Other than sequels and rehash of older series, do we still have the classic “pew pew” laser beams of the past, like Star Wars, Star Trek, Terminator? What recent movies (In the last 5 years or so) still uses the concept of visible flying laser bolts? Or have we moved away from that cliche with the advent of real laser weaponry?
I remember Iron Man had a similar concept except it wasn’t lasers, but rather some other form of energy.
We have real laser weaponry now? When did this happen?
I’m pretty sure they’re testing/mounting directed laser weapons on aircraft now. A quick google got me:
and
Airborne laser:
http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/abl/index.html
However:
Boeing’s Airborne Laser shot down by the DoD along with another sci-fi weapon
These programs are darn hard to kill though, so I wouldn’t totally count it out yet.
How do you shoot down a laser? 
Iron Man used bullets, which behave like bullets, and repulsor beams, which had very little visible effect at all, other than the projector glowing and the target flying back.
Ok the repulsor beams are what I’m talking about.
But it seems like we don’t see much of these laser concepts anymore… have we finally given them up?
A throwaway line from the first Terminator film suggests the use of plasma weaponry. Throwing gooey hot plasma at people would have something visible and slower than light speed moving around wouldn’t it?
I just saw the new Star Trek movie last night. It had phasers whose shots made noises, and there were visible flashes. On the other hands, something depositing a lot of energy in a small space will certainly cause bright flashes there and noisy explosions, even if the beam itself isn’t visible.
And “Star Trek” probably falls into your definition of a “sequel”.
People knew back when lasers first appeared in TV and the movies that the beams were silent and not visible from the side, but it wouldn’t have been as impressive, so they added gratuitous laser noises and visibility for drama, just as Roddenbery added that “swoosh” of the Enterprise in space. My suspicion is that they will continue to use scientifically unrealistic lasers for their gut dramatic appeal, just as they continue to use sound in space (2001 was a rare case of true space silence. s010 tried to be accurate, but they cheated plenty of times. Peter Hyams evidently doesn’t believe in the dramatic potential of silent space).
Chronicles of Riddick had a variety of energy weapons, and it’s just in the 5 year window. That said, it was a sequel to Pitch Black, but Pitch Black didn’t have any energy weapons (it was about the survivors from a crashed freighter, so they just might not have been carrying any of the pew pew guns with them).
Wall-E I think had a few pew pew guns.