge to understand but at least SOME effort should be made not to tread on the EU's toes. Otherwise it'll piss me off and I won't accept it. I'm not discounting years and years of my reading for a JJ Abrams movie.

That hard to accept two different versions of a universe?

I read Pockets 24th century books and they've done some incredible world-building and character work. But I don't want a TV/movie producer to have to account for that work.

I want them to bring their own vision. I can keep multiple universes straight.

Exactly. Enterprise "invalidated" a ton of excellent pre-TOS Trek novels when it came along in 2001. Were they in any way ruined by it? Of course not, they're both just different versions of what might have happened prior to TOS. And in fact the George Kirk from the last movie is based on the version from two of those novels, so it clearly didn't ruin them for JJ Abrams or Bob Orci, either. It's all part of the Trek mythology, which is far more than a single strict right/wrong continuity.