I do not like JJ Abrams, nor in my limited experience, have I found much reason to. I feel he’s a hype machine more than someone of actual talent. Perhaps he’s a decent talent evaluator, I’m not really educated to say. There are two reasons I don’t particularly think he’s worth much.
One is, he’s so far seemingly incapable of crafting endings to things. He’s good at building things up, sure, but his endings, when existent (not including cancelled shows and whatnot) are ambiguous or open-ended. This will obviously have a chance to change, when the biggest mass of unresolved mysteries this side of Twin Peaks actually comes to an end next year with “Lost”. If he can finish that one off satisfactorily, I will take back everything negative I’ve said about him. I don’t watch the show myself, but from the ploy synopses I’ve read and heard, there’s an awful lot of balls he’s got in the air there, and it’s hard to juggle that many without it ending in a huge mess.
This is the second reason, something I read earlier today. Apparently JJ Abrams had a script written up for the last Superman movie, the movie that eventually because the utterly useless and pretentious Superman Returns. Here is an exerpt from the article I read:
Abrams’s story re-imagined Superman as a Kryptonian prince sent to earth as a baby to avoid an impending civil war between king Jor-El and his brother Kata-Zor. Raised as Midwestern teen Clark Kent, and in love with his high school sweetheart Lois, Superman becomes humanity's defender when Kata-Zor invades Earth, aided by CIA Agent Lex Luthor, who is actually a Kryptonian in disguise. The film ended with Superman returning to Krypton to rule over his people after the death of Jor-El.
This is one of the stupidest and outrageous things I’ve heard. The only conclusion I could draw from this is that JJ Abrams never saw the Superman movies, nor read the comics, and thus assumed most other people hadn’t either, and would have no problem totally changing every god damn thing about them, other than some of the names.
As a caveat, I enjoyed Star Trek this summer, though I had incredibly low expectations going into it. Most of the performances in that were very good, though the story was hella-stupid.
Next time, I’m going to talk about what celebrity women I’m sick of being told are attractive. That’s a pet peeve of mine!
I liked Star Trek as begrudgingly as you did, and I enjoy the hell out of Lost and if I had any time I'd be watching Fringe. That said, if Lost ends poorly it invalidates the entire series, so one can't judge him on that yet.
ReplyDeleteBut, anyway, you can't blame JJ Abrams for a terrible Superman treatment. You simply can't. It's not his fault. Over the years I've come to believe that literally no one in Hollywood understands the character, mythology and iconography of the Man of Steel. No one except Richard Donner, who got fired from the character after one movie (thus proving that no one in Hollywood gets it). There have been talented people assigned to work with Supes (Kevin Smith, Tim Burton, Bryan Singer) who made a dog's breakfast of the idea. It must be something in the water out there... something called KRYPTONITE!!!!!
But seriously, expecting anyone who is a pure Hollywood type to "get" Superman is like expecting me to run the Marathon. It'd be nice, but it's never going to happen. This is why we've got to rely on the DCU Animated movies.
Also, this impending blog post about celebrity women who you don't think are pretty might well be the longest thing ever committed to the Internet. And I've read Deadpool's ENTIRE Wikipedia page. AND I wrote this comment! The only thing you hate more than being told someone average looking is gorgeous is... well, food.
NO OTHER PARTICULAR GREETINGS!!!
I have every ounce of faith that the writers of Lost will blow me away with the final season. Throughout the series, there were a few times I thought that the plot was going nowhere, and Lost was going the way of St. Elsewhere. Every time that happened, I was punched in the face with an awesome finale, or a revelation on screen that told me the writers had things well in hand, and will until the end. I'm no Roger Ebert of TV, but I've never had as much fun and felt as much reward through following a TV series as I've had following Lost, AND I've never had as much emotion invested in a TV character as I've had with John Locke.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I really don't know how much of that credit I give to JJ Abrams. All the interviews about the show I've read are conducted by Damon Lindelof and/or Carlton Cuse, the two head writers for the show. I always saw Abrams as more of the great overseer who had the big idea in the first place, not really involved in the daily, get-your-hands-dirty writing for the show.
I guess this means I'm agreeing with you? I don't know - what does this mean?
I like "Cloverfield". I like Lost. I like "Star Trek." I believe this would classify me as a JJ Abrams fan.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, Dan is right, I don't think JJ Abrams has as much to do with the story of Lost as Cuse and Lindelof do. I do not believe that they had ANY idea where the show was going when it started, but I have to believe they do now.
I too liked Cloverfield. I have yet to see a full episode of Lost, which I'm sure is a bummer, one day I'll watch from the beginning!) and I LOVED Star Trek, so I too would say I'm a fan to some degree. The bits and pieces of Fringe I have seen, I've liked. I originally had breed-in X-Phile distain for it, but now I'm coming around and viewing it as an honor to the genre rather than a rip off. Again, that's the old Michelle just kicking in to protect herself.
ReplyDeleteMan, now I've got a hankerin' for some Fan Fiction!