Tuesday, September 08, 2009

J.J. Abrams - The Next Hitchcock or The Father of Armageddon

I was watching Alfred Hitchcock's Oscar-winning film Rebecca.

It was something about the way the Criterion collection's DVD title screen for the film looked that reminded me of something that was identical to the the title screen on the DVD's for the TV series lost.

They were still images, with eerie music, with just the slightest changes in the image.

And it got me thinking of how J.J. Abrams interest in mystery, intrigue, unique characters, and fantastic story telling in some ways mirrors that of Alfred Hitchcock.

And I'm not willing to do a full out comparison, because I think it's too early. Abrams has a far way to go, but his fantastic work of recent years makes one forget about the film that started it all.

The ridiculous, yet popular Armageddon. When you think Abrams, this film is surely one of the last you think of - although this 1998 success story (over $200 million domestic gross), also has one of the worst scripts and premises ever (saving the earth from an asteroid by drilling a hole in it). J.J. Abrams even was nominated for a Golden Raspberry, the Razzies (an award for the worst) for his writing.

So just think at how far J.J. Abrams has come in just a little over 10 years - mostly in television, Felicity, Lost, Alias, and Fringe.

And at 43 years old, I think J.J. Abrams is at a cross road and I feel he must chose...

(1) Reinventing Sci-fi for new audiences
(2) Disaster and high voltage special effects
(3) Compelling and engrossing TV
(4) Something Even More Wonderful

I hope he chooses option 4 (and who wouldn't, but how?), and becomes someone who can be compared to Hitchcock for more than just title credits on a DVD screen.

2 comments:

Andrew K. said...

I always feel guilty when I say that I'm not a big fan of Hitchcock. Rebecca though [my favourite of his] is one of my favourite films.

Anonymous said...

I had no idea that J.J. Abrams was behind Armageddon. As a teen girl I was a fan at the time, but you're right...the plot was pretty lame - I think I only cared about Ben Afflack at 15, not the quality of the film.

I really love Abrams' TV shows...Lost, Alias and Felicity are favorites of mine.