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[JWBear]

We just saw it. AWESOME!

My observations have mostly been brought up in other posters, so I won't repeat what they have said.

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

And, thanks to Mythbusters, the one moment that I probably would have otherwise rolled my eyes and and cried foul fell squarely into "plausible":

Spoiler:

During the attack on Home Tree, the entire clan let loose their arrows on the gun ships, and did nothing more than nick the cockpit glass. But during the final battle, an arrow pierced clear through the glass and killed the pilot. What gives?!! Well, thanks to the Mythbusters episode about firing an arrow from a horse, we all know that an arrow fired from a moving mount does indeed carry more force do to the forward momentum of the mount, and those flying beasts were certainly diving pretty fast, so I'll give it to them! Nice.

It seemed to me that

Spoiler:

the arrows they were shooting from "horse"back were also much more substantial.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by JWBear

It seemed to me that

Spoiler:

the arrows they were shooting from "horse"back were also much more substantial.

Spoiler:

Yeah, and they were also shot from much closer range, and a more direct angle. But the appropriateness of the Mythbusters episode made me chuckle

Also, was I the only one who had to suppress the urge to swat at bugs during the first scene in the forest?

[RStar]

I loved it, also! It reminded me a loy of "Ferngully", mixed with the American Indian history and the way we treated them.

The one "plausable problem" I saw was that huge planet that was so close it seemed like there would be gravitational pull issues.

And yes, that was a much more substantial arrow that went through the glass.

[Jazzman]

The Wife and I were going to go ahead and see Avatar in IMAX 3D this coming weekend, but then I found out how much tickets cost. $15.50 to see Alien Smurf Hippies!?! I don't f-ing think so! If I want to see 3D hippies with anti-capitalist ideals running around raging against The Man, I'll go hang out in downtown Portland. And if I want them to be funnily colored hippies, I'll go hang out at the Saturday Market. Besides, isn't it a bit disingenuous to make a big movie all about how humans are evil, Western nature rapists, and then charge $15 to see it? Seems a little un-hippy-like to go all mega-capitalist on the admission price to see your anti-capitalism movie. Shouldn't they be charging, like, beads or carbon credits or organic, free trade coffee for admission or something? Anyhow, I'll see it when it hits Netflix. Sorry Mr. Cameron.

[flippyshark]

Further proof of the indispensability of Mythbusters, GD!

[Gemini Cricket]

I think GD secretly works as a spokesperson for Mythbusters and the Container Store.

[Alex]

Spoiler:

Also, when shot from the sky the spears and arrows were striking the glass mostly perpendicular whereas the ground shots were hitting at an extremely oblique angle.

Glad that nobodies seems to have been particularly burned by my enthusiasm.

Whoops, missed the next page.

[Alex]

If interested, apparently you can find floating around on the internet Cameron's original treatment which contained a lot more explanatory information (such as the conditions on earth, some differences in the planetary mythology -- if CP didn't like the planet's role in this version she'd have liked the original version less). Apparently if it had all made it on screen the movie would have been about 5 hours long.

If the sequels happen I suspect a lot of it will end up in those.

[flippyshark]

This movie does seem especially franchise-ready - sequels, novels, comics, animation, TV series, video games - it could really explode. I'll be interested to see if it does.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

I realized later that another thing bugged me about the planet's "role".

Spoiler:

When they bulldoze the sacred trees, Weaver yells at them about how there is something real going on down there, that they are connected to the planet mainframe, yadda yadda....but to me, this is a non-point, and a bit of a disappointment. Does it matter whether their religion is based in fact, or based on something that no one could prove, or if they worshiped their planet for no good reason?

In the face of "this Aywa thing is real" the villain says "it's just a bunch of trees" and that's supposed to make it ok. If that's a holy place for them, then they have no business destroying it without permission, and that should be the argument made.

I'd argue that they had no business on the planet at all without permission from the natives, but of course that is the entire point of the movie.