First off, let me be clear… I enjoyed James Cameron’s movie Avatar.  The special effects were awesome, and the overall concept was interesting.  However, there’s no way in hell the battle would play our the way it did… and I’ll explain why…

First, a run-down of the players involved:

In terms of their level of technology and social culture, they essentially have the miliary capability of native americans before the introduction of gunpowder.  They use primitive weapons, like bows, arrows, and spears.  However, the Na’vi are 9-10 feet tall, and their bones are hardened by a natural carbon fiber.   On top of that, they have flying mounts, which can bite and/or scratch at their targets.

In the other corner, we have what is obviously the futuristic version of the U.S.  Military.  This includes automatic weapons, missiles, space-ships, helicopters, and mech-warrior-like exoskeletons.  However, to keep things simple, we’ll just assume they have the same capability of the modern U.S. Military, ie. Apache Helicopters and M1 Abrams Tanks.

Now, we are expected to believe that the Na’vi manage to defeat this advanced military, simply by shooting arrows and using their mounts to grapple airborne units.

Allow me to be the first to call Bullshit.

First, our modern Apache can hold up to 16 Hellfire missiles, which each have a range of up to 5 miles.  5. Fucking.  Miles.   Why in the hell would they even get close enough to allow a giant bird to grab onto it?  Why not blast them out of the sky, before they even know what hit them.   I don’t care how strong or fast the giant birds might be, they aren’t outrunning a 950mph missle.   Carbon fiber bones and being 10 feet tall won’t help you take hits from a missle and giant claws won’t eve scratch it’s 2,500 lbs of armor plating.

To put it in perspective, think about the Native Americans, and how well they did against the slow, single shot firearms of European settlers.   They didn’t fare very well, did they?  Now, replace those single shot muskets with a modern military capable of laying waste to enemies up to 5 miles away.  Do you honestly believe being 10 feet tall and having hard bones would make a god-damn difference?

 … is going to defeat …

No.  No, it fucking isn’t.