You've never been hit by a laser blast, you have no idea what it feels like. We all know about the evils of abstracts. A street, means any street. A car, means any car. I want to see a specific street, a specific car.
Hard detail is what makes a story believable.
Which takes us back to that laser gun. George Lucas figured out a way to by-pass this problem by creating 'light sabers', which are basically laser blades. Using action and violence in your script is meaningless unless your audience can feel it. It's just exploitation. Spurting blood and exploding heads.