It is funny watching folks try to defend JJ’s movies. Personally I haven't enjoyed a single one all the way thru. The first Trek was alright until about half way thru. Cloverfield I saw that and don’t remember a thin. Into Darkness was one of the worst pieces of shit I ever saw. Mission Impossible 3 might have been decent I think I saw it in theater but didn’t exactly leave an impression, is that the one where he was on a motorcycle? Meh.
Then you have Terrio writing. The only “good” thing (coz it won an Oscar, you know the prize also given to the movie Crash) he has been involved with is Argo, a film more or less made with the cooperation of the CIA. So we have JJ and a CIA friendly hack on this film. Yeah no thanks LOL I’ll pass
I think he, like most directors, is particularly good at specific things.
JJ is able to, in my opinion, delivery a decently entertaining movie that provides interesting "set ups" for future sequels and episodes.
Star Trek is a good example to begin with. The movies had been on a downward turn with Generations, First Contact, Insurrection and Nemesis. Then there was a 7 year break probably because those movies were stinking.
However Star Trek is still this massive brand that people know about. The know what "Spock" is. They know "beam me up" and all that stuff.
JJ comes in an makes the Star Trek brand seem new and shiny and fresh and vibrant.
Sure, the substance isn't really there but it's a reboot.
The idea should be to bring the series back to life and THEN try to build on that.
This is why he was the wrong guy for Into Darkness.
I see the same with Star Wars.
JJ came in and made a competent and fun Star Wars movie.
That was the one thing they absolutely NEEDED. The movie needed to not suck and get decent reviews.
Surely I can't be the only one who sat through The Force Awakens thinking "wow, a Star Wars movie that is actually quite good"?
The problems seemed to come later.
I am pretty convinced that fans correctly guessed that Snoke was Palpatines old master and that Rey was going to be the secret child of someone important and Lucasfilm decided to take a bit of a strop over that.
I am also convinced that the overblown "controversy" over people not watching the movie because "minorities and women are in it" really got to Disney and made them feel a pressure to distance themselves from their fanbase. Is Rey a Mary Sue? It doesn't really matter. The movie set up enough interesting things for this to be potentially irrelevant.
Unfortunately I think the creators decided to go down a kind of "Star Wars fans don't have to be your audience" route and responded to "criticism" by openly getting confrontational with their audience.
The Last Jedi legitimately feels like a "fuck you" to Star Wars fans.
Fuck you for having theories about Snoke and Rey. How dare you try to one-up us!?
Oh and even though it was one or two looney twitter accounts and some trolls fuck you, our customers, for being racist, sexist, scum. Leia can fly through space now. Holdo is always right and Poe is a mansplaining douche. Rey can never EVER lose. What's wrong, snowflake, are you triggered?
Great, well, I guess Star Wars sucks now.
So they've seen the backlash and now they want to bring JJ back in to do another The Force Awakens. Just make something that doesn't suck.
Unfortunately they have burned so many bridges and pissed off so many fans that it's a massive uphill battle now.
The stupidest thing is that the biggest group of people who actually BADLY WANT a good Star Wars movie are Star Wars fans.
There's almost no way to say "ok we want to make a great Star Wars movie but it has to not be for the people who actually like this stuff".
When JJ dropped TFA the fanbase would mostly be saying "it's been over a decade since the prequels PLEASE just give us something good".
So JJ can come in and say he is using old school props and sets and not too much CGI and look at the trailer doesn't it seem like Star Wars to you?
He got away with it. People loved TFA and, while it did feel a bit hollow after the initial sugar rush, everyone was thinking "can't wait to see what they do next".
He can't do that this time. First because there hasn't been a decade between movies. Second because instead of "expectant and enthusiastic" the actual people who actually want a good Star Wars movie are in "suspicious and distrustful" mode.
He is almost forced into a situation where Episode 9 will be a meek "apology" for Episode 8 with a probably very forced (haha) ending.
Episode 9 could have been the epic conclusion to an epic trilogy but because they went with the "fuck the fans" option in Episode 8 you almost get a sense that people are actually just itching to put the boot in.