There is no way that JJ is proud of this cut. This is not the caliber of film he would make. I know he is a hit and miss guy (some times), but this movie was a mess, not a JJ standard. I guarantee there was a lot of executives who were meddling with the story. I am sure there is a cut that JJ would prefer to have out, but the big wigs have the final say. JJ, or any director/actor, is always gonna respond to the media with excellent feed back regarding their work because it is in the best interest of the company and the film. He’s not gonna bash the hand that feeds him or something he co-created. He probably is just done with the lack of leadership and direction going on at LUCAS-FILM.
There is no secret cut. He put out exactly what he wanted to put out. Nobody made him edit the movie the way he did. He did that on his own.
Source?
JJ Abrams?
The fact there are movies that were “meddled in” (again - movies having turbulent production is a fact of movies. Was Empire Strikes Back “Meddled with?” Or just MADE?) doesn’t mean JJ’s was. I’m taking the history of the production (which is very public) and plenty of their own words (just as public) and also taking into account the man’s larger filmography, of which this is very consistent.
There is no “secret cut” - the question of one is clickbait from conspiracist YouTubers who are scumming for subscribes. It gains traction because people think the act of making movies is much more clandestine and covert than it really is, and they’re not familiar (despite watching hours upon hours of behind the scenes footage they’ve since mythologized) with things like “Assembly Cuts” so when they hear about a film having an Assembly Cut, they “report” it to their breathless subscribers as some sort of secret hidden cut that’s being withheld from the TRUE FANS.
Unless you’re trying to gain subscribers for Google ad money, there’s nothing in it for anyone to perpetuate any idea beyond “JJ Abrams made a bad movie.” He made a bad movie full of bad decisions. He’s done it before. So has George Lucas. Star Wars fans should, at this point, have come to terms with the fact it’s a 50/50 shot their movie is going to be ok when it comes out. There’s no real point in searching for excuses when it doesn’t, because it happens so frequently it shouldn’t be a surprise or a Miss Marple Mystery to dig into as to WHY it happened.
Abrams did this to himself. Dunno why anyone would think otherwise. All the evidence is out in the open and offered up freely. He’s not a beleagured artist being oppressed by suits. He IS the suits. If there was corporate meddling, he IS that meddling. He was called in to “fix” the movie, and this is what his fix looked like. He blew it, and that’s on him. It’s not really any more complicated than that. There’s no secret cut of this movie.