You’d think J.J. Abrams would be busy producing Alcatraz, Person of Interest, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and working on upcoming sequels to Cloverfield and his Star Trek reboot. But somewhere in there, Abrams and his production company, Bad Robot, found time to release an app for the iPhone and iPad that immediately became one of the most popular features for the devices. Action Movie FX lets users create Hollywood special effects for their videos, is free to download, and is amazingly simple to use.

The app comes with two effects, and four more are available for $2; general consensus seems to be that they are well worth it. Action Movie FX is incredibly intuitive: dozens of fun fan-made examples have already popped up on YouTube.

I especially like how the app provides a giant cloud of smoke and flame to cover up whatever was supposedly “blown up”. It looks much better than the effects just abruptly ending, and revealing the normal scene.

What do you think? Do you have sample videos to show?

[image via T3]

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