J.J. Abrams to Direct STAR WARS: EPISODE VII

[BloatedGuppy]

A couple of answers spring to mind after reading this.

1. Yes, really. I would prefer Uwe Boll. Don't dismiss me on this, I'm not lying and will explain why. Uwe boll makes terrible movies (and I have no idea why I watched all 3 BloodRayne movies...) but he keeps it pretty freaking consistent. And maybe we can finally get Carrie Fisher nude. (What?... WHAT?... We've all been waiting for it, and it's about damn time we got it!)

2. Lucas was an inspiration to us all and a genius... a long time ago in a studio far, far away. Whatever spark was there for Lucas in the 70s and 80s... it was long dead. You can point to the prequels, you can point to Indy 4, you can point to the "Special Editions"... but the spark is dead. He needed someone to slap him and tell him he was being an idiot. The fans tried, but his buddies told him it was fine, so he ignored us and got butthurt. I don't consider him the same man that made those movies that I still like watching today.

As for cannon... I mean, c'mon. Obi Wan said that he was trained by Yoda (not as a school child) and Leia said she remembered some things about her mother. It's not like Trek cannon where there is a lot to sift through, the guy just had to spend 6 hours at the end of writing each script to make sure he didn't F up.

1. Consistently terrible, yes! Really now, Abrams isn't that bad. If he can keep his lens flare in his pants he's perfectly serviceable, and that's all Star Wars really requires. Star Wars is kind of an innately stupid IP, but it's like crack for geeks. There's something about it that's silly and fun, when some old coot with a goiter the size of a minivan isn't draining away its soul with dreadful dialogue and racist aliens.

2. I wonder about this, you know. I wonder if young Lucas wasn't just insecure enough to take advice from people a lot more talented than he was. I find it hard to believe the guy was an auteur who just fell off a cliff due to age and fame. I think the most likely scenario is he never had any talent to begin with, and Star Wars and American Graffiti were the products of talented men and women working around him, and he just fell ass backwards into the credit.

LOL...point taken. Fair enough. I'd forgotten about stuff like a thousand years vs a thousand generations. Lucas, you boob.

 

[WiseBass]

Abrams is perfect for this. We know from Star Trek 2009 that he can direct a big-budget, entertaining spectacle of a science fiction movie, and that's what Disney is going to be looking for - a "safe", family-friendly SF action movie that they can leverage into even more money through "back end" and international sales than what Star Wars has already made during its lifetime.

As for the "canon", I figure they'll turf it all out, along with the Expanded Universe. Most of it is crap anyways, a mixture of "Superweapon of the Week" stories and re-treads. Even some of the better writing is usually authors playing in their own sandboxes, like Zahn and his Thrawn obsession.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I care very little for that talentless Hollywood hack Abrams. He has nothing of the auteur the series needs. Then again, neither has George at this point. So this news is all very meh by comparison.

 

[WiseBass]

To be fair, "The Phantom Menace" was a "safe", family-friendly SF action movie that they leveraged into a ton of money. It was also met with complete disappointment and outrage. I was hoping that Disney did the deal for two reasons:

Not at the time, it wasn't. Phantom Menace was very well received at the time, despite some grumbling over things like Jar-Jar. It wasn't until after years of attacks from the diehard anti-prequel folks that the geek consensus started tos hift.

As for your points:

1. It's definitely a great business deal, on that we agree.

2. We're not going to get movies of higher quality. We'll probably just get more spectacle and show, because that's what sells internationally.

 

[Terminate421]

So people hate this director who is actually good at his job?

I don't get this. It must be for those people that can't stand new Star Wars movies.

Besides, I liked Star Trek.

 

[ninjaRiv]

I like his lens flare. THERE! I SAID IT! Well, sometimes he uses too much.

He's one of the only directors who could get me interested in this franchise, a franchise I have always had a great dislike for. So yeah, I'm up for it. I'm also up for not condemning it before work starts on it.

 

[ninjaRiv]

Don't take this personally:

If your only problem with a director is an effect he over uses, you're being a whiney little *****. If you had legitimate criticisms, your arguments would make sense. I'm not saying you should criticize the lens flare. I love the guy and I criticize it at times.