Worried about JJ Abrams directing Star Wars?

JJ Abrams's style of directing is horrible, in my opinion; it's too sloppy and chaotic. His style is characterized by pacing that is too fast, oversaturation of colors, extreme close-ups, and lengthy expository dialogue sequences. I think he's going to wreck Star Wars.

Oh, yea. There's also his overuse of Lens Flares.

Neil Blomkamp should be the director.

I'm honestly not planning to see it so I'm not worried.

It's possible that will change of course depending on reviews and to a lesser extent trailers, but currently I think that franchise's udders are all dried up.

He's done really well with Star Trek, so I'm not worried at all.

@Makhaidos:

Into Darkness was terrible.

i like his works. Fringe was amazing. Lost was pretty good. Revolution is awesome.

love his movies he works on as well.

I wouldn't say "worried" because it's not like I'm concerned that Abrams is going to ruin Star Wars or anything. George Lucas already did that on his own. He might drastically change the tone of Star Wars and make some less than impressive movies, but at the very worst they will probably range anywhere from as bad as the prequels to a little bit better.

In what way exactly? Last time I checked it was like an 86 or something like that on Rotten Tomatoes, so the majority of professional film critics disagree with you.

JJ Abrams is a great story teller, hes great at making accessible films that many people can enjoy which is exactly what they need for Star Wars.

He is directing the film and co-writing it with the guy from episode V. I have faith that they will produce a quality Star Wars film.

OP likes The Dark Knight Rises.

His opinion on anything is iffy at best.

I guess it is opinion, you just don't like him. He's going to wreck Star Wars for you, but generally it will be successful.

Oh and he's corrected his abuse of lens flare, hes made many jokes about it.

I don't really care. Won't be seeing it.

JJ Abrams does suck ass, though.

Well to be fair, it does largely depend on who you're asking. Film critics generally liked Into Darkness, but most actual Star Trek fans sure didn't. So Star Wars could end up a lot like that. The films might get a decent Rotten Tomatoes rating, but hardcore Star Wars fans might hate them.

Lose-lose really. Good or bad, fanboys won't be able to shut up about it. Wish this franchise would just die.

I don't think JJ Abrams is a good fit for Star Wars. Star Wars has always had a rather traditional directing style guiding it and Abrams is a little bit fast paced and (like you said) chaotic in his direction. He wasn't a great fit for Star Trek but he could've done much worse. The problems with Star Trek were beyond just Abrams (Into Darkness, for example was much too referential and unsubstantial on its own terms). I don't think he'll make or break the film - I believe it relies entirely up to the writing to make the movie good.

If I'm going to make a prediction about what's going to be wrong with the film - it's going to rely too much on referencing previous Star Wars without making anything new or interesting stories and lore of its own. Hopefully it will prove me wrong.

I think this review sums it up well, though the rating is too high, in my opinion.

Less a classic "Star Trek" adventure than a "Star Trek"-flavored action flick, shot in the frenzied, handheld, cut-cut-cut style that’s become Hollywood’s norm, director J.J. Abrams’ latest could have been titled "The Bourne Federation."

Well I suppose that is true, I am not a classic Star Trek fan and have only seen the two JJ Abrams films, and I really enjoy them both.

But I am a huge Star Wars fan, watched the originals probably a hundred times each by now :p and when I look at what he's done on Star Trek I believe that Star Wars should be awesome as well.

I honestly believe that, based on Episode III, George Lucas is a better film director than JJ Abrams. Hence, I don't think JJ Abrams's Star Wars films will compare to Episode III.

Yes I am, Star Trek (2009) sucked and the only redeeming thing so far going in has been Kasdan on the screenplay and Williams on the score.

Since the last 3 Star Wars movies sucked, it can only get better.

Fanboys are going to complain no matter who's in the director's chair. You could get Christopher Nolan, Martin Scorcese, and Steven Spielberg to co-direct it and people would still whine and moan.

He can't do any worse than Lucas' last three at-bats with it, so no, I'm not worried.

I like how people are complaining about Abrams being chosen, as if Lucas was a good director or something.

If anything, Abrams was a good choice as he might actually make a Star Wars film that doesn't suck.

J.J. Abrams is a genius. he made Star Trek awesome and did a great job with Mission Impossible 4. so any doubts about him working on Star Wars are for people with no brains and lots of mental problems. if you don't like my opinion then don't read what i said or you can just deal with it. problem?

Lol...some people really like to suckle at the nuts of popular directors. For being a genius, he's only made a bunch of decent action movies and that's about it. But 'mericans really love their action movies I guess...

I'm really enjoying how a lot of the SW fanboys are saying stuff like "Anyone is better than Lucas" and were already praising the people who were just "Possible Directors" before JJ took the spot. There are a lot of ways that the movies can go wrong that they are trying really hard not to admit. One of them are how Disney could take the already canon SW universe (Books, Comics, Video Games) that have expanded it from telling before and after the 6 movies already made and creating their own universe, forcing it in there and pretty much erasing all the great story telling other writers have made. I doubt most SW fanboys care about that though because they don't give two shits about anything but the movies. Just like these new Marvel/DC fanboys who claim to be "Hardcore/Longtime fans".

?

Mission Impossible 4 was Brad Bird...

I think he'll be fine as long as he doesn't use that rancor with down syndrome monster he had in Cloverfield and he reused in Super 8.

I honestly belive that, based on Episode III, George Lucas is one of the worst film directors there is, and even though I've been less than impressed with everything that JJ Abrams has done, I feel that the absolute worst Star Wars film he could make would still be at least a little bit better than the absolute trainwreck of terrible writing, acting, directing, and production that was Episode III.

I adore JJ Abrams, and I'm hoping he gives a lead role to an Ewok for a change

i dont care that much about star wars. not really, especially when compared to fondness of most. there is potential behind the idea of it though. im not worried at all about it being in mr.abrams' hands. to me it seemed very much that he was trying to give people the star trek they wanted. he cares about the fans of what he does, and the movie goer. the first star trek was for the fans, into darkness was for the movie goer. when i consider him, i see someone willing to adjust to respect something. thats what i really care about in the end, that someone will respect it. i can tell that he probably will. that is one thing i see in common of everything horrible, the lack of respect.

Oh, come on. Episode III wasn't great or anything, but it was easily the best of the prequels and most critics seem to agree that it was at least okay. If you think that's the epitome of bad directing, then you haven't seen many movies.

In any case, the biggest problem with the prequels was the writing. That's really the #1 thing they need to get right with the new trilogy. If the script is really solid, then Abrams should do just fine.

You want worst directing? Look up Manos: Hands of Fate. It probably holds first place for the worst film ever made... I received it as a birthday gift from my best friends and forced them into watching it with me. I couldn't stop laughing haha.

I really enjoyed Episode III though. It was truly the beginning of the original saga because it was the birth of Vader and Darth Sidius and the fall of the Jedi Order before Luke rebuilds it later on. I don't see why Star Wars fans would hate it so much since it's the story of what set up the events of episodes 4-6. Hating the acting is one thing, but hating the story? Just stupid. Everyone knew Anakin's and the Jedi's fate. What else were they expecting???

Maybe folks were expecting a Jedi Order that didn't number in the, apparently, thousands, and that weren't wiped out in a matter of minutes by troopers who usually can't hit the broadside of a barn, despite the Jedi supposedly being the best warriors in the galaxy. Maybe folks were expecting Anakin's transformation to be a more gradual corruption that made sense rather than him turning at the say-so of the guy he knows to be a Sith lord all because he had a bad dream.

@worlock77: Again, your complaints are based on what was seen on screen than story. The prequels were always about how Anakin became Vader and how the Emperor takes over. Anakin's decision at the end were affected by both Sidius's manipulation and his Prophetic dreams, not bad dreams as you put it.

- Yes. It's a movie, what would my complaints be based on other than what was on screen?

- No shit?

- Maybe that was the idea, but what appeared on screen was much dumber than that.

No, as a matter of fact, I am euphoric, since I'm 100% confident he is going to ruin it. Which is good, Anything that ruins SW name is amazing to me.

-Well, there are 2 things you get in movies. The story and the stuff you see on screen. The stuff you're complaining about make it seem like you were expecting more explosions and bodies being torn in half. The movie would have probably turned out like that if they were as long as the Lord of the Rings but they were just in the hour and thirty minute mark. Not enough time to expand on the action sequences and character development.

-Yes shit

I'm fairly certain that each of those movies is around the two hour mark. That's plenty of time to develop characters that are central to the whole goddamned saga, especially over the course of three films. Lucas just got lazy with the writing and directing and favored packing those films so full of effects that he left no room for character or story development. That and everything about the prequels was designed to sell toys.

George Lucas was largely responsible for American Graffitti, one of the best movies ever made, just thought i'd throw that in.

Writing was sloppy all over the place in prequels, Darth Maul could have been a very cool character that persisted throughout the three movies. Instead he has 2 lines and no characterization outside of 'im a fvcking bad guy because i look mean'. Anakin should have been a teenager, because once EP 2 came out, the time skip basically made him a brand new person. Qui-Gon needed more fleshing out to show him as the 'rebel' of the....really everyone needed fleshed out. Obi-Wan needed more time, and also should have older.

I like it

'THX 1138' is a great movie as well. Lucas was a good filmmaker at one point, but he ether got lazy or lost his touch over the years. That he was surrounded by yes-men, instead of people who might call him on his shit, for the prequels probably didn't help ether.

You're absolutely right man. I counted my minutes wrong. I hear what you're saying about the special effects and advertising merchandise. I remember huge boxes being for sale that had an entire set for a scene in the movie when Phantom Menace first came out. Personally though, I really don't see that many problems in the prequels. There were a lot less practical effects but I sort of enjoyed seeing the digital effects because it looked like there was an actual huge civilization living in these different locations in the films. The acting was never really mind blowing in any of the films imo. I always thought they were decent actors and that didn't change when I watched Eps:1-3. Obviously you and I have a lot of different views on the subject. That's cool, I enjoy talking about this kind of shit.

I'm more interested in who is writing these films rather than who is directing them. I didn't think the new Star Trek films were very good but that's because the writing was so bad in them. They were pretty stylistic though.

They brought Darth Maul back in the animated Clone Wars tv series. I only caught the episodes with him a few times since I never watched the show until I saw a trailer with him in it. He's pretty menacing from what I've seen. I forgot how they had him survive being cut in half and falling down a deep pit but he eventually finds these mechanical spider-like legs and lives in a cave for some amount of years. There he goes insane and forgets everything except his hate for Obi Wan. His brother eventually finds him and brings him back to top health, give him a new pair of mechanical legs and together they start raising hell. Since the show has been cancelled though, I don't think we'll be seeing what really becomes of him later. I think the writer of the show or something said that because the episodes of the new season were already made that they would release them. They didn't mention how though. People are guessing it might be through online streaming dvds, or even video games. I guess they'll remove action sequences and just add episode bits as cutscenes? I like the streaming or dvd idea better lol.

Digital effects are fine, that problem was that everything was digital effects. I times I kinda got the feeling that the prequels were basically just long sizzle reels for ILM.

Eh, the whole saga (both the original trilogy and the prequels) had fine actors. However, it's on the director get get the most that he can out of his performers and I don't think that Lucas ever did that. Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Lee, Natalie Portman, Ian McDiarmond - all great actors, but in those movies they come across like career b-movie players.

I'm not that bothered about Episode VII, but it'll never be good as IV, V and VI

He did show some TLC to Star Trek with lots of great references. Although that said, if I wasn't such a big fan of the original series then I might have enjoyed Into Darkness a lot more than I did.

The way I figure it is this. Anyone but George Lucas should/could do Star Wars. Aside from some marginal interesting moments in Episode 3 and to a much lesser extent 2, the series needs a reboot of sorts. That and casting Hayden Christensen. Terrible.

No. He did a great job with Star Trek, now maybe he'll rescue Star Wars from the brink Lucas put it on.