J.J. Abrams likely to direct Star Wars Episode VII

EDIT: It's official. A major announcement was promised in January, and it's just in. It looks like J.J. Abrams is going to be the director of Star Wars: Episode VII, despite an earlier report that said his commitment to Star Trek would make this impossible. According to the report, Ben Affleck (Argo) and Matthew Vaughn (X-Men First Class, Kick Ass) were also approached, but on Steven Spielberg's suggestion, LucasFilm president (and long-time Spielberg collaborator) Kathleen Kennedy has chosen Abrams. Considering that much of the fan critiscm of Abrams's take on Star Trek was that it was too much like Star Wars, this may be a perfect fit. The script for Episode VII is already in the works, in the care of Toy Story 3 writer Michael Arndt. Thanks to /Film for the heads up, with the initial report coming from TheWrap.com.

Flashback: Star Trek (2009)

Time to add another entry to my flashback series, and I'm going with J.J. Abrams' 2009 reboot of Star Trek I've seen every episode of The Next Generation, Voyager, and Deep Space Nine, every movie and decent amount of the Original Series (though I haven't actually sat down and watched every episode, yet), but even though it's blasphemous to die-hard fans, the newest film is my personal favorite. The biggest reason for that is the amount of storytelling that takes place in this film. True, it lacks much of the socio-political and cultural commentary that made Star Trek what it is, but unlike the other series that had years to develop their characters and find a mix that worked (goodbye Tasha Yar, hello Seven of Nine), the new film had two hours and 122 pages to do the same amount of work. True, it had some audience recognition on its side, but a quick look at the box office numbers will show just how far this film outstripped the previous entries in the franchise. There're good reasons for that, and I'll take a look at them after the break.

Week Links: Nerds, Spielberg and Abrams

Following up on last week's resolution to post links weekly, here's some things that stood out to me. Click ahead to see them.

Another movie roundup

It looks like I have another bunch of unexplained films on my 2011 ranking list, and since one of those films was really good, while another was quite a disappointment, I feel like explaining why I've ranked them the way I did.

Also, certain films have undergone a considerable shift from their original rankings, and deserve to have their fall pointed out in excruciating detail. Click ahead for more.