JJ Abrams is Directing Star Wars Episode VII, and Why that's a Good Thing

News broke today that JJ Abrams will be taking the helm of the newest Star Wars film, Episode VII. Due to Abrams' list of directing credits and his storytelling capabilities, this is a very good thing.

One of the things that I like about Abrams' style is that he shoots on film. Real film. The stuff that people keep saying is extinct. This is hopeful for Star Wars fans, because the series went south once Uncle George started shooting the films on his shiny new HD cameras:

Now I'm not saying that HD makes things bad. Only partly though. I'm saying that shooting in HD is easier to do than shooting with film. The turnaround time is faster. The image is cleaner. You can get 14+ stops of Dynamic Range with the RED EPIC. You can review what you're shooting as soon as it's been shot. It's just easier. And that easiness leads to complacency, and complacency shows when you're making a film.

The above image shows the stark contrast between the Original Trilogy and the prequel trilogy (it's not capitalized because it doesn't deserve it). I hope JJ Abrams uses actual models in his film, rather than just saying to throw in some CG and calling it good. The fans deserve more than that.

One of the things that I am concerned about with JJ Abrams taking the helm of this film is his excessive use of lens flares everywhere, and so our movie could end up looking like this:

I hope not. I hope he leaves those in the Star Trek universe where they belong. I trust that he'll make the right decisions when it comes to things like this.

And so there you have it. I can't wait for 2015 (seems like forever away). Make us pround, JJ, make us proud.