J.J. Abrams’ already successful run as a filmmaker is about to go to the next level once the dust clears and we find out just how much money Star Wars: The Force Awakens has pulled in.
The hit-maker spoke with Buzzfeed about his long, winding road to becoming the guy who revitalized the Star Wars franchise. Abrams credits his work on Mission Impossible III, Star Trek and Super 8 with getting him to this point. There’s one film, however, that he remains very “frustrated” with: Star Trek Into Darkness.
“I would never say that I don’t think that the movie ended up working,” said Abrams. “But I feel like it didn’t work as well as it could have had I made some better decisions before we started shooting.”
“I take full responsibility for this — I was encouraging the writers in certain directions, and we were working on the script and putting it together,” Abrams said. “But by the time we started shooting, and this was literally at the very beginning of the shoot, there were certain things I was unsure of.”
The biggest gaffe stemmed from everyone’s desire to try to hide the fact that Benedict Cumberbatch was playing Khan even though everyone already knew it. When everyone realized that he actually was, it frustrated fans as to why they’d bothered, especially when the character eventually seemed misused.
“At the end of the day, while I agree with Damon Lindelof that withholding the Khan thing ended up seeming like we were lying to people, I was trying to preserve the fun for the audience, and not just tell them something that the characters don’t learn for 45 minutes into the movie, so the audience wouldn’t be so ahead of it.”
Beyond the Khan issue, the film’s story felt very flimsy and the entire proceeding seemed to exist only to pay fan service with references and rebooted versions of iconic scenes that weren’t done nearly as well this time around. Abrams says he talks the blame for not laying the right groundwork from the get-go.
“Any movie, any story has a fundamental conversation happening during it,” he continued. “There’s a fundamental argument; there’s a central question. And I didn’t have it.”
We’ll find out if the series recovers with the Abrams-less third installment, Star Trek Beyond.
[Buzzfeed]
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About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.