Hollywood explosions are impressive sometimes, there’s no doubt about this since the fire, the damage, and the massive BOOM that most explosions make is what some people tend to wait for when it comes to collisions or when explosives are being used. The problem is, they’re not realistic, not even close. When an explosive goes off there’s still a boom and a possibility of fragmentation depending on the device being used, especially if something has been used with it to give a greater effect. But here’s where the effect comes from, an added element that is capable of giving that added flash and flare that people are used to seeing. The nature of an explosion is to function as it’s supposed to, meaning that it will explode, but without any added elements to the mix, the blazing inferno that is seen so often in the movies and on TV just won’t occur. Granted, if you throw a lit match into a can of gasoline there’s a good chance that you’re going to create a fireball, but that’s a very different effect than simply creating an explosion with something such as C-4 or Semtex since without those added materials there will be plenty of explosive power but no fire and no fragmentation unless it’s created by another element.
A few directors in Hollywood love to use big explosions, Michael Bay being one of them since they do tend to add to the gravitas of an action movie and can lend another level of danger to the overall story that people enjoy. But as the clip shows, nothing much is going to happen save for the explosion, at least not until something is placed near the explosive so that it can ignite the flammable materials that are used to great the effects that tend to attract the most attention. Fireballs and flames shooting out of every possible area up the intensity factor in a lot of movies and on TV shows. To many people, this signifies greater danger and is a better end to a situation than a simple puff of smoke and an explosive boom. Theatrics is everything when it comes to a Hollywood explosion since people want to see stuff blowing up, and they want to witness something that engulfs nearly the entire scene with a blossom of reddish-orange and dark smoke. The only problem is that it does get gratuitous after a while since too many explosions can actually become boring if one can believe that.
One very good example to use for this is any Michael Bay movie since the director loves to use explosions every chance he gets, no matter if it’s a bit of overkill and whether or not there’s any reason for things to be exploding as they are. When used too often, explosions tend to take away from the main point of the movie since when they’re expected simply out of habit it becomes an irritant after a while since people are bound to wait for the explosion to come and go so that they can then focus on the rest of the movie. Seriously, how many explosions would it take for people to feel this way? The answer is kind of hard to tell since a lot of people have grown tired of seeing movie explosions that don’t make sense considering that in real life, cars don’t tend to explode on impact or when they’ve been run over by a bigger vehicle. There’s plenty of damage without a massive plume of flame that comes racing out of every window in the car, especially since people can’t help but think that the realism factor has been shot to hell after such a thing happens. A few animated shows have even made light of this by featuring various exploding objects in one or more episodes that will inexplicably explode for no reason other than because they could. Seriously, it’s become that humorous since too many directors still use this method to make their movies look just a little bit more impressive.
A lot of us probably never thought the day would come when we grew tired of explosions in a movie every now and then, but that day has come and gone for a lot of folks. That’s not to say that we don’t enjoy a well-executed explosion every now and then, as some directors have managed to use the pyrotechnics at their disposal to great effect and have actually made it possible to enjoy such moments. But in some cases, the explosions are just a little too over the top and end up looking pretty cheesy. When it’s a boom for the sake of boom it becomes kind of a cheap form of entertainment that doesn’t have a whole lot of value to it. Yes, I said it, boom for the sake of boom equals lame.
Follow Us
