J.J. Abrams on Why he Won’t Direct Another Star Wars Film

abrams

J.J. Abrams has been masterful in rebooting two franchises to former glory. After helming a complete reboot of the Star Trek film franchise, he took on the massive job of directing and executive producing Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Fortune.com caught up with Abrams at South by Southwest, an annual film, interactive media, and music festival and shared his thoughts about Directing future Star Wars films.

“It was a wonderful way to visit a place that meant so much to me and obviously so many,” Abrams said. “I knew that if it worked, it was the perfect time to step down – and if it didn’t, no one would want me to do it anyway.”

Abrams has moved on to other film projects such as recently producing “10 Cloverfield Lane”, which was able to use his reputation with science fiction audiences who joined him for Star Wars The Force Awakens in December. He remains executive producer of Star Wars Episodes VIII and IX and is very excited about his future and handing over his directors chair.

“I’m very happy to be where I am,” he says. “Rian Johnson [who is currently directing Episode Eight] is brilliant and needs no help from me. As executive producer, I’ve been collaborating with them, but they are obviously doing all of the heavy lifting and it’s very exciting to see what’s going on.”

 

Rian Johnson

 

For fans who want to know more of the stories behind creating the blockbuster hit “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” there is an in-depth documentary all about the film and everyone who helped bring it to the big screen.

“The Secrets of The Force Awakens: A Cinematic Journey,” a film on the making of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” is included on the upcoming Digital HD (available April 1) and Blu-ray Combo Pack (available April 5).

 

 

+ posts

126 thoughts on “J.J. Abrams on Why he Won’t Direct Another Star Wars Film

  • March 15, 2016 at 9:51 pm
    Permalink

    Also a good chance for a self professed fan of SW to step down, and just be a fan again…in as much as he can be.

    • March 16, 2016 at 1:35 am
      Permalink

      He’s still producing the next, and has a say in the story development.

      • March 16, 2016 at 2:39 am
        Permalink

        Hence “in as much as he can be.” 😉

        • March 16, 2016 at 4:36 am
          Permalink

          Fair nuff

  • March 15, 2016 at 10:29 pm
    Permalink

    The real reason; it took wayy too much time and now I have enough money to never have to make anything again

    • March 15, 2016 at 10:32 pm
      Permalink

      Even if you’re being flippant, one stated reason he originally turned KK down for the gig was that he didn’t want to be away from his family for a long shoot again, so, yup, pretty much.

      • March 18, 2016 at 9:04 pm
        Permalink

        I know lol

  • March 15, 2016 at 10:30 pm
    Permalink

    I’am glad he will not make another Star Wars movie.
    He ruined TFA.

    • March 15, 2016 at 11:17 pm
      Permalink

      A million times better than the prequels. Critics and audiences liked it much better than those fiascos.

      • March 16, 2016 at 12:21 am
        Permalink

        Prequels are milion times better than TFA.
        TFA is the worst Star Wars movie. Rip-off and re-hash of ANH.
        Prequels where unique and original.

        • March 16, 2016 at 12:48 am
          Permalink

          You spelled “were” wrong.

        • March 16, 2016 at 1:03 am
          Permalink

          The prequels are cringe worthy. They won many razzies too

          • March 16, 2016 at 2:02 am
            Permalink

            They won many awards and nominations too. So what is your point?
            They are 1000 time better than TFA ( unoriginal crap ).

          • March 16, 2016 at 4:04 am
            Permalink

            1) No, not that many actually (look it up)

            2) For those few that they did get, they actually come from a place of what this “organization” – whose member are a bunch of untrusting people that pay to be in it who aren’t even required to watch the movies they nominate – thought they were going to get but they didn’t. In other words, these awards are really without merit and are unsubstantiated because the people who decided to nominate/award these to the PT films were simply butthurt because they had impossibly high expectations and didn’t get the movies that they had made up in their minds and when they saw that they were different, they felt that this was an appropriate response (they awarded them based on that more so than on quality which you can see by RT scores, other scores, and IMDb user ratings, far from bad like you delusional and irrational haters in the loud and vocal minority (despite of what you like to think) make them out to be). Some of the nominations were outright stupid too (ex: nomination for worst couple for Jake and Natalie in TPM? Seriously? They weren’t even trying to be one in that movie. Add the fact that Anakin was 9 and Padme was 14 and this doesn’t make any sense for anyone with intelligence. This proves just how much lack of credibility this “organization” has).

            3) This “organization” has a history of just being a bunch of unmerited crap that shouldn’t be taken seriously. I’m not saying that some films they nominate don’t deserve them (ex: 2015’s Fantastic Four) but at other times, it’s just a preference contest where most of the time, they just go by what their gut says and read what others say instead thinking for themselves. Take a look at the following articles:

            4) This is not up for discussion as I have no plans to get into arguments with stubborn, hard-headed haters. Like Obi-wan said, “It’s over….I have the high ground.”

            Nuff said.

          • March 16, 2016 at 4:10 am
            Permalink

            1.

          • March 16, 2016 at 4:11 am
            Permalink

            2.

          • March 16, 2016 at 4:13 am
            Permalink

            3.

          • March 17, 2016 at 1:14 pm
            Permalink

            Still terrible movies. *Pat pat* But pretty pictures.

          • March 16, 2016 at 4:48 pm
            Permalink

            Wow such incredible awards as ,,best DVD menu design”. No need to say more.

        • March 16, 2016 at 1:34 am
          Permalink

          Parallel’s from one movie to the next do not make it a rip-off or re-hash.

          • March 16, 2016 at 2:07 am
            Permalink

            Same story makes TFA rip-off and re-hash.
            There is nothing new and original in that movie.
            Daisy Ridley is the only good thing in whole movie.

          • March 16, 2016 at 4:36 am
            Permalink

            It’s not the same story?

          • March 16, 2016 at 7:26 am
            Permalink

            The worst part of TFA was when Han Solo snapped at Rey for misquoting him in Episode IV.

          • March 17, 2016 at 5:12 am
            Permalink

            Wait, how on earth is THAT the worst part of TFA!?
            Seriously, I want to hear the logic behind this.

          • March 17, 2016 at 1:13 pm
            Permalink

            It’s good to see you’re still angry about the film too.

          • March 16, 2016 at 8:24 am
            Permalink

            Direct copy cat scenes and situations do.

          • March 16, 2016 at 1:05 pm
            Permalink

            Which scenes were directly copied? Please say trench run so we can once more reiterate how a 2 minute sequence vs a 20 minute sequence is not a direct copy but an homage.

          • March 16, 2016 at 4:45 pm
            Permalink

            So did TPM with ANH. And it stealed from Ben Hur and Blade Runner aswell.

        • March 16, 2016 at 3:21 am
          Permalink

          Here at the OMQRC (Objective Movie Quality Research Center) we have tested each Star Wars movie with the latest technology in the fields of physics, biology, psychology and of course chemistry. After years of extensive research our scientist are now 100% sure that the quality of art (including films) is indeed pretty subjective. It is therefore concluded that all of you are right since you can only speak for yourself given the fact that movies are simply a matter of taste. Once again science saves the day…

        • March 16, 2016 at 4:52 am
          Permalink

          You’re stretching it by 999,999. As for ANH it was a straight rip-off of several movies. Original? No.

          But you’re right. The prequels were original…crap. The dialogue was pure suck. Except for Ewen the acting was the worst I’ve ever seen in movies. TFA was better in the first twenty minutes than all six hours of the prequels put together. They were at best straight to DVD movies. This world would be better without that trash that won razzies. lol

      • March 16, 2016 at 12:27 am
        Permalink

        I disagree. Hardly better than AOTC, way beneath TPM and Revenge in my book.
        But than again, just opinions; yet hey, calling these film “fiascos” is a pretty strong statement, wouldn’t you say?

        • March 16, 2016 at 1:03 am
          Permalink

          AOTC is terrible. For sure not beneath any of those. It far out does them in any shape or form.

          • March 17, 2016 at 4:57 am
            Permalink

            You could make an argument for Threads of Destiny I suppose.. lol

        • March 16, 2016 at 1:34 am
          Permalink

          Yeah if we’re talking about bad movies, AOTC is the king of the prequels. Sorry bro.

          • March 16, 2016 at 2:05 am
            Permalink

            AOTC is a great movie. Original in every way.

            Truly new story with great action.
            TFA is a king of the worst Star Wars movies. Unoriginal Rip-off.

          • March 16, 2016 at 4:38 am
            Permalink

            Original doesn’t make a movie great. What was the story exactly?

            The script was terrible. The acting wooden. The decision to introduce an 80 year old Sith Lord as a place holder for Anakin who accomplishes nothing but being a boring baddie an awful decision.

            No chemistry between the two characters who are in love.

            I’ll give you the action sequences, but a movie they do not make. Great video game though.

          • March 16, 2016 at 7:23 am
            Permalink

            And the music was great. Forgot one.

          • March 16, 2016 at 1:07 pm
            Permalink

            Episode II’s music was largely forgettable and filler.

          • March 16, 2016 at 6:25 pm
            Permalink

            And yet STILL produces more and more memorable themes than TFA.

          • March 17, 2016 at 12:08 am
            Permalink

            The only theme I can think of is Anakin and Padme. The rest were literally rehashed numbers from Episode I and just..bland filler music. It was the only soundtrack William’s ever did where I was literally disappointed.

            I love Rey’s theme. I like the Resistance March. I totally dig on Kylo Ren’s. The rest of the movie is a bunch of different, awesome takes on the Force theme, which is epic. Rehash. But epic.

            I guess we disagree.

          • March 17, 2016 at 2:52 am
            Permalink

            What a colossal surprise. I’m going to have a heart attack and DIE, from that surprise 🙂

          • March 17, 2016 at 1:12 pm
            Permalink

            I’d prefer you not die. Despite our not getting along on a magic word forum in cyberspace all about Star Wars.

            Carpal tunnel though…

          • March 16, 2016 at 3:02 pm
            Permalink

            Dude it was a love story that also explained the beginning of the clone wars. Even if you didn’t like it you must see how it was vital information for the state of the galaxy during the PT. After watching the movie (for me at least) I was left with no questions about how and why the war started. And now that we have the clone wars show it serves as a great introduction to that as well. I saw the movie the other day and actually forgot how witty Anakin was and thought the Padme Anakin love story was pretty convincing, especially during the “teasing a senator” bit.

          • March 17, 2016 at 12:18 am
            Permalink

            Okay. Love story.

            I saw love, but no story. Anakin and Padme reunite. Anakin is obviously smitten, Padme is creeped out. They spend some time together re-enacting the sound of music on Naboo and then fight together in an arena against an army of bugs and robots. And then BLAM. Married.

            I don’t see the story there..just all of these random happenings linked together in scenes and..yeah. I never bought it.

            As for the start of the Clone War, I still think it’s fuzzy. Yes, Seperatist’s with an army of droids and the want/need to break away from the Republic but why? Greed, corruption, credits. It’s implied loosely, but we literally see these bad guys for 2 minutes and follow around Dooku wondering the whole time if we’ll ever get to hear how he was recruited by Palpatine to become a Sith Lord, and we don’t…he’s just..a former Jedi, who’s not a Jedi anymore, who’s secretly a Sith and we don’t know why, who’s leading an insurrection with Corporate backers… Eh?

            And you totally lost me at how witty Anakin was. Completely.

            Like I say, you can love the movie. More power to you. But I can’t let someone say IT’S GREAT ’cause it’s not. My opinion will emerge to the contrary.

          • March 17, 2016 at 1:51 am
            Permalink

            Read da post. I said you can love it. But if you try to say it’s actually like, a sound good movie that makes sense, I’m gonna throw opinions out.

            +1 for funny pictures.

          • March 17, 2016 at 2:50 am
            Permalink

            “As for the start of the Clone War, I still think it’s fuzzy. Yes,
            Seperatist’s with an army of droids and the want/need to break away from
            the Republic but why? Greed, corruption, credits. It’s implied
            loosely, but we literally see these bad guys for 2 minutes and follow
            around Dooku wondering the whole time if we’ll ever get to hear how he
            was recruited by Palpatine to become a Sith Lord, and we don’t…he’s
            just..a former Jedi, who’s not a Jedi anymore, who’s secretly a Sith and
            we don’t know why, who’s leading an insurrection with Corporate
            backers… Eh?”
            .
            .
            Wait, weren’t YOU the guy who responded to claims that TFA didn’t do enough world building by saying that only stupid people need everything spelled out for them? Hate on AotC all you want, but let’s at least keep a level playing field, hey?

          • March 17, 2016 at 1:10 pm
            Permalink

            I’m more than sure I never called anyone stupid. And to my knowledge I agreed that TFA was light on world building. My counter-point to anyone saying that the level of detail in the film made it suck is that it draws its inspiration from ANH.

            Which was also light on details; details that weren’t fleshed out until ESB and RoTJ and the EU. Instead it focused on the paper thin story and moving from point A to point B as fast as possible.

            However, if I did call someone stupid I will happily state I was very wrong in doing so, out of line, immature, whatever you deign to be appropriate in this situation.

          • March 16, 2016 at 6:50 pm
            Permalink

            As you said earlier, “for you”. I quite enjoyed TFA where I thought AOTC was slightly better than TPM, which in my opinion was the worst of the Star Wars movies.

            It’s all a certain point of view as Obi-Wan said. If you liked AOTC, I personally think it is a good think you enjoyed AOTC. It wasn’t for everybody, but even I saw it in theaters a couple times, hell I even saw TPM 3 times I think.

            My personal ranking (keep in mind I don’t judge you for your opinion) are as follows

            Empire Strikes Back
            A New Hope
            Return of the Jedi
            The Force Awakens (TFA and RotJ are very close and nearly equal in my book)
            Revenge of the Sith
            Attack of the Clones
            The Phantom Menace

            Your mileage may vary 🙂

          • March 17, 2016 at 4:43 am
            Permalink

            I walked away from Star Wars for ten years after seeing that film.

          • March 17, 2016 at 5:13 am
            Permalink

            Was about two years after Episode III for me.

      • March 16, 2016 at 5:08 pm
        Permalink

        no doubt many loved it more than the prequels. But for me, the story in the prequels was was better then TFA.

        • March 16, 2016 at 6:06 pm
          Permalink

          In the first prequel or the three prequels?

          Because that standard is different.

          • March 16, 2016 at 7:08 pm
            Permalink

            the overall story of the 3 combined. Though, I believe that each stood on their own pretty well.

          • March 17, 2016 at 2:47 am
            Permalink

            Either of the above. If we are talking strictly STORY here, not execution, scripting, or direction, then TPM has a better progression of the plot, better construction in terms of energy levels and beats, and sets the stage for the story to continue better than TFA does. The PT films taken together also present strong story, although we’ll have to see how they stack up against whatever has been planned for the ST.

          • March 17, 2016 at 8:13 pm
            Permalink

            TPM stops for about 35 minutes where nothing happens except they decide to return to Naboo.

        • March 18, 2016 at 5:46 am
          Permalink

          Are you nuts? The prequels have been torn apart for the last 16 years. TFA was received so much more positively.

    • March 16, 2016 at 1:01 am
      Permalink

      No he didn’t. It did quite well, so fail you have

      • March 16, 2016 at 2:03 am
        Permalink

        For you…

        • March 17, 2016 at 1:07 pm
          Permalink

          And millions of other people who helped the movie gross 2+ billion on repeated viewings.

    • March 16, 2016 at 1:33 am
      Permalink

      For you.

      He made a good movie for me.

    • March 16, 2016 at 4:42 pm
      Permalink

      It was still thousand times better than the prequels.

    • March 16, 2016 at 5:03 pm
      Permalink

      yes and no. Not knocking JJ so much on TFA, even though I did not like it. I’m not entirely sure he is to blame fully, as Kasdan had an enormous amount of input in the story as well.

  • March 15, 2016 at 10:38 pm
    Permalink

    “J.J. Abrams has been masterful in rebooting two franchises to former glory.”

    Oh do piss off with this garbage. He drove a massive wedge between Star Trek fans and did what the money men asked of him, made Trek a short term money spinner summer action franchise that had zero intellect.

    He may have helped regenerate Star Wars, but his Trek efforts have not been anything other than short term cash-ins….and it’s 7 years since the first Trek movie came out, yet nobody buts NuTrek merchandise. TNG remastered struggled to sell. The new movie looks an utter joke and the new TV show is falling back on old and trusted folks like Bryan Fuller and Nick Meyer – which has generated more interest in Trek than the reboot films have. So where is the masterful rebooting?

    I appreciate that this is a SW site, but some of us are also Trek fans.

    • March 15, 2016 at 10:38 pm
      Permalink

      JINX!

    • March 16, 2016 at 12:53 am
      Permalink

      Lol I agree. The 2009 Star Trek was a fun movie but not very successful at getting the series back to former glory. Into Darkness, however, just turned Star Trek into mindless explosion fests

  • March 15, 2016 at 10:38 pm
    Permalink

    I question whether he has been “masterful”. His first ST restored the sense of fun that had been ruthlessly exterminated in those movies, yes, but apparently pissed of long-time fans (only being a casual, I actually enjoyed his first ST for what it was, but have no urgency to revisit it any time soon). His SECOND ST was awful, just a really, really big, dumb, loud bad film that stole shamelessly from previous, better entries in the franchise, without having any clue why those moments originally worked, and without doing anything to earn them in his own film. Then the day was saved thanks to punching a dude over and over again. Even I have to admit that was not a ST film.

    • March 16, 2016 at 1:32 am
      Permalink

      My opinion is that his reboot of Trek was indeed masterful. I’m a big Trekker, and I was happy to see a Star Trek movie be what it it’s supposed to be, A MOVIE and not a two hour long episode.

      Yes, I get it. Space exploration, science, character driven narrative, space socialism. Great. We have seasons and seasons, and seasons of that. When you give me a two hour movie on a big screen, I want it to be fun. NuTrek was fun, the cast was great.

      I enjoyed Into Darkness, but yeah, I won’t call it masterful. Although it was the first time I remember thinking that Abrams should direct a Star Wars film due to, you know, explosions.

      As for TFA, I dunno. So much pressure to make a movie appeal to old jaded fans upset by the prequels, fans of the prequels, and draw in a new audience. It was an impossible balancing act which he pulled off for the most part. It has problems, but over all, enjoyable reintroduction to Star Wars.

      It’s a dream job, but at the same time, the worst one ever.

      • March 16, 2016 at 6:41 am
        Permalink

        Yeah, like I said, I don’t get the hate for his first one – the original cast films all understood they had a different job to do than TV episodes – except for the first one, they got the idea that they were adventures and popcorn movies, and FUN. The TNG movies rapidly seemed to forget that movies are very different creatures to TV episodes, and became dour, tedious slogs that nobody but hardcore fans cared about. Fans THINK they want that, but it was rapidly killing the franchise.

        • March 16, 2016 at 7:22 am
          Permalink

          People always call mediocre efforts ‘good popcorn flicks’ in defense.

          • March 16, 2016 at 6:19 pm
            Permalink

            Those people are stupid. ST ’09 however was a fun, popcorn-munching adventure pew-pew movie which succeeded on the strength of how well Abrams handles his actors. It’s objectively a good movie that does exactly what it sets out to do. It may not satisfy Trek fans, but like I said before, what Trek fans think they want was ending up in boring, preachy movies that nobody wanted to see.

          • March 17, 2016 at 3:39 am
            Permalink

            Opinions are subjective btw.

          • March 17, 2016 at 7:42 pm
            Permalink

            Yes, but objectively, ST’09 is a well made movie. The script leaves no glaring holes, the action beats all hit at the right times (possibly because Abrams admitted he went back and watched Raiders for ITS action beats, then added a few in ST in roughly the same places), the cast is uniformly good, Abrams knows how to get fun performances out of his actors, the effects work was executed well, it resolves in a satisfying climax, and by the end of the film all the pieces are in place to take Trek off on familiar, but new adventures. Casuals responded well to it, and it revived Trek as a viable film franchise. Fans may not all have loved it, but that was because it wasn’t a DS9 episode.

          • March 17, 2016 at 9:30 pm
            Permalink

            Objectively well made, yes. Objectively good, no. I liked it though.

        • March 16, 2016 at 1:07 pm
          Permalink

          Agreed.

        • March 17, 2016 at 12:12 am
          Permalink

          I liked Insurrection. And the last one, even though it was Wrath of Khan with a Romulan cloned Picard.

          I remember being so disappointed that real Romulan’s did actually get any play, and they invented Bat Romulan’s instead. WTF.

          In other news, everyone got their Supes vs Batman tickets? It’s gonna be awful (pun) fun (doubtful)!

      • March 16, 2016 at 9:54 am
        Permalink

        Abrams is good at putting together and starting up things — he excelled at this in television, writing and directing pilots to launch TV series. But his creativity appears to quickly wane out after the pilot.

        That’s what TFA is, in many ways: a “pilot” for a new series. He creates good pilots that other writers and directors can take over and nurture from there. After the first Star Trek, Abrams probably should have stepped away and let someone else direct the sequel.

      • March 16, 2016 at 4:39 pm
        Permalink

        I actually agree with this!

        • March 17, 2016 at 12:09 am
          Permalink

          OMG! +1

      • March 17, 2016 at 2:09 am
        Permalink

        I don’t know… there wasn’t enough whale saving in the ST reboot. Not happy Jan.

  • March 16, 2016 at 12:49 am
    Permalink

    The Star Wars fan base is very hard to please (and that’s a good thing) but the Valve fan base is just full of idiots. JJ thinks he’s done with the stress of pleasing a hardcore audience and moving on to a more casual fan base but he’s wrong.

  • March 16, 2016 at 12:51 am
    Permalink

  • March 16, 2016 at 1:15 am
    Permalink

    i think there was a lot more backlash towards TFA than j.j. (or anyone, for that matter, was expecting.) obviously the majority of people really enjoyed the film, but the ones that didn’t made it VERY clear that they didn’t and have reasonable arguments as to why they didn’t. i think once 8 and 9 come out, TFA will make SO much more sense in the overall scheme of the sequel trilogy/ entire saga. people should just sit patiently and wait for 8.

    • March 16, 2016 at 3:08 am
      Permalink

      sounds like you’re hoping the other movies to fix this one , meaning you didn’t really like the movie even when you try hard to like it

      • March 16, 2016 at 7:56 am
        Permalink

        no no, i’m just speaking for everyone who really despised the film. i enjoyed the film, it was definitely different than what i was expecting, but i absolutely enjoyed it. i did find the parallels to ANH really overdone, but i focused on all the new plots/characters we were introduced to.. instead of holding a grudge over everything i found negative about the film (which is what star wars fans always do), and it made it an enjoyable experience for me.

    • March 16, 2016 at 7:19 pm
      Permalink

      That never really works, though. Either you like a movie or you don’t. Very rarely does the quality of a sequel turn somebody’s opinion around on a movie that didn’t do it for them.

      We heard this same thing repeatedly throughout the PT years. “Oh, the NEXT one is going to bring it all together and you’ll finally end up liking this one.” Well, no. Even after seeing Episodes 2 and 3, I still felt like Episode 1 never really took off. (And I never found myself liking 2 any more after seeing 3, either.) It wasn’t the story context, it was the movies themselves. I just didn’t get into them, try though I might.

      I really enjoyed TFA, but I can understand why some folks might not. And I don’t see any way that that’s going to change for them, even if the next two episodes end up out-ESB’ing ESB. For better or worse, TFA will always be the film that it is (as will all the other SW flicks.)

      • March 16, 2016 at 11:06 pm
        Permalink

        All true but TCW series made me appreciate the PT a bit more in some areas. Not enough to love them like the OT but to find them a bit more tolerable.

        • March 17, 2016 at 12:14 am
          Permalink

          Darth Plagueis, the novel, made me appreciate the PT most of all. Because the author actually made sense of the plot and connected dots that desperately needed connecting.

          I love TCW, mostly for the expanded view of the Universe. But you could tell Lucas was heavily involved since it continued creating more questions than answering them, and not in the good way.

          • March 17, 2016 at 12:59 am
            Permalink

            Plagueis would have been perfect except for him still being alive in TPM which sort of delegitimizes Darth Maul as a Sith Lord and violates the rule of two. Everything else I wish was still canon but I don’t like the idea of Palpatine waiting till he was 50 to overthrow his master, Especially when he killed his own family in his teens. It makes him look like a slacker when lesser Sith have done it earlier than him and he was supposely the Sith’ari.

            I prefer TCW to the PT in almost every way other than maybe score. It probably would have been a lot better had Filoni been given more free reign.

          • March 17, 2016 at 7:15 am
            Permalink

            Man I thought TCW was atrociously boring.

          • March 17, 2016 at 12:24 pm
            Permalink

            I liked the variety of the episodes, It wasn’t what I expected the PT to be but it did make some sense of it.

          • March 17, 2016 at 5:31 pm
            Permalink

            I tried to watch it originally. Then when it came to Netflix but it seemed to lack heart to me. Plus the out of order thing was really odd. I didi like the Ashoka and Council part though.

          • March 18, 2016 at 1:10 am
            Permalink

            It was pretty much in order for the most part til the third season which is when Lucas tried to derail it with prequel episodes but they cut down on them in the last two seasons.

          • March 18, 2016 at 5:40 am
            Permalink

            Did you make it to Season 3? ‘Cause not to parrot ever TCW fan ever, but the show really got good at Season 3, and was amazingly amazing by Season 5.

          • March 17, 2016 at 5:33 pm
            Permalink

            That book was one of the few I wish was canon.

        • March 17, 2016 at 7:13 am
          Permalink

          I will always contend the PT was a great story and brilliant in its mythos. The problem, IMHO, was that George, who always had trouble communicating to actors what he wanted, instead of using clever editing or other tactics to get what he wanted, used technology to pretty much draw a movie, and while he got to make what he wanted, the delivery was abysmal.

          • March 17, 2016 at 12:22 pm
            Permalink

            He had too much going on at once. He should have kept to the basics like the OT without having so many subplots that went nowhere to show off his new digital technology.

        • March 18, 2016 at 12:27 pm
          Permalink

          Same here. I liked Clone Wars. There were some real dud episodes, but I thought that some of the more serious and longer story arcs were better than any of the Prequel installments. In a lot of ways, the CW gave me what I wanted out of the Prequels in terms of our glimpse of Anakin. In ANH, Ben tells Luke about a heroic Anakin who was his friend. We don’t get to see so much of this in the PT. He’s 10 (or something like that) in E1, a bratty teenager in E2, and he’s not really with Obi-Wan all that much in E3. In the CW, we finally get to see Anakin as a real hero: helping people, taking risks, bantering with Obi-Wan, and being kind of an interesting, likable, and admirable guy. It’s this Anakin that I was sad to see turn into Vader; not so much the PT film version.

          • March 18, 2016 at 10:20 pm
            Permalink

            Matt Lanter was superior to Hayden Christensen as Anakin in every way, He even looks more like Jake Lloyd and Sebastian Shaw than he did. His voice as well.

            I liked that nearly every episode of TCW, There was some new planet and every other episode starred a different character who rarely got any attention in any of the other areas of the EU. Aside from Han and Lando, Pretty much every saga character of any importance makes a cameo in the show which is why it felt more epic to me than Rebels so far.

  • March 16, 2016 at 3:08 am
    Permalink

    man, this guy gave it his all, i mean his total damndest. after putting off, very long overdue time with his family, jj accepted the task, and put all of his love and fandom into this, just the way any of us would have in his shoes. and so did the team, and it shows. even george himself has a hard time making star wars as good as tfa. the spectacle was actually able to largely deliver the essence of what most of us have been screaming for, for decades. the best that can reasonably be asked for, has been achieved… and then some. i admit that im not floored with every little thing the film is, but im now ready to peel myself off of lucas films dick, and the haters should be too

  • March 16, 2016 at 3:28 am
    Permalink

    Also, look what happened the last time someone directed more than one Star Wars film.

  • March 16, 2016 at 3:45 am
    Permalink

    With Star Trek, JJ threw everything important out the window and cranked the stuff 10-yo’s care about up to 11.

    With STAR WARS, JJ actually cares about SW [he admitted as much that he wasn’t a big trekkie], so he protected the essence of SW, but in so doing, was too paranoid about doing something original.

    So really, when you look at TFA’s shortcomings, what you’re really seeing is JJ trying his best to avoid ruining SW the way he ruined Star Trek.

    Now, look, Star Trek 2.0 is entertaining and all, but it is in no way related to the original shows and movies … AT ALL. Sure he made money, but now no one will ever make a Star Trek movie that Gene Roddenberry would approve of ever again. Hence, Star Trek as it was originally intended, is ruined and replaced by a doppelganger. Before you hulk out, bear in mind I’m trying to defend JJ here.
    JJ did this because he didn’t feel like directing a bomb.

    But with STAR WARS, it wasn’t about money for him. Not only did he want to make a fun movie (mission accomplished), but he wanted to make a movie that hailed from the same starting-point as the original STAR WARS. He wanted the old and the new to be one and the same.
    This is where he over-compensated and gave us ANH: The Girl-Jedi Edition (not an insult, I love both movies). But he did over-compensate and it was super-noticeable.

    So I think when it comes down to it, JJ’s shortcomings were due to emotional conflict of interest and over-protectiveness. And really, I can’t fault him that much. If it’s a choice between “Michael Flam-bay it” or “do a remake that actually feels legit”, I’ll take that latter in a heartbeat.

    Though Rian Johnson really has to bring something new to the table or we’ll run out of references to make. No pressure!

    • March 16, 2016 at 4:36 am
      Permalink

      Hopefully it’ll work.

    • March 16, 2016 at 4:49 am
      Permalink

      He made one of the best Star Trek movies ever… hilarious every time I read he “ruined it.”

      • March 16, 2016 at 5:03 am
        Permalink

        Ikr? I actually really like both of these new ST movies, but only for what they are. As movies, they are good. They don’t feel like ST though. And Wrath of Khan is boring. I’m sorry.

        • March 17, 2016 at 7:10 am
          Permalink

          The second Wrath of Kahn or the original? The original is freaking awesome. I am not a big ST fan but that movie was one of the best written sci fi films ever. How could you find that intense character study of revenge boring?

          • March 17, 2016 at 4:32 pm
            Permalink

            The original. Calm me a brainless swine, but i thought it was pretty boring and twice as long as it should have been. It should have ended halfway through, with a bang, when it could still keep my attention. However, that’s just my personal experience.

          • March 17, 2016 at 5:29 pm
            Permalink

            Yeah, we like what we like. I am pretty cerebral so I love a great plot and that one was a doozy. Plus I thought Kahn was a really cool villian even though I never saw the original episode from TV.

          • March 17, 2016 at 9:32 pm
            Permalink

            He was pretty cool.

      • March 16, 2016 at 8:00 am
        Permalink

        My point is, that money aside, the franchise has lost all intelligence and the entire philosophy behind the original show is out the window. No amount of entertainment can mask the fact that the franchise lost it’s entire purpose in those films. Hence, spiritually the franchise is ruined. Making money, but ruined nonetheless.

        • March 16, 2016 at 6:02 pm
          Permalink

          The problem is….would we rather have them harken back completely to ST of old, and then mess it up, try too hard or get too preachy?

          Or update it to something different?

          ST was dead. Like….dead. But now it has an opportunity to be something like it used to be.

          To make an omelette….

      • March 16, 2016 at 5:27 pm
        Permalink

        I agree. JJ ruined nothing, and made two great Star Trek films which did a great job in paying homage to what came before.

    • March 16, 2016 at 8:03 am
      Permalink

      i agree. he certainly over-compensated, but it was a necessary call to make. this entire sequel trilogy will make sense when all three films are released. i’m positive many of the TFA ney-seyers will appreciate the film more when the entire story is told.. also, lucasfilm execs. aren’t fools; they hear our comments and concerns. i’m sure episodes VIII and IX will move the story further and then everyone will be satisfied.

    • March 16, 2016 at 5:25 pm
      Permalink

      Just because JJ did ST a certain way does not in any way imply that it will never go to being in a different form. Maybe not in the next 10 years. But things will always change with time.

    • March 17, 2016 at 4:22 am
      Permalink

      Couldn’t have said it better myself.

    • March 17, 2016 at 7:06 am
      Permalink

      I am still baffled why JJ was chosen for Star Trek. Was it interesting? Exciting? Cool? A good movie? Yes. But it completely violated the mythos of Star Trek, so it wasn’t a good Star Trek movie. Again, I really liked it as a movie, especially 2009, but the second one really violated the ethos by the Federation being more about war and power, which is everything the Federation was against and had overcome to become a great society. (That said, the preview for the third film looks almost unbelievably bad, but you never know.)

      I agree with your TFA review, very safe and very vanilla. I remember leaving the theater very disappointed for three reasons. Number one the emotional impact was wasted. No great greiving over the New Republic destruction (to be honest I didn’t even realize that the entire republic was wiped out until I read it later, I thought a few worlds happened to die, would have been nice to know that hampster dude was the President). Also the impact of Kylo being Han’s son, they could have held that until on the catwallk.

      Second was the small scope of things. While I understand that the first film also was pretty small in its reveal and expanded greatly in Empire, we know more now. Where were the capital ships? Just one? An echo of A New Hope I guess but somehow everywhere it seemed small. Lacked the grandiose nature of Lucas’ films. That really bummed me out.

      My last issue was that it was written as a trilogy film, not a single film. Lucas, for all the faults always had single movies, that fit as parts of a whole. This movies was made like a tv episode, teasing a lot for the future and intentionally leaving lots of plot holes.

      Now I thought it was a great movies, very fun, exciting, terrific acting and everyone seemed to REALLY care about doing it well. It was a really fun movie and the second time I saw it I just accepted Lucas’ style was gone, and then I enjoyed it a lot more. It also seems to be really thin on mythos. So again, a good flick, but not sure it was a good Star Wars flick.

      No hate or disrespect to JJ, I get it, Disney wanted a corrective film to promise fans they listened to what they hated about the PT and got rid of that, the problem seems to be they got rid of what was special as well. But if they are willing to push boundaries in 8 and 9 it can be okay.

      Still, at least I know I can watch TFA many times in the future and enjoy it, something I could not do with episode 2 or 3.

  • March 16, 2016 at 7:06 am
    Permalink

    I was worried at first when he wasn’t going to do all three… but honestly now I think it’s a good thing. That’s in no way a slight against Abrams. He did a great job. I love the story he put in motion. Now I just want to see what Rian plans to do with it. I’m little worried about Trevorrow though. Especially since he is in control of the crescendo. Which honestly in Jurassic World was the worst part.

    • March 16, 2016 at 10:04 pm
      Permalink

      Exactly my words!
      I really hope Trevorrow makes his best in Episode IX.

    • March 17, 2016 at 1:25 am
      Permalink

      Agreed, that’s why the OT was so beloved, it had three different directors behind it. One more focused on serial-style delivery, one more focused on emotional impact, and one focused on slow atmospherics. It’s the mix of all three styles – one unique per movie – that made the OT both super approachable by anyone, and diverse enough to become its own thing.

  • March 16, 2016 at 5:46 pm
    Permalink

    JJ and Kasdan should collaborate on the Indy 5 script for Spielberg

    • March 16, 2016 at 6:15 pm
      Permalink

      You should collaborate on “nope”.

    • March 16, 2016 at 7:05 pm
      Permalink

      nooooooo!

  • March 16, 2016 at 11:11 pm
    Permalink

    “If money’s all that you love then that’s all that you’ll recieve!”

  • March 17, 2016 at 2:28 am
    Permalink

    Gee, truly surprised to see so many people unhappy with JJ. If I ever met the guy all I’d want to do is shake his hand and thank him for making a wonderful star wars film which was really fun, full of heart and a loving ode to the original trilogy which so many people hold dear. And he did so under the pressure of incredible expectations. Been a big fan of SWNN for a couple of years now but never really felt the urge to post until now. Anyway, first and last post. Thanks SWNN. Thanks JJ! Take your best shot folks 😉

    • March 17, 2016 at 3:55 am
      Permalink

      We’re not really unhappy with him. People are just upset about where the direction of the movie. It really could have used a complete artistic shift in the way the story was told.

Comments are closed.

LATEST POSTS ON MOVIE NEWS NET