Duncan Jones didn't seem to like it much, but I think he's a little blind to the plot flaws in "Moon".
If true, I still don't see what that has to do with his perfectly valid review of 'Avatar.' The guy is entitled to his opinion, and it's commendable that he would be so blunt regarding a movie by such an influential genre director, especially just starting out like he is.
What is the meaning of the arched rock formations in the energy vortex -- remind anyone of a broken eggshell?
They were arched around following the magnetic field surrounding the tree of life.
Will Grace return as an avatar of Aywa?
I doubt she'll have a physical body to inhabit, but I could definitely see Grace's consciousness returning (perhaps with visions of Weaver when connected to the tree) as a sort of guide for Jake in a sequel.
What happens when Aywa meets Gaia?
A lot of the questions in this movie have revolved around why Eywa chose Jake, a human, as her "champion" if you will instead of one of her own Na'vi people. This could be precisely the reason if the sequel(s) involve reviving the dying "spirit" of Earth somehow.
Did the avatars use machine guns from the gunships, or did they customize guns for 12-foot-tall people?
Yeah, they were one type of machine gun fired from the door gunner position of the Samson tiltrotors (along with a three-barreled Gatling gun). But the Na'Vi were big enough to carry them around like light assault rifles.
His point being (and I wondered about this too) why not just build the guns into the mechas.
It was to allow flexibility of mission. If you have a wide variety of emergencies and mission types, it wouldn't be efficient or quick to have to disassemble and reassemble new weaponry on the mechs each time. Instead, give them fully articulated hands and let them grab their own weapons on the way out.
If a mech falls in battle, any other one can come along and pick up its weapon to use themselves. Likewise if someone runs out of ammo or has a jam, they can just borrow a gun from another mech.
Having a giant sword-length knife makes sense when you're cutting through rainforest and fighting dinosaurs and 10-foot tall natives.
- Magic glass: At one point, arrows bounce off cockpit glass. At the end battle, they go right through.
In the final battle Navi were firing basically at point black, flying really close to the gunships, AFAIR, while during attack on the tree they were firing from the surface. The glass probably couldn't withstand it because the arrows are big, the Navi are strong and god knows what are the arrows made of.
Yeah. When we saw the arrows striking the windows the first time, it was only from Quaritch's massive Dragon gunship, which probably has much thicker armored windows. I don't believe we ever saw any arrows penetrate it throughout the movie, only the smaller Samsons and Scorpions.
The arrows that bounced off were fired from the ground, at a distance, and were already on a downward arc, so they would have lost a lot of momentum. The ones that penetrated were fired from above, straight into the windows and not arced, from close range.
Plus, low flying aircraft are typically armored in anticipation of being fired on from the ground, so the lower windows might be a lot thicker than the upper windows.
The bones of the Na'Vi (and presumably many of the other animals) were said to be a naturally occurring form of carbon fiber, which would make one hell of a strong arrowhead, especially when pulled by a ten-foot tall alien that's all muscle.
Thank goodness today is a half day at work.
