First of all, don't put The Lost Boys in with anything else you mentioned. It's better than all the others combined. And Abrams' best? That's like the best hockey player in all of Ecuador. God that guy is terrible.
YES thats why Super 8 made more then 5x what it cost to make, and thats why Star Trek 2009 made the most money of all the Start Trek movies, and then 4 years later Star Trek into Darkness made even more then that movie did.
And thats why allot of people likes Super 8, is has a 7.1 on IMDb, and thats why a LOT of people give Star Trek 2009 a 8.0 on IMDb and Star Trek into Darkness a 7.9 on IMDb.
And thats why Disney has ask HIM to make the Star Wars movies.
SO please go away, because he is NOT a bad Director, he is a good Director.
Yes popularity is equal to quality. That means Bieber is one of the best singers of this time and Avatar and the Transformer films are some of the best movies ever made.
I absolutely adore this movie, in some ways even more than the movies it riffs off of.
Brilliant! The interaction with the kids & their movie within a movie that shines a big meta light on the film itself; not only cool idea but it works beautifully.
The primary theme, of course, is about learning to cope with great loss, finding a way back home, literal & figurative.
Joel Courtney does an excellent job along with his merry film troupe, as well as the adult cast deliver very solid performances.
Given the very small budget of $50 Million for this type of film, it is just astounding.
Going back to the OP, thats the problem, it seems to borrow so much from other films. I am seriously thinking Abrams has no original thoughts in his head.