10 Movies That Ruined Awesome Cinematic Tricks

Lens flare can be a distinctive visual flourish when deployed sparingly, to add character to a scene, to impress an environment's brightness to the audience, or simply because it just looks really damn cool.

But J.J. Abrams ruined lens flares for everybody when he went hilariously overboard with them on several of his films - namely his two Star Trek movies and also 2011's Super 8.

In these films, lens flares are visible in the majority of shots, which Abrams achieved by shining powerful lights at the camera lens during shooting. Of his intention, Abrams said:

"I wanted a visual system that felt unique... I love the idea that the future was so bright it couldn't be contained in the frame."

During production of Star Trek Into Darkness, though, Abrams finally realised he'd taken the technique too far:

"I know I get a lot of grief for that... But I'll tell you, there are times when I'm working on a shot, I think, 'Oh this would be really cool ... with a lens flare.' But I know it's too much, and I apologise. I'm so aware of it now. I was showing my wife an early cut of Star Trek Into Darkness and there was this one scene where she was literally like, 'I just can't see what's going on. I don't understand what that is.' I was like, 'Yeah, I went too nuts on this.'"

Abrams has since pulled back considerably with his use of lens flare, and given the vocal complaints from moviegoers about it, few filmmakers these days use lens flare much at all, let alone in creative and imaginative ways.