9. Lens Flare Is A Homage To Spielberg Star Trek/Super 8
Ripping J.J. Abrams for his use of lens flare is more tired than the gimmick itself. He uses it a lot, end of joke. The thing is, while is stands out from the standard summer blockbuster, theres a real artistic grounding to it. Ive talked before about how Steven Spielberg has a real fascination for backlighting and this clearly had an effect on little J.J.; its the entire reason he uses lens flare. A post-modern version of backlighting, it makes thing at once of the time theyre made in and the time theyre set. Using lens flare in Super 8, something the directors critics bemoaned, suddenly becomes much more sensible; the whole film was a homage to Spielberg, so why not honour him with a new version of his directorial tick? Why it appears in Star Trek is less obvious, what with Spielberg having no relation to that franchise, but given that the film is so heavily influenced by George Lucas, it was his way of directly honouring the great man.