SilverWook said:

Think back to the movies Lucas watched before selecting Irvin Kershner and Richard Marquand. Would you come away from Eyes of Laura Mars or Eye of the Needle saying that's the guy to make the next SW film?

That's just the thing, though - those picks were daring and perhaps unexpected. The Abrams pick is just the opposite. It's a fine pick, but not particularly intriguing.

If they had picked Affleck or Colin Trevorrow, for example, then people would really be talking and buzzing about what they think the film would be. Instead all we have is lens flare jokes and SW/ST mashups.

Finding out Abrams is directing Star Wars is like finding out Roland Emmerich is directing an end of the world movie, or Scorsese is directing a gangster movie. Nothing wrong with it, but just not interesting or daring.

And I think Abrams felt the same two months ago. He knew that having worked on Star Trek meant it would very, very difficult for him to also do SW and keep the franchises as separate and distinct from one another as possible. But apparently Kennedy, Lucas, and Spielberg were able to convince him.