Terrible creative decision with tragic results

Rating: 4/10 (19 May 2013)

Let me begin by saying this film could have been a 7 or an 8 were it not for a shockingly bad creative decision by the director. I'm talking about artificial lens flares. After complaining to a friend about how incredibly annoying it was, he informed me that the first movie had the same problem...and that is was a problem because it spawned a worldwide backlash with fans asking "WTF"?
So why would the director do it again when it was universally hated the first time around? Arrogance? Maybe we can look forward to Jar Jar Binks in the new Star Wars movies since J.J. doesn't seem to care what annoys a huge portion of this fan base. No one is out there saying "Wow, I love those lens flare. They made the movie!" But had I seen the first, and assuming they were as bad, I wouldn't have seen the second. If there's a third, I won't be checking that one out...perhaps that had something to do with the film not meeting expectations opening weekend....