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Here's the most awesome moment from Mission Impossible III, where Tom Cruise improvises a homemade defibrillator to deactivate the bomb in his brain, while teaching his fiancee how to shoot a gun. Since J.J. Abrams wrote and directed this instant classic, he's become one of science fiction's major creators, directing the new Star Trek movie, producing Cloverfield , and creating Lost and his new show Fringe. But is he a brilliant auteur, or just a great huckster who knows how to keep people guessing? Click through to find out.
Here's the most awesome moment from Mission Impossible III, where Tom Cruise improvises a homemade defibrillator to deactivate the bomb in his brain, while teaching his fiancee how to shoot a gun. Since J.J. Abrams wrote and directed this instant classic, he's become one of science fiction's major creators, directing the new Star Trek movie, producing Cloverfield , and creating Lost and his new show Fringe. But is he a brilliant auteur, or just a great huckster who knows how to keep people guessing? Click through to find out.Once we've seen Abrams' Star Trek and his new X-Files revamp show Fringe, we'll have a much better idea of whether Abrams really is brilliant — or just a clever hack. But already, there's plenty of evidence for both sides of the argument. Here's our list of reasons to believe either point of view:
Genius:
- Cloverfield. Once you got past the hype, it really was a great ride, and the nihilistic ending was sort of awesome in a Blake's 7-y way. For once, the fact that everything's a mystery didn't seem to matter, because the mystery was just in the background. In the foreground, you had this you-are-there spectacle of the city falling into ruins and Rob struggling to find Beth despite the pointlessness of it all.
- Lost. It's another thing we won't really be able to evaluate yet, because a lot depends on how well it ends, and how much sense it actually makes in the end. But last week's time-travel episode recharged our faith in the versatility of the concept. When the show works, it's intense and Hobbesian. The whole flash-forward tapestry storyline thing has the makings of a compulsive DVD rewatch.
- Mission Impossible III. Okay, so the make-your-own-defibrillator thing was sort of wack. And what the heck was the rabbit's foot that Tom Cruise has to find anyway? But considering this was a movie starring Tom Cruise, with "III" in the title, it was way better than we had any right to expect. It was sort of a goofy extended episode of Alias.
He hires geniuses. This is probably the best argument for J.J. Abrams being a genius — he recognizes genius in others and hires appropriately. Case in point: Drew Goddard, the Buffy scribe who now writes for Lost and also wrote Cloverfield. Another case in point: Brian K. Vaughn, another Lost writer who also created Y: The Last Man.
Hack:
- All the viral marketing. During the long Lost hiatus, we were bombarded with "clues" on viral sites, where you could track down a phone number that led to another web site that led to a riddle. Did any of it add up to anything in the end? Meanwhile, Cloverfield was two movies: the stark masterpiece you saw in the theater, and the over-complicated version all the online fans were privy to, with all the clues about Tagruato and Slusho! and news reports in Spanish.
- Armageddon. Abrams co-wrote the script of this Michael Bay splode-fest. I watched it recently, and it's just as nonsensical and bizarre as I'd remembered... but much slower moving.
- Alias. It was a fun show at first, but after a while all the daddy issues (and then mommy issues) and the endlessly spiraling "everything you know is wrong" plots started to give us a headache.
- Forever Young. I pretty much covered this one yesterday. But the treacly plot, with the nonsensical motivations — why would being in suspended animation make his girlfriend's supposedly impending death easier to handle? — is pretty hard to take. The film pretty much slides into the ick zone the moment two cute kids revive Mel in the present day. And then there's the fact that he starts to age rapidly, as a side effect of cryogenic suspension. Wha huh?
- Just the fact that he's so prolific. Besides Lost, Fringe and Trek, he's got a show about cancer patients, a show about a notary, and Cloverfield 2 on his plate.
So is he a genius or a hack? Decide for yourself, and then vote in our poll.
Comments
Cloverfield and Lost do not a compelling case make. HACK!
I actually like MI:III as well. I get that you don't have to like Cruise as a person, but I enjoy the vast majority of his movies. I think it's pretty rediculous that Abram's been around for less then 8 years, and he's already getting things billed a "from producer." Especially when he helped create Felicity and the 9. Cuse and Lindelof hired Vaughn, not J.J., so I wouldn't give him that credit either. I'm holding out judgement until ST, but I do think he's a talented director, looking at the LOST pilot alone (the scene by the plane is one of my all-time favorites). I have a feeling he's going through MASSIVE reshoots and rewrites on Trek right now. He knows how important it is for him.
Oh yeah, so file me under "wait and see."
I think Did any of it add up to anything in the end? about sums up JJ Abrams. Put me down in the No category. I've yet to be impressed by anything he has done, up to and including Cloverfield.
He has a knack for taking genre tropes that only kinda sorta work to begin with and giving them a dramatic twist that shows how they don't really work at all.
I will see whatever J.J. Abrams makes.
While Alias didn't stay as strong as it was in the first two seasons, it was still better than most everything else on TV.
Being co-author to the half baked cinematic abortion that is Armageddon should be more than enough disqualify him as geniuz.
BTW, if a modern movie deserves MST3K treatment, Armageddon goes to the top of my list.
Lost is a lot more Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse than J.J. Abrams.
I hated Mission Impossible I (beyond the fact that I had the same PowerBook.)
Mission Impossible II made I look outstanding by comparison.
Mission Impossible III was a rock and roll good time, and on the most entertaining movies I'd seen in years at the time. (But damn I wish they'd not shot that scene of Tom Cruise riding a motorcycle without a helmet on. That's just stupid.)
I dunno what that says about J.J. Abrams in general though: I've yet to (and am not likely to) see Cloverfield and I found Alias good, but inconsistent.
I can't wait for new additions in the (hopefully) continuing series that is "Genius or Hack?"
Abrams: Hack, but he tries real hard and, as said, surrounds himself with talent (sometimes).
Despite moments (okay, more than moments) of hackdom, Abrams get the YES from me because he does see the talent in others and lets them do what they do best without looking over their shoulders all the time.
He has IDEAS. Not all of them good, but I admire that he pursues them and doesn't let them get overly watered down.
Two things: I would put MI3 in the hack category. Just putting PSH in a movie doesn't make it good, especially when you give him nothing to do.
The viral marketing is in the win category
Alias was fucking awesome. Lost? Even better. Anybody who can seriously look at this body of work and NOT see the talent here is a moron. If I wanted fanboy sneering, I could go to SyFy. Obviously, if I want intelligent discussion of science fiction topics, io9 is not the place to be.
Isn't repeatedly creating successful things a talent in and of itself despite what critics and bloggers may think of its quality?
i have seen no compelling evidence that MI:III and cloverfield were any less hack than armageddon or that lost is any less hack than alias.
I could totally picture Cruise living that same scene in his Colorado Bunker with Katie and the kids when the government finally comes to take Scientology down....except, if we're lucky, Katie won't try and bring Tom back.
@Garrison Dean: oh my god, abrams is the republicain party of film making!
He's better than M. Night Shamalamanohmanon.
@picardia: nothing says fanboy quite like calling everyone that disagrees with you a moron in a post pointing out how unintelligent the discussion is without making any actual intellectual points...
@picardia: You do realize these are opinion pieces that will perhaps, spark intelligent discussion. And while I'm guilty of it myself, saying "Alias was fucking awesome" (and not backing it up) does not help io9's perceived lack of intelligent discussion.
@aubreyAubrey: @tetracycloide: d00d, u guyz are space nazis. STFU!!!11!
I've noticed that most Gawker blogs seem to think it's cool to shit on everything though. Just take a look at Iwatchstuff. I don't know if they've ever actually enjoyed a movie. Sometimes it's ok to just sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. I think io9 had a good article about how sometimes it's good not to listen/pander to fanboys.
@tetracycloide: gahhhh way to make my argument feel oogie. Nonetheless, when a shallow uneducated pampered son of privilege makes a bad decision in Hollywood... no one dies.
@picardia: I don't think there's any sneering here. Just analyzing Abrams' career, since he's such an important science fiction creator. Would you seriously want our blog to be just: "here's a thing that's awesome! Oh, and here's another awesome thing! And you know that awesome thing we mentioned? It's awesome!!"?
@PVIII: ummm... iwatchstuff isn't a gawker blog. I think.
@tetracycloide: Heh.
@Charlie Jane Anders: Wow, Charlie, that sounds so AWESOME though! Your posts could be about awesomeness, and my posts could be about awesomeerester things!
Add me to the "Cloverfield, Lost, and M:I 3 are examples of genius?" chorus.
Hackity hack.
@Charlie Jane Anders: My bad! It's Acorn Media- I stand corrected.
@Annalee Newitz: Hey, while we're on the topic of Awesome... lets bring Michael Bay into this discussion.
(ducks)
@Garrison Dean: Say what you want to about Michael Bey--really, anything you want to, I don't care--that Verizon FiOs commercial that he's in is hilarious.
@Garrison Dean: Ok I'll start...
Michael Bay: Awesomely bad, or Awesomely Hacky?
(what a twist!)
@DocGratis: I'll counter with Awesomely awesome, and raise you 3 "Kick Ass!!"s.
@braak: a friend of mine remixed it to make it more awesome.
+ Watch video
@DocGratis:
Can't it be both?
Mission Impossible sucked.
Lost was good for half a season before nosediving like the plane.
Cloverfield was a marketing campaign for something you'd find in an unflushed toilet.
As a Star Trek fan, I'm hoping he won't mess it up but from most of the reports I've seen, I'm expecting he'll screw that up too.
As for his new series, it's not fair to say until it's actually aired and I've seen it. Of course, it's also not fair for anyone else to rave about it until they have watched it as well.
Wins: 0
Losses: 3
TBD: 2
Verdict: Hack.
@Punty: I agree with you here. I just watched all 5 seasons of Alias, and say what you may about its depth of quality, it was solidly entertaining throughout.
Abrams does seem to rehash a lot of the same ideas/themes over and over again (the Fringe pilot uses a lot of stuff we've seen in Alias) but if he keeps it tricky, I'm still there to watch.
This said, I'm stuck halfway through season 2 of Lost and just can't seem to move forward. Scary black smoke? Not so artfully constructed emotional angst? Some stupid button that you keep pushing because someone told you to? I have vowed to get to the end but honestly, I do not get this obsession.
So, my verdict: little bit of genius, little bit of hack, as long as i'm entertained i'm in for the long haul.
I don't think Cloverfield is an example of genius. The lack of sense, plot, and believability weren't that awesome. The destruction WAS awesome but I've got EDF2017 for that.
Lost might be - Season 4 has kicked a lot of ass. But my god, everything - EVERYTHING - needs to be tied up properly and coherently.
Mission Impossible III was a ripoff of The Maltese falcon.
I don't think bringing up Armageddon makes any sense as another writer on that movie was Tony Gilroy, who went on to write the screenplays for all the Bourne movies and directed Michael Clayton. Nitpicking I know, but hey we fall down to pick ourselves up.
I wouldn't say genius, but I wouldn't say hack either. I'll lean to the former.
JJ Abrams wakes up in a cold sweat every morning, staring in half-dreaming panic at the sign he had posted over his bed. The sign is a picture of Chris Carter microwaving a burrito in a dingy LA 7-11. Carter's eyes are red from booze and tears, his cheeks unshaven. Around the picture, writ large in gold and Sharpie is the motto, "Respice post te! Hominem te esse memento!"
Bruce Willis dies at the end of Armageddon. Genius Fo Sho.
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