Newsgroup: it.fan.startrek
Titolo: Joss Whedon vs. J.J. Abrams

Joss Whedon 85%, evvai!
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2009/10/great-geek-debates-joss-whedon-vs-jj-abrams/
Great Geek Debates: Joss Whedon vs. J.J. Abrams
There was a time, once, when geeks everywhere revered the name of George
Lucas. Then The Phantom Menace came out and took him down a few dozen pegs
in our collective estimation. The next two movies didnï¿½t help, either, and
changing Star Wars to make Greedo shoot first was the final straw for many
geeks.
Yes, though it takes a lot to earn a place on the geek worldï¿½s pedestal, it
doesnï¿½t take much to fall from it. Weï¿½ll forgive a few missteps, as we have
with Douglas Adamsï¿½s weaker Hitchhikerï¿½s books (and of course his untimely
death earns him much forgiveness as well), but there are definite limits on
our patience. So in this Great Geek Debate, letï¿½s look at the two men who
are arguably the biggest icons in geek entertainment today: Joss Whedon and
J.J. Abrams.
Joss Whedon broke into the collective geek consciousness with the 1992
movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a fun but uneven take on the vampire movie
genre. His screenplay for Alien: Resurrection going largely (and
deservedly) overlooked, he truly gained his iconic geek status when the
Buffy TV series (which only really related to the movie in that both were
about girls named Buffy fighting vampires) hit its stride with its second
season. If any doubts remained about his ability to captivate geeks, he
removed them when Firefly hit the TV screen in 2002.
Thereï¿½s no way to know what would have happened if Fox hadnï¿½t unforgivably
mishandled Firefly, moving it around from timeslot to timeslot and thus
guaranteeing it would never garner decent ratings, then unceremoniously
canceling it entirely. Maybe the series would have gone downhill; maybe we
would talk about how the first season was an aberration. But the fact is
that by canceling it Fox ensured Fireflyï¿½s place in geek canon, so much so
that its place on the pedestal enabled Whedon to convince Universal
Pictures to make and release the movie Serenity two years after the last
episode aired on TV.
J.J. Abrams got his start in Hollywood writing such films as Regarding
Henry, which is possibly the only film ever to imply that the best thing to
do with arrogant, self-centered lawyers is to shoot them in the head.
Probably the first time geeks really noticed him was when he co-wrote the
1998 movie Armageddon, which definitely didnï¿½t earn him many points. Then
he created the TV series Alias in 2001 (Felicity wasnï¿½t especially geeky),
and we started to realize he had some genuine talent.
Then came Lost, which was so brilliant no viewer could legitimately claim
to understand it. Whatever your opinion of it, you have to admit that Lost
was a watershed moment in TV: probably the first show with such a long
overall story arc that each episode didnï¿½t have to be understandable on its
own. Then came Mission: Impossible III, which Abrams took over after the
original director bailed, and which, while not necessarily good, was
nonetheless better than it had any real right to be.
So thatï¿½s the past of both men, and so we come to the more recent years.
Whedon hasnï¿½t done much recently, unless you count creating a musical
web-based miniseries so brilliant they had to create a new Emmy category so
it could win one (and which also, not incidentally, won a Hugo Award). And
then of course thereï¿½s Dollhouse, which while uneven is still one of the
few decent science fiction shows on TV, and has had some real flashes of
brilliance.
Abrams has been a little busy these past few years. He created the TV show
Fringe, which seems to be of the love-it-or-hate-it variety, but certainly
qualifies as geeky either way. And then of course thereï¿½s a little movie
you may have heard about. Yes, a lot of hardcore Star Trek fans are deeply
unhappy with the liberties he took in reinventing their precious universe,
but I for one am very pleased with it. I didnï¿½t love everything about the
movie ï¿½ its story was wildly implausible and it had several huge plot holes
ï¿½ but as a nearly-lifelong Trekkie Iï¿½m absolutely thrilled to see the
franchise reinvigorated.
So how to compare the two? I like a lot of both of their works. I think if
I look at the collective geek consciousness (assuming such a thing really
exists), I have to give the nod to Joss Whedon. Seriously, if he had done
nothing other than Firefly/Serenity and Dr. Horrible, I think he would
still win. I mean, he gave the world Captain Tightpants and (arguably) the
first genuinely wonderful geek musical!
So, whatï¿½s your opinion? Take the poll and leave a comment!
-- 
Jolan Tru
Filippo "Hytok" Simone
http://perestroika.iobloggo.com/

 Joss Whedon 85%, evvai!
Piu' o meno le stesse percentuali di chi usa Windows e Mac/Linux.
Che Whedon sia un virus? :)