There's been a number of articles about Abrams, but it all seems too much like gossip to me, and soundbites. For "not caring about Trek" he actually did a pretty remarkable job on the 2009 release. I was kind of annoyed reading some article of gossip masquerading as real news in the Yahoo feed this week, where the writer is really an opinion writer and not an interviewer, explaining why Abrams really hates Star Trek. (That's actually something I hate about the Internet media today... and it's filtered into the paper new mags that actually used to be about 'news' -- it's all opinion columnists masquerading as journalists. Ick.)
I didn't really identify with some of the stuff being said in the quoted article.... although I do agree that Peter Weller looked as leathery as a gator stuck in hot Florida sun after his marsh got sucked away by rogue land developers to build another Disney attraction.
I don't think Abrams is a bad director, actually. I think he's the closest we're going to get to having another pre-
Jurassic Park Steven Spielberg (Abrams cowrote
Armageddon, as well). I'm sorry, but Spielberg has not made a memorable science fiction adventure movie since
Jurassic Park. And though I did like
A.I. and
Minority Report (hated
War of the Worlds), neither had the same childlike sense of wonder his movies of the '80s and early '90s did.
Super 8 did a really good job at recapturing what Spielberg was known for in the early part of his career. I think
Schindler's List opened a Pandora's box for Spielberg, pushing him in favor of the art house critics rather than the general audience. After
Schindler's List (and the ensuing Oscar win), most his movies became noticeably more cynical and even PC.
Back to the
Star Trek prequels (I consider them prequels, because they're no doubt connected to the other 10 movies (or rather the 6 with the original crew)). Unfortunately, they didn't have the best scripts, but they had good direction, and the performances were wonderful (especially Karl Urban's Bones in
STID -- I actually believed he was DeForest Kelley). Even
STID was well-directed, mostly the story pissed me off.
And thinking about it, I don't think Nicholas Meyer was a big
Trek fan when he directed 2 and 6. I think he might've said so on an audio commentary. I'll have to check later when I feel like it.
And I'd still like to see more
Treks that are like
Star Trek: The Motionless Picture, where they actually
do explore new worlds and not just fight off genocidal baddies. Just hire an editor this time.