I'll admit it to you guys right away, I'm fascinated by J.J. Abrams!
As a director/writer/producer, he's one of the few modern guys in Hollywood who's willing to push the envelope of both movies and tv shows.
Few would have done what you can see on Alias or Lost, the risk to alienate mainstream audience by going on unexpected roads and turn of events.
I'm sure some of you (yes, you 4 or 5 reading this very line) wouldn't agree with me, maybe prefering watching an expected Hollywood blockbuster product such as Micheal Bay's Transformers 2 (seriously guys?? Come on!!)
But that why I like his stuff and respect Abrams.
Mainstream audience may have lost the plot of Lost (get it? hu hu hu..) or not followed Alias to the end, or not willing to embrace the fantastic aspect of Fringe expecting an X-files rehash... And it's only natural!
When you see mainstream audience prefer watching reality tv, sports, teen dramas and cliché sitcoms!
Anyway here's Abrams himself talking about mystery and showing a bit of his inner nerd:
Even if you hate what he's done so far, give this video a chance. ; )
I really like his spirit and opinion on mysteries.
Because that's what his stuff his about in the end, imagination.
Something that most people aren't interested in anymore now...
Well, after this long introduction here the real movie news!
There's a lot of rumours and expectations from Abrams lately.
He's rumoured to be doing an old school Alien movie/Spielberg tribute. It will have and draw a lot of inspiration from his favorite movies which are Spielberg 70/80 movies. (E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind) specially JAWS which Abrams said many times is his favorite movie.
It will use lots of practical effects (AWESOME!) and is supposed to be the Anti-Avatar, conceptually-wise. (small budget, practical, with real content...).
And there's a rumoured SUPER 8 movie, called just that way which is supposed to have a trailer attached to Ironman in America. This one is mostly unknown (subject) but it may just be that Alien/Spielberg tribute.
Plus, finally, there's another "rumour" about an Abrams-produced movie (not directing this one), which may turn out to be a Cloverfield-related movie. (a prequel? a sequel? a parallel story not on a shaky cam? another Kaiju movie?)
That's all for now!
I'm trying to have my first comic book review for later ; )
I specially like how he view stories/the mystery box metaphor in that video :P
ReplyDeleteThat's how people should work their stories, specially in movies!
But people sadly tend to ignore the power of imagination now...
Good related Trope right here on TV Trop: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ptitleixk37p06
Ah, TED Talks. I've seen a lot of those!
ReplyDeleteThey have quite some interesting talks! :D
I enjoyed the new Star Trek and Fringe, and watched some episodes of Alias also.
I had nothing against the supernatural-ish twist of alias, but - oh, irony - the whole "secret agent"-thing didn't work out for me in the long run. *shrugs*
I agree, Fringe isn't like the X-files, it reminds me more of a "Doctor Who"-type approach, with the sci-fi-o-meter reaching its peak very quickly every episode, while the x-files was going for a more slow-paced realistic approach.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, though, after all, I like Doctor Who a lot!
Well, as for Lost, I already wrote my critique on that - and that has nothing to do with the amount of imagination put into it;
Comparing it to Fringe, there you get a vague explanation about what's happend by the end of each episode, yet remains ominous about the overall plot.
It's mysterious, but it still makes -sense-.
And Lost .... well ... untill the more recent episodes nothing made any sense to me AT ALL, and I just don't like that.
I remember an episode where Jack, after being knocked unconscious woke up in a dirty, gritty floor... with a TV/VCR-set displaying Mickey Mouse cartoons right on the other side of the room.
When he tried to walk up to it, he bumped into what seemed an invisible wall (it was really just a glass wall). But to top that, it turns out his prison is actually under water.
The mystery just seems ... constructed. :/
Nothing against the mystery box (as I said, the Cromags from Sliders would have needed it), but with Lost...
It's kind of overkill. I don't even know what I'm supposed to focus on. (The black smoke monster? Dead people coming to life? The "Others"? Unexplicable timetravel? People who "rule" the island?)
It may get better now, I don't know.
"The island is alive" is at least SOME kind of explanation.
Good question is, what does the *island* actually want out of all of this?!
It's got to want some benefit from this, and it can't be "leave me alone", because then it would've just killed everyone.
And it doesn't rely on regular people actually BEING on the island I suppose, since it can always summon dead people to do it's bidding at random, or use the smoke monster, or distort time itself.
The island keeps controlling people's actions, so it can ... eh ... well, the only thing I could think of, since the island itself can do anything ON the actualy island, it would want to gain some influence on the outside world.
Yeah, yeah that's got to be it. The island wants to ... take over the world! :O