From Star Wars to Lost: J.J. Abrams is the kind of dramatic entrances
Abrams has never met a franchise he can’t launch into the stratosphere — and then quickly abandon
Despite Abrams and his team’s Herculean efforts to deliver a massive blockbuster spectacle that could also neatly tie together three trilogies' worth of story and character, The Rise of Skywalker was an abject failure. The movie was panned by fans and critics alike, and performed worse at the box office than Episodes VII or VIII. To quote the director’s prophetic interview again: “Sticking this landing is one of the harder jobs that I could have taken.”
Abrams has essentially gone into hiding ever since, ensconced in a nebulous $500 million contract with Warner Bros. that’s yet to yield anything tangible beyond one new show you probably missed. But that’s a surprise because, while Abrams may be correct that he’s bad at endings (and not just where Star Wars is concerned), he undersold his skills when it comes to beginnings. The director is a master at launching new franchises and properties that instantly grab your attention (even if they ultimately fail to treat that attention with the respect it deserves). You might just say, he’s the king of dramatic entrances.
Image: Lucasfilm/Everett Collection
A quick overview of Abrams’ career reveals a clear pattern: launch, and move on. After easing into Hollywood as a screenwriter (Armageddon) and computer animation specialist (he worked on the animation proof-of-concept that eventually led to Shrek), his breakout moment came with the creation of Felicity, a coming-of-age drama starring Keri Russel with a magical-realism bent that premiered in 1998. After launching the show, Abrams moved on to another series with Alias, based on an idea he came up with while working on Felicity about an international spy (Jennifer Garner) caught up in a web of mystery and lies. Debuting in 2001, Alias was another hit. Again, Abrams quickly moved on to perhaps his biggest premiere of all time: Lost.
The story of Lost’s explosive pilot, which launched a beloved six-season sci-fi show best known for its frustrating finale, is well known. What’s worth noting here is that Abrams mostly moved on after season 1 (again), leaving his collaborators to carve a satisfying conclusion out of Abrams’ dramatic beginning. (If we’re keeping score, Felicity’s time-travel finale was divisive among fans, while Alias mostly stuck the landing; though Abrams wasn’t involved with either, maybe knowing he wouldn’t be too helpful.)
Image: ABC
After Lost, Abrams shifted into movies, starting with 2006’s Mission: Impossible III. This probably represents the most journey-man moment of his career. Abrams wasn’t launching or re-launching a franchise, just grabbing the baton and then passing it forward. (Everyone has to start somewhere, right?) Still, the first-time feature director manages to kick off his entry in the Ethan Hunt saga in the most dramatic way possible, with Hunt (Tom Cruise) handcuffed to a chair while the arms dealer Owen Davian (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) presses him for information before ultimately shooting him in the leg. It’s understated by Mission: Impossible standards, but still oozes tension.
Here’s where things get really interesting. In 2009, Abrams was handed the keys to one of the biggest sci-fi franchises of all time: Star Trek. His vision for the film was a total reboot, with new actors portraying the crew of the original series to put a fresh spin on iconic characters like Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto). An opening scene in which we witness the birth of James Tiberius Kirk as he’s jettisoned from an exploding starship while his father (Chris Hemsworth) dies on board is classic Abrams. From the brilliant casting to the free-flowing mix of pop culture influences (Kirk’s origin story here echoes Superman’s), these are the skills the director has used repeatedly over the years to launch and relaunch various franchises.
Image: Paramount Pictures/Everett Collection
And there’s a reason why: they work! Abrams is one of the most prolific Hollywood creators of his era, and the one most-trusted to take the reins of a storied geek franchise that needs a fresh coat of paint. It’s just a shame those dramatic entrances inevitably lead to disappointing endings. The Star Trek reboot fizzled out, Lost remains one of the most disappointing series finales of all time (don’t @ me if you disagree, I’ve heard it all before), and Star Wars crashed and burned — perhaps because The Rise of Skywalker was more of a beginning to new mysteries instead of a wrap-up. (“Any great ending is a new beginning on some level,” Abrams also told the Times.)
If Abrams does ever reemerge from his self-imposed exile with another mega-hit, you can be sure it will begin with a bang. Just try not to get too committed. After all, as the man himself once said, “I’ve never been great at endings.”
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