Plot holes in "Avatar"

[imc440]

That's the biggest problem with trying to make this movie into a metaphore for the US occupation. We'd have a PR nightmare if we just decided to drop nukes and eliminate any threat by extinguishing life. These guys wouldn't. Really, I don't think anybody outside of the planet would care if they started launching rockets at all the life sources.

 

[House_Vet]

The biggest plot hole I saw in the movie was the ending..

So they just ship the corporate bad guys off? And assumably, those greedy corporate types will go "oh, well that didnt turn out so well, lets just leave it. We've lost tons of money and scores of human lives in this endeavor. We know when we are beaten, time to give up!"

When the more likely outcome is "we underestimated the resiliency of these natives and used an inadequate amount of force. Lets send three times the number of troops with actual WARFARE technology, not just the bargain bin weaponry, and a competent commander to lead them."

In essence, they could just send the bulk of their military forces BACK to pandora to take that unobtainium with extreme prejudice. Honestly, the Navi won this single BATTLE by and large with LUCK.. the humans simply did not expect the amount of resistance and underestimated their enemy. Next time, the planet of Pandora won't have the luxury of the element of surprise, will return with overwhelming numbers and advanced weaponry, and simply decimate the native populations..

Pretty much what happened to the American Natives in the end... since this movie wanted to make a parallel to imperial/colonial history, it should at least complete the lesson and show that in the end the entire planet of Pandora was brought to heel and left as a pile of ash and ruin.

And the result is? Sequel!

 

[HyenaThePirate]

The biggest plot hole I saw in the movie was the ending..

So they just ship the corporate bad guys off? And assumably, those greedy corporate types will go "oh, well that didnt turn out so well, lets just leave it. We've lost tons of money and scores of human lives in this endeavor. We know when we are beaten, time to give up!"

When the more likely outcome is "we underestimated the resiliency of these natives and used an inadequate amount of force. Lets send three times the number of troops with actual WARFARE technology, not just the bargain bin weaponry, and a competent commander to lead them."

In essence, they could just send the bulk of their military forces BACK to pandora to take that unobtainium with extreme prejudice. Honestly, the Navi won this single BATTLE by and large with LUCK.. the humans simply did not expect the amount of resistance and underestimated their enemy. Next time, the planet of Pandora won't have the luxury of the element of surprise, will return with overwhelming numbers and advanced weaponry, and simply decimate the native populations..

Pretty much what happened to the American Natives in the end... since this movie wanted to make a parallel to imperial/colonial history, it should at least complete the lesson and show that in the end the entire planet of Pandora was brought to heel and left as a pile of ash and ruin.

And the result is? Sequel!

Sequel? It would be about 10 minutes long.. it would open with the massive fleet of the corporation military above the planet, followed by two minutes of orbital bombardment, followed by thousands of troops descending down upon the planet and ending with Jake and Neytiri being shot unceremoniously in the heads, execution style.
Then the corporation would start mining Unobtainium and it would show Giovanni Ribisi zoomed in on the screen going.. "Maybe we should change it's name to "AbsolutelyObtainium".
Roll credits.

 

[awsome117]

The biggest plot hole I saw in the movie was the ending..

So they just ship the corporate bad guys off? And assumably, those greedy corporate types will go "oh, well that didnt turn out so well, lets just leave it. We've lost tons of money and scores of human lives in this endeavor. We know when we are beaten, time to give up!"

When the more likely outcome is "we underestimated the resiliency of these natives and used an inadequate amount of force. Lets send three times the number of troops with actual WARFARE technology, not just the bargain bin weaponry, and a competent commander to lead them."

In essence, they could just send the bulk of their military forces BACK to pandora to take that unobtainium with extreme prejudice. Honestly, the Navi won this single BATTLE by and large with LUCK.. the humans simply did not expect the amount of resistance and underestimated their enemy. Next time, the planet of Pandora won't have the luxury of the element of surprise, will return with overwhelming numbers and advanced weaponry, and simply decimate the native populations..

Pretty much what happened to the American Natives in the end... since this movie wanted to make a parallel to imperial/colonial history, it should at least complete the lesson and show that in the end the entire planet of Pandora was brought to heel and left as a pile of ash and ruin.

This. I mean really, did Jake, a former Marine, would think that one lost battle will stop humans from coming back?

Also, did they ever really explain what was so important about Unobtainium? I didn't really get why, and in a three hour long movie with nothing going on really, they could have taken a minute or two to explain why.

 

[Flagcapper2k9]

No one has seen the similarities in the Na'vi and the Delvians of Farscape?

 

[sidhe3141]

You are forgetting that all of those animals are fiercely territorial... and what has the industrial-military complex been doing all this time? Invading their territory and burning down their nests/homes. At this point, they are PISSED.

True, but they haven't shown up in that kind of numbers at all. Not to mention with said deforestation, it's going to kill quite a few of them. Not to mention despite word going around the whole of Pandora, the Na'vi only gain 2,000 warriors. Allow me to emphesise that figure - 2,000?!?! In perspective, there are 6 billion human beings on Earth today, and no doubt more at the point Avatar sets us up with.

I figured that the animals were linked to the network too; after all, "ports" are a standard feature on all the local fauna, so it seems likely that whatever the common ancestor of all Pandoran animal life is was part of the network.

But here's some of my (minor) gripes:
1) How did the network evolve in the first place? I know it's explained as communication between the trees, but plants don't really gain any benefit from being able to communicate, and not much of an immediate benefit from allowing animals to communicate.
2) Again regarding the network: why did they need to waste time going out in person to rally the tribes instead of sending a message through the global mind?
3) How did the Na'vi come up with a ritual for downloading one person's mind into a comatose but otherwise healthy body? It's not exactly the kind of thing that comes up often, and really not the sort of thing the priestess was likely to have actually practiced before.
4) Some comparative biology issues: a) how can human brains (which, for those of you who've forgotten, cannot interface directly with any other mind) even handle the aforementioned download process; and b) isn't the tribe doomed, now that the semi-hereditary leaders are probably an infertile couple (since one of them is a Na'vi/human hybrid)?
5) Col. Badass' Last Stand. It was stated that breathing the air for more than two minutes causes unconsciousness, but he was exerting himself for well over 120 seconds (yes, I was counting) with no signs of even being a bit groggy or short of breath. Instead, the only thing they could come up with was milking a bit of extra drama out of it.

Oh, one last thing: Evil Megacorps with private armies blasting the **** out of anyone who stands up to them, opposed by native spiritualists and under-the-radar scientists and ex-marines, an ability that lets people fall asleep and pilot a kind of "remote form", a wetware interface with a kind of "Matrix"... anyone else think someone may be a Shadowrun fan?

 

[Nmil-ek]

Why was it that the most expensive film ever was unable to come up with a better name for this mysterious substance than unobtanium? WHY? That's what I want to know.

Because calling it oil would have been to big a give away.

 

[Monkeytacoz]

http://failblog.org/2010/01/10/avatar-plot-fail/

 

[HyenaThePirate]

And why did all the Na'vi arrows bounce harmlessly off the jets at first, and then at the end they are blasting straight through the cockpit windows?

They came from a steep angle better suited for penetration, building up force as they went, already had considerable speed, and they hit a larger piece of glass than the windows you saw get scratched and whatnot earlier in the movie when they tried their arrows. It's obvious in that part though that they simply couldn't get a proper hit with the proper angle, not did they have enough force in the impact because they came from beneath and the initial velocity was zero; the shooters were stationary, as opposed to flying some LSD-Dragons and coming from above with high velocity before they even fired their arrows. Simple 8th grade physics. This would give the arrows high initial velocity before the force of the bow is applied increasing the potential force of impact.

So it's definitely possible, just not probable, but it's a Sci-Fi, so they find ways...

This theory falls a part the moment you remember that all of this takes place IN MID-AIR..
How do you have a "steep angle" better suited for penetration and building up force when you're flying around on the back of a whatever it is, shooting at a fully armored helicopter thingy that itself is whizzing about and that, with armor designed to stop the penetration of futuristic bullets in war back on Earth presumably..

Are you saying the Navi arrowheads were made of stronger materials and fired with suitable enough force to puncture through what is undoubtedly highly advanced armor?

This was the equivalent of African zulu warriors fighting a tank, and that was somewhat the point in the film I chose to suspend what was left of my disbelief and just enjoy it for the eye candy that it was. Because quite frankly it was all a load of bollocks. It was more believable that the Ewoks took down Imperial troops because those were just dudes in compressed carbon armor or summit like that and a stone flint knife can still slip under a helmet, and swinging boulder can still damage a mechanized assault vehicle. The Ewoks fought smart and I'm ashamed to say, a bit more realistically.. they didn't just simply CHARGE the Stormtrooper brigade with slings and shite and hope to win by sheer furry numbers. It was hit and run guerilla style.

In Avatar however, we get big blue people on birds firing magic arrows into armored aircraft with devastating force (and accuracy).
ALthough we did see them die by scores... makes me wonder if in the end, their victory wasn't bitter sweet, considering the thousands upon thousands of Na'vi that were mowed down in the beginning stages of that battle.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

Why was it that the most expensive film ever was unable to come up with a better name for this mysterious substance than unobtanium? WHY? That's what I want to know.

That is the reason I spent most of the movie giggling quietly to myself, "Unobtanium? Really? I can come up with a better name off the top of my head: Zalek crystals."

"Unobtainium" was not a name made up for this movie; it's long been a term used for a wonder-substance that meets all scientific needs, with the only stipulation being the fact that it doesn't exist.

Yes, I too am familiar with [link]tvtropes.org[/link]. I was just saying it was utterly stupid to leave that as the name for the substance. The writer/creator can have it do anything they want, but at least call it something better.

I dunno. We may have to agree to disagree here; I don't see any point in calling it THE ZORGLAXX CRYSTALS when the name of the crystal is an unimportant part of the movie. If you cal it something flashy, you have to explain why it's called that, and that's a pain. If you go with a trope some people are familiar with - or can look up later - problem solved. You don't need an extra two minutes of pointless exposition about a plot point that's irrelevant.

I agree then. While there would maybe be a need to explain a crystal, the movie using "unobtanium" never even explained why it was so valuable, so they failed just as badly as if they'd given it some random name. Really, all I want is a clear explanation of why the frickin' stuff was worth so much $$.

 

[Zetsubou]

Pretty much what happened to the American Natives in the end... since this movie wanted to make a parallel to imperial/colonial history, it should at least complete the lesson and show that in the end the entire planet of Pandora was brought to heel and left as a pile of ash and ruin.

I smell a sequel...

 

[Iron Criterion]

The biggest plot hole I found was that everyone apparently saw a god like movie, whilst what I saw was very average. Strange...

 

[chickenlord]

also how if their atmosphere isnt oxygen (im assuming its not oxygen cause human die in it) then how are there fires and explosions... not to get too technical but oxygen vital to fire...

 

[chickenlord]

The biggest plot hole I found was that everyone apparently saw a god like movie, whilst what I saw was very average. Strange...

...weird...i saw the same version... must have separate showings....

 

[Iron Criterion]

The biggest plot hole I found was that everyone apparently saw a god like movie, whilst what I saw was very average. Strange...

...weird...i saw the same version... must have separate showings....

That'll be it.

 

[kotorfan04]

Well it isn't so much a plot hole as much as it is an inferred apocalypse concerning what happens when the corporation goes back to Earth:

CEO: What do you mean our entire base on Pandora was wiped out?

Lackey: Well the natives rallied and used spears and shit to kill our dudes?

CEO: Really? So we are out of Unobtanium, the resource which apparently fuels our world for vague reasons, and our people were massacred.

Lackey: Yessir.

CEO: Well I suppose we will have to inform the public that our honest hardworking people were attacked, and repelled due to the Na'vi's treachery.

Lackey: So you want us to launch a counter attack?

CEO: Oh fuck no just drop a meteorite on the planet. I would like to see the savages dodge that, then when they are all dead we can have the unobtanium to ourselves.

Lackey: Right away sir.

Also on the unobtanium subject. I just can't wrap my head around naming anything unobtanium, the name denotes that it is unobtainable, seems that I would get discouraged looking for a massive amount of unobtanium, and think someone was fucking with me.