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[Loud Whispers]

Which is why a real zombie outbreak would start in some poor, populous African country.

Actually I think there is a Webcomic out there that uses that basis to represent how the outbreak happens... Can't remember the name, lost the bookmark...

Basically it starts in a small African town...

There are various towns across the world, mostly along the tropics where humans regularly have to come into contact with animals, namely hunting. When things get cut and blood transmission or something else occurs, pathogens can sometimes cross species - and learn how to invade human hosts. From there, they spread and evolve further.
Knowing that, there are also conveniently placed centers which are always on the look for possibilities of diseases crossing species. This hasn't failed us yet, so I don't see why it would fail us in the event of a zombehpokalips. It'd be like the movie doomsday, except Africa edition.

Spoiler: other thing (click to show/hide)

The pale alien at the end born from the queen grown inside the clone is given a human reproductive system. I want to know who it was supposed to breed with.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The xenomorphs are highly adaptable. The Queen probably would've found a way, and failing that, would've died ending her genealogy. It's not as if all adaptions are actually helpful.

[Neonivek]

I don't see why it would fail us in the event of a zombehpokalips

It tends to involve a sudden and unpredictable leap.

We know right now what surprise viruses will come about (Bacteria a little less so but they are less a deal in this case).

The Zombiepokalips is a virus completely unknown suddenly out of no where infecting huge amounts of people, with excellent infection ability, and with almost absolute fatality rates.

Mind you Zombie-ism actually may be too deadly to really cause wise spread damage unless it can coast on the prevailing winds like some viruses.

[Loud Whispers]

I don't see why it would fail us in the event of a zombehpokalips

It tends to involve a sudden and unpredictable leap.

From guys trained to observe sudden leaps in species. Unpredictable as well, except in geography. That much is predictable. What would be more likely would be somewhere where they're not observing, say... A remote island. Get a significant portion of a bird population infected, have them go on a migration with some zombehbrainzdisease inubating inside them while they fly over to some countries with dense populations, and if the disease ever crossed species - zombehopoculkayepsszz
And that's not likely at all :|
The easiest cause of zombhuporklypse explainable would be some rabies-like disease going airborne. But I'd still say we'd notice and be able to limit it at it's first sight.

[lemon10]

Personally, I think a zombie apocolypse would need 1 of two things in order to be a real threat to global civilization.
Resident evil/left 4 dead super zombies/unique zombies And/OR 50%+ infection and mortality rate (at the very minimum) from the initial disease, as well as near simultaneous effects zombie events taking place.

I don't see why it would fail us in the event of a zombehpokalips

It tends to involve a sudden and unpredictable leap.

From guys trained to observe sudden leaps in species. Unpredictable as well, except in geography. That much is predictable. What would be more likely would be somewhere where they're not observing, say... A remote island. Get a significant portion of a bird population infected, have them go on a migration with some zombehbrainzdisease inubating inside them while they fly over to some countries with dense populations, and if the disease ever crossed species - zombehopoculkayepsszz
And that's not likely at all :|
The easiest cause of zombhuporklypse explainable would be some rabies-like disease going airborne. But I'd still say we'd notice and be able to limit it at it's first sight.

Zombieism has about a 0% chance of ever happening, maybe some laboratory designed virus intended to cause zombieism might be able to cause it (once we get much better at designing diseases of course), but I doubt it.

[Frumple]

Zom. Bock. Oh. Lips.

Zombocalypse. Get it right!

It is the one true fusion of zombie and apocalypse. Zompocalypse is close to acceptable, though obviously incorrect. All other variations are anathema. *fistshake*

Anyway, nitpicks, yeah. I've found as time passes and the distance between watched movies grow, I become increasingly annoyed by movies set in the future that have wildly disparate -- and in some cases, outright regressed (for no mentioned reason) -- technology and, in some ways worse, methodologies.

Avatar in particular annoyed me, though mostly because it's just the most recent I've watched. Try to tell me that material science won't progress to the point we have clear materials capable of taking a flipping arrow by the time we have space travel and I will (metaphorically) hit you in the face with the hurricane propelled brick we already have bouncing off windows, never mind mil grade shit. And that's just the bloody start of it.

I want to strangle the whole pusedo-military thing they had going. One, maybe two, kinetic kill vehicles of the proper type and that whole damn tree would have been splinters, with zero chance of retaliation. Rocks goddamn fall, every space elf dies. Warble warble. Whole bloody thing was done just pathetically bad. Our corporations are massively better than that at native exploitation now (and have been for centuries! We're not getting worse at it!), never mind whatever (even more) dystopian nightmare future!corps are likely to be.

Pretty but stupid does not a good movie make.

[Neonivek]

I assumed that everything on the planet was made out of a stronger then usual material.

Which of course only would add the other plot hole of "Why didn't they just use the vehicle with plating strong enough to deflect large arrows made out of Strongtanium?"

"From guys trained to observe sudden leaps in species. Unpredictable as well"

We are talking about a virus that doesn't exist in nature having a infection rate, infection vectors, and lethality at insane levels comming perfectly out of the blue. As in they don't even see it in nature (or worse they do... in some cases the zombie virus infects all animals as well).

It is something that someone quite well described as "impossible". So tell me, have they trained for the impossible?

[Loud Whispers]

Avatar in particular annoyed me, though mostly because it's just the most recent I've watched. Try to tell me that material science won't progress to the point we have clear materials capable of taking a flipping arrow by the time we have space travel and I will (metaphorically) hit you in the face with the hurricane propelled brick we already have bouncing off windows, never mind mil grade shit. And that's just the bloody start of it.

Didn't the arrows in avatar bounce right off of the gunships's windows?

[Frumple]

The exosuit thing. We'll not say anything about the exosuit beyond that. I love me my giant robots and suchlike, but am terribly aware just how terrible they are as a practical weapons platform.

[10ebbor10]

Avatar in particular annoyed me, though mostly because it's just the most recent I've watched. Try to tell me that material science won't progress to the point we have clear materials capable of taking a flipping arrow by the time we have space travel and I will (metaphorically) hit you in the face with the hurricane propelled brick we already have bouncing off windows, never mind mil grade shit. And that's just the bloody start of it.

I want to strangle the whole pusedo-military thing they had going. One, maybe two, kinetic kill vehicles of the proper type and that whole damn tree would have been splinters, with zero chance of retaliation. Rocks goddamn fall, every space elf dies. Warble warble. Whole bloody thing was done just pathetically bad. Our corporations are massively better than that at native exploitation now (and have been for centuries! We're not getting worse at it!), never mind whatever (even more) dystopian nightmare future!corps are likely to be.

Pretty but stupid does not a good movie make.

1. Jup, nice little plothole we got there. I mean, the cockpits aren't even bulletproof or something.

2. Third time I'm saying this. THE RDA IS NOT EVIL. They don't want to kill  the Na Vi, never wanted too. That's why they used the gas grenades, and allowed the Na'vi to be warned. Besides, the tree was sitting on an unobtanium deposit (which is why they wanted to destroy it in the first place) and unobtanium is some sort of very complicated compound. A significant mass drop could have destroyed the deposit.

Avatar in particular annoyed me, though mostly because it's just the most recent I've watched. Try to tell me that material science won't progress to the point we have clear materials capable of taking a flipping arrow by the time we have space travel and I will (metaphorically) hit you in the face with the hurricane propelled brick we already have bouncing off windows, never mind mil grade shit. And that's just the bloody start of it.

Didn't the arrows in avatar bounce right off of the gunships's windows?

They punch through later. During the tree fight they punch of, which can be explained by the impact angle. Later however, they punch through due to a near perpendicular angle.

The exosuit thing. We'll not say anything about the exosuit beyond that. I love me my giant robots and suchlike, but am terribly aware just how terrible they are as a practical weapons platform.

They were never intended as one. Not completly intended anyway. They can be used for civilian duties too.

[kaijyuu]

Not evil? While amorality != immorality, it's hard to argue that the former can't be evil.

Genocide and destruction wasn't their goal, no, but they considered it an acceptable cost. Preeeety sure that falls under evil.

[Loud Whispers]

The exosuit thing. We'll not say anything about the exosuit beyond that. I love me my giant robots and suchlike, but am terribly aware just how terrible they are as a practical weapons platform.

They were never intended as one. Not completly intended anyway. They can be used for civilian duties too.

Yeah in the earlier scenes the mechs are all seen doing nothing but lift crates. I'd imagine a proper spehss military would've fielded something with much more dakka.

Also I just noticed : All of the fighting in the jungles ever done was done in thick foliage. Who forgot the flamethrowers? :p

[MrWiggles]

I think you all keep assuming that Pandora Mining Group, was a military first operation and not a military protected operation. With the overly dangerous flora and fauna the operation needed a fair amount of protect. They weren't armed for a war in the jungle.

And why does everyone assume the spaceship that brought them there is also military and loaded with guns? And even if it was, why would it be loaded with nukes? I think these suppose plot holes, are just inventing plot holes.

[10ebbor10]

The exosuit thing. We'll not say anything about the exosuit beyond that. I love me my giant robots and suchlike, but am terribly aware just how terrible they are as a practical weapons platform.

They were never intended as one. Not completly intended anyway. They can be used for civilian duties too.

Yeah in the earlier scenes the mechs are all seen doing nothing but lift crates. I'd imagine a proper spehss military would've fielded something with much more dakka.

Also I just noticed : All of the fighting in the jungles ever done was done in thick foliage. Who forgot the flamethrowers? :p

They are shown for exactly 5 seconds. I assume they are just to expensive to use or something. It's not like the mechs or even the gunships seem to have problems navigating the foliage.

Not evil? While amorality != immorality, it's hard to argue that the former can't be evil.

Genocide and destruction wasn't their goal, no, but they considered it an acceptable cost. Preeeety sure that falls under evil.

Not evil in the sense that everyone thinks them to be. They got no reasons to genocide the Na'Vi , and therefore they don't.

[Frumple]

2. Third time I'm saying this. THE RDA IS NOT EVIL. They don't want to kill  the Na Vi, never wanted too. That's why they used the gas grenades, and allowed the Na'vi to be warned. Besides, the tree was sitting on an unobtanium deposit (which is why they wanted to destroy it in the first place) and unobtanium is some sort of very complicated compound. A significant mass drop could have destroyed the deposit.

Who said anything about evil? S'got nothing to do with morality, has to do with apparently forgetting vast swaths of our history. Poorly done everything, apparently throwing out centuries of highly efficient methods of extorting materials from native populations, and when they actually do decide to go to violence, they do it in a way approaching the least effective method possible. S'vaguely infuriating, y'know?

I mean, hell m'fellow. We can make clones of them. Wide area gas based (probably contact) tranquilizer, send in drones to collect the bodies and airlift them to other side of the continent. Done and done (and probably ridiculously more cost effective than those silly avatar things, or even the incendiaries they tried to resort to.). They get pissed and march back across and try and stop you, you just do it again. That's just one of at least a dozen ways that would have been more effective than trying to drop incendiaries from within range of retaliation. This isn't highly advanced military strategy! I've watched preteens come up with equivalent strategy without prompting!

I just... when a movie seems to be trying to take itself seriously and a dozen little things is demonstrating that the antagonist (or protagonist, really.) is just massively incompetent... I'unno. Maybe it's not so much nitpick as just a crappy writer or something?

I think you all keep assuming that Pandora Mining Group, was a military first operation and not a military protected operation. With the overly dangerous flora and fauna the operation needed a fair amount of protect. They weren't armed for a war in the jungle.

Mostly my problem is that it shouldn't have been a war in the jungle. The tech disparity, just with the crap they showed, never mind anything hidden aware, should have made the conflict utterly trivial if the human side wasn't being massively brain dead about it.

And why does everyone assume the spaceship that brought them there is also military and loaded with guns? And even if it was, why would it be loaded with nukes? I think these suppose plot holes, are just inventing plot holes.

Who said anything about nukes? Drop a small rock on them. If they've got interstellar space travel, they've got the tech and the knowhow to dig up a rock of sufficient size and pinpoint drop it on points of resistance (we're bloody close to having it now). Air superiority is near absolute superiority, and orbital superiority is a notch above that. You just use a small enough rock it won't damage the ore deposits. Hell, you don't even have to drop from orbit! Just go higher than the oversized flying lizards can and dump an ore load's worth of rock on them or something. Problem solved!

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Not evil? While amorality != immorality, it's hard to argue that the former can't be evil.

Genocide and destruction wasn't their goal, no, but they considered it an acceptable cost. Preeeety sure that falls under evil.

You want to talk about genocide? Humanity in Avatar needs unobtainium for FTL, which is in turn used to transport resources and Pandoran biology back to Earth, which is in turn keeping the planet and the people on it from collapsing into apocalyptic chaos due a lack of resources and biological diversity. The Na'vi, on the other hand, completely refuse to cooperate and randomly decided to start killing the RDA personnel on sight from the advice of their God-Emperor-Tree-Thing. The actions they take present an existential threat to humanity. They would have gotten off lucky being bombed into retreat, and thanks to traitor extraordinaire Jake Sully everyone on Earth is doomed.

Colonel Quartich is the true hero of Avatar and the attempted savior of all humankind, betrayed at the darkest hour by his most trusted follower.