>a big semi full of salt

Let's have the semi jump off the end of an unfinished highway overpass and do a barrel roll. While the truck is slo-mo flying through the air we'll cut to a ground shot of a middle-aged dad about to salt some meat on the grill, but the barrel-rolling truck overhead spills just the perfect amount of salt on his burgers so he just looks up and shrugs. Finally we'll cut back to the massive explosion as the truck hits the ground.

Quippy nonsense between wild over-the-top action is basically the calling card for Marvel movies.

Hah point taken, let me put it a different way.

In American films, if someone does extreme, superhuman stunts, the filmmaker typically feels pressure to explain that the character is actually superhuman in some way and not an ordinary guy with an office job. And he or she will be in peak physical shape.

In Indian film, an utterly ordinary character in "office job" physical condition will catch bullets, run faster than a full speed train, etc. No pressure to explain the seeming contradiction with ordinary reality. The film could be considered a romance, having ordinary people as protagonists, and these characters would be doing the above-mentioned stunts as part of the plot.

These aren't hard and fast rules, both sides of the divide deviate from them, but that's been my observation.

> No pressure to explain the seeming contradiction with ordinary reality

this is a feature and not a bug. The urge for excessive exposition is so tiring. Not everything needs an origins story, explanation, or a prequel. Hollywood has been leaning on that formula and you can see it in the product - the movies have become tiresome.

Nobody needs an explanation for their “powers”. Excessively qualifying a character more likely burdens then than lifts them. RRR was such a refreshing, thrilling watch parallel to Mad Max: Fury Road.

If bob the accountant lifts a car overhead I DO expect an explanation of how he can do that.

> In Indian film, an utterly ordinary character in "office job" physical condition will catch bullets, run faster than a full speed train, etc. No pressure to explain the seeming contradiction with ordinary reality. The film could be considered a romance, having ordinary people as protagonists, and these characters would be doing the above-mentioned stunts as part of the plot.

Kind of like anime...

It’s funny you should say that. RRR was the first Indian movie I’ve watched that felt like anime to me. I think it’s actually a very enlightening comparison.