I suspect that Abrams is going to be given significantly less latitude to play around with the basic concepts. For Star Wars I think he was given carte blanche to do whatever was necessary to revive what Berman and Braga had driven into the ground. I find the results appalling, but the movies have been hits, so mission accomplished.
But Star Wars, even the pretty dismal prequels, has a certain cinematographic vocabulary, heavily influenced by Kurosawa. At times, the vocabulary was about the only thing that marked the prequels as Star Wars films, seeing as Lucas so thoroughly muddied the waters in other ways. I have to believe that Disney has told Abrams that the "Star Wars" feel has to remain intact, so I don't expect any lens flare, or shot length to be cut to the dizzyingly short length that typifies the Star Trek reboots.