J. J. Abrams: The Star Man

Star Wars Episode VII finally has its new director, Mr J. J. Abrams. Although he might not be a household name Abrams appears to be one of those directors who's worked on projects that everyone likes and have heard of yet not many people know who he actually is. So lets have a little look at a the man who faces one of the biggest challenges in cinematic history, bringing back Star Wars.

This is not Abrams first foray in to trying to recreate a legendary franchise. In 2009  he took to his maiden voyage on the Starship Enterprise as director of the latest Star Trek film. In case I haven't quite made it clear in previous articles I absolutely love Star Wars and have always been firmly on the side of Star Wars when it comes to the whole Wars vs Trek debate. Star Trek just never really interested me that much as a kid. However, I did go to see the Star Trek film when it was released and I'm incredibly glad I did. It was brilliant. A good storyline, mouthwatering visuals and some great casting resulted in a resounding success for Abrams and co. The sequel is expected out later this year and I'm genuinely excited for it, something I never thought I'd say. This will definitely help win a few of the naysayers over, yes it's really that good.

He followed this up with his big budget sci-fi hit Super 8. It's tough for me to really to talk about this film, for the simple reason that I've not seen it. I have however seen the advert, repeatedly, and heard plenty of opinions on it. When I think of Super 8 the words "it's a bit rubbish" always spring to my mind. I had it recorded on my Sky box for ages and almost every time I mentioned to someone that I intended to watch it I was met by the same response: "it's a bit rubbish". Needless to say I was hardly counting down the seconds until I could watch it. My mind was then cast back to the advert that seemed to be on loop when the film first came out. Not much really happened and I never quite got what the film was actually about. Again, the excitement hardly got out of control. It mustn't of been a bad film or else it would have received bad reviews which it didn't, it generally got positive acclaim. It just never managed to take my fancy. Read into that what you want.

Finally we'll take a big step back in time. Remember, if you can, nine years ago when an amazing new television show burst onto our screens. A little show called Lost, remember it? It was pretty big and J. J. Abrams helped create it. I was a big fan of the show and I'm proud to say that I was sad enough to stick around to the bitter end, and believe me it was a very bitter end. Yes it got a little bit stupid, yes there was a bit too much chopping and changing with characters, yes there was so much that was just left unexplained, and yes the end was just silly, but I don't think anyone can say it wasn't a good show. Especially the first series. It was a really brilliant concept and that's the part in which Abrams had a hand, that's what impresses me. I'm not sure if his involvement in the creation of Lost will help win people over, but I definitely don't think it'll do him any harm.

So, there's J. J. Abrams in three nutshells. The man knows how to revamp a beloved franchise and he sure as hell knows how to do science fiction. He certainly wouldn't have been top of my list to direct the new Star Wars, he probably wouldn't have even made the top 3, but I don't think many people could argue that he's a bad choice. He's a very clever choice by Disney and hopefully he'll be the right choice. That said, working on both Star Trek and Star Wars is a bit like sleeping with two sisters who hate each other at the same time, so that's a little bit of a kick in the balls for the Star Wars fans across the globe, but given the man's fairly impressive track record I guess we can forgive him.

Good luck J. J. Abrams, may the force be with you.







Written by Ash Davies