JJ’s Wonky World Builds: Number 3
After JJ Abrams had decimated the Star Trek universe, he ran afoul of the franchise’s merchandising department and thus turned his depredations elsewhere: Star Wars. I thought he might be able to pull it off. Star Trek has always been intellectual science fiction. JJ totally mishandled that. But the action scenes looked great, so maybe his talents could be monopolised in science fantasy for Star Wars with The Force Awakens (2015). By now, we were all familiar – and in some cases very familiar – with the Original Trilogy and Prequel Trilogy in that galaxy far, far away. This is important to keep in mind. When the Original Trilogy first…
JJ’s Wonky World Builds: Number 4
JJ Abrams is quoted as saying that he never got Star Trek, which makes him an odd choice to reboot The Original Series through a feature in 2009. People credit him for making Star Trek more accessible. I think this is the polite way of saying it was so dumbed down, that everybody was drawn to the pretty explosions and sweet, sweet visuals. The problem with that aesthetic beauty is that it can only last so long. When your story has no real identity of its own, it blurs into all the other generic science-fiction action movies that are also pretty to look at but have so little substance behind…