Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide - io9 Comments

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

jinchoung — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 22:03:36 PST

beginnings are easy. beginnings are cheap. dimeadozen. you can't approach anywhere in the neighborhood of "genius" unless you can finish strong.

jinchoung

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

MojoFilter — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:30:10 PST

Not to get too off topic, but for some reason, that picture sure makes my wiener feel funny.

MojoFilter

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

axiomatic — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 10:41:58 PST

My big gripe with JJ. He starts many great stories, but rarely finishes any, and the ones he does finish are big dud's.

Anyone who works with him needs a "stick till the end" clause put in to the contract.

axiomatic

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

billybastion — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 10:02:23 PST

I didn't read all of the responses but I wanted to say this:

Felicity=Genius

For that I will always regard JJ Abrams as a man among men.

billybastion

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

markcheng — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 09:51:20 PST

from a storytelling perspective, i think JJ has mastered the ACT I and ACT II for traditional American storytelling structure. this makes for great TV which the broadcast companies want in a series - forever ongoing. i think with Abrams it's nearly a mental compulsion to turn any final act III into a II by tacking on some mind bender. I think MI3 was an example of how he had trouble really tying something together in a unique way. anyway that's enough for blog comment.. i love watching his work and also get frustrated by it at times

markcheng

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

robocop_is_bleeding — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 05:28:07 PST

From the other thread (why does io9 double up like this in the space of a few hours?):

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!"

robocop_is_bleeding

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

JennaW — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:30:04 PST

@OldDog1: And this is the same pattern. He can start stuff but he has yet to prove he can deliver an ending.

Hacky McHackersons.

JennaW

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

enjikunoichi — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 20:45:49 PST

Both.

He's done a wide-range of things but you can see the similar patterns or elements in almost all of them. Like his choice of male/female leads who almost always have the same look and feel.

Also towards the end all his series - Felicity, Alias, Lost - tend to go off on some disappointing loophole-filled tangent.

enjikunoichi

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

Sharpless — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:00:54 PST

A little of both, maybe. I think he's just a creative guy who's gotten lucky. I enjoy Lost, but I haven't really seen much of his other stuff. Definitely not a genius, though.

Sharpless

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

ejp1082 — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 16:57:00 PST

He's done a couple of things that were genius, a couple of things that were crap, and a lot in the middle. Why this need to box him into one category or another?

ejp1082

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

nacho69 — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 16:08:38 PST

Click the link below and listen to JJ at TED 2007:

[www.ted.com]

This will help flesh out the whole genius question thing... I thought he did quite well on stage.

nacho69

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

Epaminondas — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 16:03:39 PST

Little of both, I love Lost never saw Felicity and hated Alias and MI3. We'll have to see what he does with Star Trek.

...but after Berman and Braga, it's going to be hard to do worse...

Epaminondas

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

CmdrHunt — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 15:50:57 PST

@BlacklistedJoe: Doctor Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished...

CmdrHunt

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

darcymcgee — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 15:50:44 PST

> I must concur. If he was a genius, that would
> have never happened.

It just goes to show that in Hollywood, a hot chick is more important than a genius.

Felicity was way hotter with long hair than short.

darcymcgee

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

Ms T. Pointy-Winkelstein — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 15:42:16 PST

@PVIII: He wrote it w. Kurtzman and Orci...

Ms T. Pointy-Winkelstein

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

jinchoung — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 15:38:33 PST

he's the new m. night shyamalan. starts strong, can't be bothered to stick around long enough for a decent finish. boooooooooo.

jinchoung

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

DCI Gene Hunt — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 15:10:04 PST

The problem with JJ's talent is that he's a hype artist. All of his shocks and twists rely on deliberately witholding information from the audience at crucial moments. In that way, he's just the TV version of Dan Brown -- constantly going to commercial with the visual equivalent of "and then he saw the one thing he never expected to see!"

Most of the mysteries of the first three seasons of "Lost" could have been cleared up with a nice, twenty minute heart-to-heart chat.

His characters simulate emotions, and seem to be feeling things that are relevant to the current mood, but they're just elaborately crafted reflections. If the character dilemmas or predicaments were delivered in a straightforward, linear manner, they'd be far, far less interesting. The drama is in the manipulating, not the character. And as anyone who just sat through "Vantage Point" can attest, there's nothing so annoying as being deliberately kept in the dark for no reason other than wankery.

Whedon, on the other hand, does a pretty exceptional job of capturing character depth, with just a fraction of Abrams' silly, post-modern trickery.

DCI Gene Hunt

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

chipsndip — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:52:22 PST

He's got ideas that he's made work. They don't always end well, but they've got great initial punch. The fact that he can sell these ideas to Hollywood and TV Land says a great deal about his abilities.

Think how cliche super-spy was when Alias came out - yet it totally rethought the genre. It did MI and James Bond better than MI and James Bond did. I think the biggest disappointment with MI3 was that it didn't up the ante any - I totally think that Jennifer Gardner could kick Tom Cruise's butt.

And when I first heard the two liner concept of Lost, I honestly thought it was going to be a modern day Gilligan's Island. The pilot for that show (regardless of your feelings about the storyline since then) was simply amazing - in fact, so was the pilot for Alias. I challenge you to find a pilot that did anywhere near the job of introducing the world and characters, telling an interesting story, and leaving you wanting more. Pilots are often the weakest episodes in a TV series...

So, I think there's weaknesses in the follow-through - I don't know that the ending of any of the stories has matched the incredible kick-off. But as an ideas man who has the guts and salesmanship to get ORIGINAL content off the ground in a TV market filled with boring knock-off content, I gotta give him that.

chipsndip

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

kurwinsky — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:51:39 PST

I hate his style...

kurwinsky

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

lucky_you — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:39:26 PST

MI:3
utter shit

lucky_you

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

ProgGrrl — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:09:43 PST

I vote genius, because all his shows are noteworthy (some might say highly gimmicky, although I don't) in any genre he works in. He gathers together fantastic writers/showrunners. When he steps into the director's chair himself the results can be brilliant (see LOST pilot).

More importantly he is branding Bad Robot as a source of multi generic greatness...and don't even get me started on the viral/transmedia stuff. He is a genuis Ringmaster/ Producer/ Idea Man.

But hey, c'mon. He's no frakkin Kubrick.

ProgGrrl

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

OldDog1 — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:57:05 PST

""" If J.J. is so great, why did Felicity go straight down the tubes after Keri Russell cut her hair? """

I must concur. If he was a genius, that would have never happened.

OldDog1

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

waytogeaux — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:56:04 PST

You know what was funny, the last few episodes that Felicity was on, she time travelled back a few months and had to live them over again, except the second time did things differently, with disastrous results. I see the whole time travel thing happening again with Lost ...coincidence?

waytogeaux

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

V.I.N.CENT — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:48:05 PST

I liked JJ more before I knew he had anything to do with Felicity, Forever Young or MI:III (Philip Seymour Hoffman was wasted in that movie. A shame).

So I would have to say "matured professional", a la Tom Hanks and his "Bossoom Buddy" years.

V.I.N.CENT

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

Delameko — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:47:09 PST

I'm not sure about J.J. I think Lost got better after he left to do other stuff (hiring genius' holds true then).

Alias I felt was always ruined by the fact status quo had to be restored - she's knocked out, she wakes up three years later, next day she's back at work doing what she did before.

How much did he do on Cloverfield? I feel sorry for the director, I can't even remember his name...

Delameko

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

tetracycloide — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:44:39 PST

@aspiringexpatriate: that seems like a common fixation in hollywood. no matter what position you have be it actor, director, writter, or producer if you stay in the business long enough you become so full of yourself you think you can do all of them at once. as evidence of this phenomena i will first present mel gibson who went from mad max, to payback, to apocalypto.

tetracycloide

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

BlacklistedJoe — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:40:45 PST

@Annalee Newitz: Why not 'Oh, boy'?

BlacklistedJoe

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

nerdstalker — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:39:10 PST

A little of both...Genius (Lost, Alias, Cloverfield), Hack (What About Brian, snoooooooze)

I was really in love with "Alias" back in the day, and remember how upset I was when it was cancelled so that JJ could work on that weird plane-crash show called "Lost."

So maybe my judgment is a little off.

nerdstalker

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

aspiringexpatriate — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:37:52 PST

@PVIII: Actually he's directing it, but he didn't write it. And he was the third writer on the MI3 script. And he also didn't write Cloverfield. And from what I've heard about Cloverfield, it's an interestingly directed one trick pony.

Maybe he's a decent director who thinks he's a great writer. Who knows.

aspiringexpatriate

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

Zapp Brannigan's Girdle — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:36:42 PST

If J.J. is so great, why did Felicity go straight down the tubes after Keri Russell cut her hair?

/the state rests

Zapp Brannigan's Girdle

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

aspiringexpatriate — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:26:54 PST

Why isn't 'fad' an option. He's not so much a hack as just someone who got lucky. Either his 15 minutes are up, or he's the Brett Ratner of sci-fi.

He's a soap opera writer, and no matter how much science you throw into it, it's still a soap opera.

What confuses me more is how MI3 was actually decent. Possibly the best of those three films.

aspiringexpatriate

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

darcymcgee — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:24:15 PST

I'm going to vote for "Felicity" as the best science fiction series ever. There's NO way that a college girl in the real world could afford THAT many sweaters.

darcymcgee

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:24:13 PST

@steven522: Oh, dear. He worked on Regarding Henry? I reiterate: Oh, dear.

Annalee Newitz

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

BlacklistedJoe — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:10:19 PST

@BlacklistedJoe: you're looking for representation?

BlacklistedJoe

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

BlacklistedJoe — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:09:48 PST

i dunno i havent seen his signature on any these papers here...............

BlacklistedJoe

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

steven522 — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:08:47 PST

Looking at everything Abrams has produced, written and/or directed on IMDB, and seeing that "Regarding Henry" would be the top of my list on what I have enjoyed of his, I vote "Hack".

steven522

Is J.J. Abrams Really A Genius? You Decide

PVIII — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:06:28 PST

Wait and see baby. But for Fringe (X-files part deux)isn't he just producer? I don't think he wrote the thing, he just wants the royalties to go to Bad Robot. Smart guy that J.J.

PVIII