Kevin Graham wrote:And why does light coming out of a gun "kick" as if it a firearm?
In the original ("Star Wars"? "Episode 4"? "A New Hope"?) the guns were firing blanks on the set to give a more realistic "feel" to the universe. While the physics may be wrong, Lucas recognized that accurate physics can look very fake to our earth-bound experienced brains.
For example, compare how cool the ION cannon looks in ESB, compared to how you can imagine it would look if it just sat there statically when firing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BkOVSFb2Zw&t=2m31sBut as others have pointed out, this method has its limits, and it seems having the bombs "drop" at the beginning of Episode 8 was a bit too much. "Oh, you have explosives that can blow up that ship? Instead of flying them close to the ship and then launching them (and risking pilots and ships in the process), maybe you could, you know,
propel them towards the ship using some kind of rocket technology...?"