Damon Lindelof

[Rocketman]

So what's everyone's opinion of this guy?

Most notable/recent writing credits:

- World War Z (2013)

- Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

- Prometheus (2012)

- Cowboys & Aliens (2011)

- "Lost" (2004-2010)

I personally believe in this new era of science fiction being huge again, this guy isn't helping much. The resume sort of speaks for itself.

 

[The Apocalypse]

I loved his work on LOST and have listened to several interviews of his. I think the man is a creative genius but because a majority of people didnt like LOST's ending I can't ever see this guy getting the respect he deserves.

 

[Teelie]

Very much hit and miss. Lost itself was brilliant, then not so much. Star Trek and Prometheus both had spots of excellence and spots of stupidity. Cowboys and Aliens was fun but it wasn't what it could have been. I don't know what to make of World War Z yet.

 

[samsnee]

Using obscure philosophical references to pose questions you yourself do not really have an answer for does not make your work deep or intellectual.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

I don't care for him as a writer.

 

[TheWiseGuy487]

I personally don't care for him that much.

More often than not, he tends to bring down a lot projects that he's attached to. He has a lot of great ideas, but he never does a great job at expanding upon them or developing them properly. He does a great job at starting stories, but his endings leave much to be desired. He'll start with a great character arc, but write himself into a corner, and then reboot their entire character arc. He basically doesn't plan ahead, and it's annoying.

Also, he just needs to stay away from sci-fi. Too much fake, made-up science and not enough real science. Too many macguffins thrown in to help move the story along. Also, posing a lot of questions about certain things you don't even know the answer to doesn't make you look smart and intelligent. It makes you look dumb and pretentious.

I would say he's pretty much a glorified fan-fic writer. Someone who thinks he writes thought-provoking works, but in reality couldn't write himself out of a plothole if he wanted to.

 

[DarkSovereignty]

I really dug the writing for Star Trek into darkness, but he co wrote that with orrci and kurtzman right? Other than that yeah I don't think he structures his stories very well. Especially cowboys and aliens and Prometheus, which both were fine in the direction and acting department but were hindered by the writing. Haven't seen Any episode of lost since the one with the polar bear and world war z solicits no excitement from me whatsoever.

 

[Soapy]

Using obscure philosophical references to pose questions you yourself do not really have an answer for does not make your work deep or intellectual.

I don't care for him as a writer.

I personally don't care for him that much.

More often than not, he tends to bring down a lot projects that he's attached to. He has a lot of great ideas, but he never does a great job at expanding upon them or developing them properly. He does a great job at starting stories, but his endings leave much to be desired. He'll start with a great character arc, but write himself into a corner, and then reboot their entire character arc. He basically doesn't plan ahead, and it's annoying.

Also, he just needs to stay away from sci-fi. Too much fake, made-up science and not enough real science. Too many macguffins thrown in to help move the story along. Also, posing a lot of questions about certain things you don't even know the answer to doesn't make you look smart and intelligent. It makes you look dumb and pretentious.

I would say he's pretty much a glorified fan-fic writer. Someone who thinks he writes thought-provoking works, but in reality couldn't write himself out of a plothole if he wanted to.

 

[Sawyer]

You're really using World War Z as a credit of his?

He was literally brought on that project for, like, five minutes and then was like "Yeeeeah, I'm out."

 

[Sawyer]

I really dug the writing for Star Trek into darkness, but he co wrote that with orrci and kurtzman right? Other than that yeah I don't think he structures his stories very well. Especially cowboys and aliens and Prometheus, which both were fine in the direction and acting department but were hindered by the writing. Haven't seen Any episode of lost since the one with the polar bear and world war z solicits no excitement from me whatsoever.

Heh... funny.

 

[DarkSovereignty]

I wasn't sure if they wrote cowboys and aliens or just produced it. Lol you really go on the defensive for this guy, dontcha?

 

[hammerhedd11]

I think it's hard to really assess his contributions to any of these films. Most of these went through dozens of rewrites and have multiple screenwriting credits.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I think that he's a great television screenwriter but a horrible film screenwriter. The nonsensical plot points that Lindelof often puts into his scripts for films would most likely work out much better if they were more fully developed for several, hour long, episodes as opposed to a two hour movie.

 

[samsnee]

I can't say how much to the script he contributes, but I do notice a recurring theme of magical plot devices. In Prometheus, the goo was capable of pretty much anything in order to fit the script at the moment. It turns people into zombies, gets women pregnant and to term in 48 hrs, etc. In Star Trek, magic blood is used to save a major character. Even in Lost, there was a magic fluid that moved the plot whenever needed.

 

[DarkSovereignty]

Or the Alien shackle in coboys and aliens.

 

[I SEE SPIDEY]

I can't say how much to the script he contributes, but I do notice a recurring theme of magical plot devices. In Prometheus, the goo was capable of pretty much anything in order to fit the script at the moment. It turns people into zombies, gets women pregnant and to term in 48 hrs, etc. In Star Trek, magic blood is used to save a major character. Even in Lost, there was a magic fluid that moved the plot whenever needed.

Bingo. Magic Blood is the new black goo is what my sister and I agreed on. Abrams and the other writers were just as much to blame for Into Darkness horrible script but the magic blood screamed Lindy invention.

 

[TheWiseGuy487]

Don't forget the Rabbit's Foot/Anti-God from Mission Impossible 3. Or the Red Matter from Star Trek.

Seriously, if I ever become a scriptwriter, I'm using a Damon Lindelof's library of work as examples of what not to put into a script. And that includes stupid MacGuffins and Deus Ex Machina's.

 

[Sawyer]

He had nothing to do with MI3.

 

[DarkSovereignty]

I'm sorry sawyer, please don't be mad at me

 

[Sawyer]

Well that was really directed at WiseGuy, but I'll be mad at you anyway for speaking to me without being spoken to first!

 

[StarLord]

I haven't seen much of Lost to really say, didn't like Cowboys & Aliens nor Prometheus and ST:ID was pretty good.

 

[DarkSovereignty]

Well that was really directed at WiseGuy, but I'll be mad at you anyway for speaking to me without being spoken to first!

O-go gad, oh gad

 

[John Locke]

Don't forget the Rabbit's Foot/Anti-God from Mission Impossible 3. Or the Red Matter from Star Trek.

Seriously, if I ever become a scriptwriter, I'm using a Damon Lindelof's library of work as examples of what not to put into a script. And that includes stupid MacGuffins and Deus Ex Machina's.

Lindelof had nothing to do with Mission Impossible 3 and Lindelof only produced Star Trek. Orrci and Kurtzman wrote it.

I find Jon Favreau overrated can I make a thread on him? Seriously what is the point of this thread other than bash Lindelof. Alfred Hitchcock obviously used MacHuffins does that make him a bad writer. In all the movies you listed he wasn't the only writer on it. People blame him because they hated Lost. I can tolerate people bashing him but we don't need a thread to do it.

 

[StarLord]

There are lots of directors/writers that we can spend all day talking about really.

 

[Rocketman]

I think the combination of "Not Answering the Questions You Posed in the Story" and "Having the Movie Abruptly End Without an Actual Ending" is becoming the new In thing to do in Hollywood, and using these conveniences has suddenly made the writer/director look way more intelligent and artsy than he/she actually is.

Select audiences fall for it too, saying pretentious things like, "It's so realistic, because like life, there aren't always answers to questions," or, "It really makes you think," or, "Not everything in life can be summed up so easily with a nicely packaged ending." Yes, I know, that's why we have movies.

I'm also tired of these villains turning out to be the protagonist's brother, or he was a good guy at first who then turned bad, or he's a stand-in for the ultimate villain who hasn't been revealed yet, or it's some other 'whatever' character. We can't just have villains anymore. They can't just be evil. There has to be some B.S. He has to be all emotional, trying to win approval, or he's actually a big softy, etc.