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.
Umm, have you forgotten the Star Trek reboot movies? Those were pretty awful. I don’t think it’s impossible for JJ to make a bad movie, he’s done it before. And there’s no tangible evidence in any of the BTS stuff that suggests meddling producers. The whole reason we know about the “creative disputes” in the spinoff movies is because it was pretty out in the open, not secret at all. I can’t imagine why they’d suddenly try to hide production issues in TROS.
First Star Trek movie was alright, if a bit shallow at times.
Then it went downhill.