# Why I hate JJ Abrams (nothing to do with lens flare) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 29, 2015, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624 "2015-12-29T05:41:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624/21 "2015-12-29T18:56:47Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > You do realize “The Force Awakens” was written by the same guy who wrote “The Empire Strikes Back,” which is ranked as the greatest of the Star Wars films by some. He was only one of three writers, as you can see [on the poster](http://www.impawards.com/2015/posters/star_wars_episode_vii__the_force_awakens_ver3_xlg.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624/22 "2015-12-29T19:17:16Z")
Wait 'til you see how his next remake totally revitalizes the _Air Bud_ franchise. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624/23 "2015-12-29T19:18:22Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Seems to me that the phrase “X is a good movie” means nothing more than “I enjoyed watching X.” > > I absolutely hated the 2009 TREK, and it’s sequel even more, because I disliked every character except for Amanda Grayson, and even her I only found pretty. TFA by contrast was entertaining in large part because I found the characters amusing. In both cases my opinion has no objective validity. Well, both are around 95% on RT, so objectively, “X is a good movie” means more than “I enjoyed watching X” and means “The vast majority of viewers enjoyed watching X”. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624/24 "2015-12-29T19:19:09Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Seems to me that the phrase “X is a good movie” means nothing more than “I enjoyed watching X.” So what? Most people who watched both movies enjoyed watching it. If you didn’t like it, fine. More people did than didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Yodalicious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yodalicious/32/8195_2.png) [@Yodalicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yodalicious)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624/25 "2015-12-29T19:19:30Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > in the ultimate hubris throws out the Expanded Universe because of course he can do better (he can’t). That was Disney’s doing not Abrams. Most of the EU sucked, so its not a big loss. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624/26 "2015-12-29T19:25:07Z")
I am a bigger fan of ST than SW. I liked the ST reboots a hair more than TFA. I think both embrace the spirits of the original franchises beautifully. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624/27 "2015-12-29T19:44:41Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > Get over it. Force Awakens was a good movie. So was the first Star Trek movie in 2009. I’m not in a position to comment on SW:7, but any Star Trek project that makes the Journey to Babel episode of ST:TOS a logical impossibility is neither good, nor a Star Trek project. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624/28 "2015-12-29T19:58:26Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > It’s the chemical symbol of Euphonium. > > Not really. It’s the **E** xpanded **U** niverse, the additional stories found in novels, comics, and games. Ah yes, I remember when the Disney vans rumbled down the street, stopping for faceless masked goons to kick down doors and pile up N64 _Shadow of the Empire_ cartridges and dogeared copies of _Han Solo At Star’s End_ as the flames mounted higher. It was the nerd _Kristallnacht_. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624/29 "2015-12-29T20:01:48Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > Get over it. Force Awakens was a good movie. So was the first Star Trek movie in 2009. I’m willing to say _Force Awakens_ was okay, but _Star Trek 2009_ is thoroughly awful. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624/30 "2015-12-29T20:17:39Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > So what? Most people who watched both movies enjoyed watching it. If you didn’t like it, fine. More people did than didn’t. I just said that I rather liked SW:TFA. I just don’t think my good opinion of it invalidates anybody’s bad opinion, any more than my dislike of GAME OF THRONES means that those who like it are morons. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624/31 "2015-12-29T20:40:52Z")
So even if you disagree with me on the EU, y’all excuse the lazy writing which is Abrams? Then explain how: Rey can outfly experiences TIE fighters in a ship she admits in movie she had no clue how to fly like that. How Finn a stormtrooper that unclogs toilets doesn’t get killed in 2 seconds using a lightsaber against a trained force user? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624/32 "2015-12-29T20:50:14Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > How Finn a stormtrooper that unclogs toilets doesn’t get killed in 2 seconds using a lightsaber against a trained force user? If anything, I’d expect Finn to be far better at hand-to-hand than was shown. Hasn’t he essentially been trained since childhood to be an infantryman? The “sanitation” bit makes no sense, really, in a society as casually using of droids as depicted. It feels like a joke stolen from _Tropic Thunder_. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624/33 "2015-12-29T20:51:29Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Then explain how: > > Rey can outfly experiences TIE fighters in a ship she admits in movie she had no clue how to fly like that. I dunno. How does a farm boy whose piloting/gunning experience consists of bulls-eyeing womp rats in his T-16 manage to fly an X-Wing with no training and blow up a planet-sized battle station with one shot? > [@](#): > > How Finn a stormtrooper that unclogs toilets doesn’t get killed in 2 seconds using a lightsaber against a trained force user? He may have been a sanitation worker, but he was also a stormtrooper trained for combat duty, and as we see in his duel with the stormtrooper armed with a riot baton on Takodana, stormtroopers are trained in melee combat. While he may not have been familiar with the lightsaber as a weapon, he knew enough about the basics of melee combat to briefly hold his own against a gravely injured and irrationally angry man who had never really completed his lightsaber training in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624/34 "2015-12-29T20:54:41Z")
> [@Grumman](#): > > He was only one of three writers, as you can see [on the poster](http://www.impawards.com/2015/posters/star_wars_episode_vii__the_force_awakens_ver3_xlg.jpg). That’s nitpicking. At least Kasdan was involved with the original trilogy. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624/35 "2015-12-29T20:58:38Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Then explain how: > > Rey can outfly experiences TIE fighters in a ship she admits in movie she had no clue how to fly like that. > [@Smapti](#): > > I dunno. How does a farm boy whose piloting/gunning experience consists of bulls-eyeing womp rats in his T-16 manage to fly an X-Wing with no training and blow up a planet-sized battle station with one shot? They live in a galaxy that has magical space wizards. This also explains how a couple of projectiles are able to make a right angle turn into an EXHAUST port. ---
**Author:** ![SecretaryofEvil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@SecretaryofEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SecretaryofEvil)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624/36 "2015-12-29T21:17:36Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > Comb the SweetTart crumbs out of your neckbeard and stop calling everything “Worst. Thing. Ever.” Don’t try to change me baby. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624/37 "2015-12-29T21:22:27Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > Get over it. Force Awakens was a good movie. So was the first Star Trek movie in 2009. You’re half right. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624/38 "2015-12-29T21:26:45Z")
> [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](#): > > . . . Do we now have to have a ten part novel explaining C3PO’s red arm? You should have put that in a spoiler box! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624/39 "2015-12-29T21:58:00Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > How Finn a stormtrooper that unclogs toilets doesn’t get killed in 2 seconds using a lightsaber against a trained force user? [EU]Leia briefly held her own with a lightsabre against Vader himself in _Splinter of the Mind’s Eye_, and almost took him down with a lucky hit.[/EU] ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624/40 "2015-12-29T23:00:34Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Wait 'til you see how his next remake totally revitalizes the _Air Bud_ franchise. Well, first he’s going to have Tom Cruise playing the dog… Seriously, _The Force Awakens_ is probably about the best film it was ever going to be under Disney’s iron thumb, and certainly not as much of a disappointment as, say, _Avengers: Age of Ultron_. I think J.J. Abrams is massively overrated as a director and producer (to the point of declaring him one of the worst directors working in mainstream films today) and I thought his _Star Trek_ reboot was better when it starred Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, and Allan Rickman, but _The Force Awakens_ is at its worse, a competent pastiche of the original _Star Wars_ trilogy. And let’s not pretend as if the original film was some ingeniously inspired new monomyth; it was itself a patchwork of homage, barely veiled allusion, and outright ripoff of other notable films. . As for the Extended Universe, Disney and Abrams are quite right to dump it. For one, trying to play into the existing and convoluted future history of the Extended Universe would put the future movies in the same positions as the prequels, i.e. filling in the gaps of an already known result. Second, an attempt to follow any particular set of novels will ultimately lead to just as much criticism for changes made in the film, either thematically or factually, even if a direct adaptation doesn’t really work on film. And finally, while I’ve only read a few EU novels, they just don’t seem all that good, and certainly not particularly consistent. Although the _Star Wars_ universe spans a galaxy, it works best narratively in film when the story is confined to a handful of key characters and doesn’t delve too deeply into interstellar politics or the logistics of trade empires. Note that all three criticisms in the o.p. can just as easily onto the original film. Lucas didn’t bother explaining anything in those films, either except as magic and the luck of narrative plotting. When he later tried to give a rational framework for the plotting in the prequels, the result was objectively terrible, notwithstanding the flat acting and terrible CGI. In retrospect, _Star Wars_ is exactly the type of film that J.J. Abrams should have been making all along; one that doesn’t really make much sense or pause to reflect on why its characters are making illogical decisions; that focuses on the characters themselves rather than the ridiculous plot going on around them; and that has things zooming around and blowing up at frequent intervals for no other reason than to ensure the audience isn’t getting bored. In fact, I’m coming around to the opinion that if Marvel wants to make another standalone Hulk film, Abrams is probably a good choice to direct. Anyway, I’d rather see _The Force Awakens_ again than any Bond film directed by Sam Mendes or another _Jurassic_ atrocity. It may not be a particularly good film, but it’s credibly entertaining and didn’t make me want to push bamboo skewers through my sinuses. Stranger [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-hate-jj-abrams-nothing-to-do-with-lens-flare/741624.md?page=3)