sabotage

[jmtorres]

So we were reading Ebert's review of The Last Airbender, about how it's unrelenting bad, like, all aspects of it are bad, cinematographically speaking, and there's a line in the review about "The laws of chance suggest something should have gone right. Not here." It made me start wondering if someone had sabotaged the thing. And I was thinking, maybe the editor. Because you can sabotage a fucking lot in post. You can make the plot meanderingly arcless and awful with editing. You can make the actors look shitty by choosing mediocre to awful takes. You can fuck the effects. You can fuck the 3D. You can fuck a lot as the editor.

So we imdb'd and the editor of The Last Airbender is... the editor who did Spaceballs, Species, The Abyss, Titanic ETA: WHICH WON THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR EDITING /ETA, Terminator 2, King Arthur, and before he was master editor he got started through visual effects work, on Empire Strikes Back, on Raiders of the Lost Ark, and ET (which I don't know if you remember this, but those effects were awesome shit at the time).

This guy knows how to edit and knows how to work with special effect heavy stuff. So yeah. This is my theory. The Last Airbender was deliberately sabotaged by its editor, Conrad Buff. Possibly by just by letting M. Night Shyamalan have whatever he asked for.

Comments

[azurelunatic]

What a fascinating idea. *headtilt* Would be hilarious.

[mecurtin]

Possibly by just by letting M. Night Shyamalan have whatever he asked for.

-- that would be how you do it, yes, when you're a pro on Buff's level.

I think your theory is wonderful and plausible.

[lferion]

There is this lovely concept known as 'malicious compliance'....

[silmaril]

Here from james_nicoll, and I think I like this theory, too. Makes more sense than anything I came up with.

[ide_cyan]

I also saw your entry getting linked here, btw.

And I like your theory!

[jmtorres]

...fun. Heh.

[alexseanchai]

I ♥ this theory.

[kuangning]

This theory warms my heart. I suppose we'll never know for sure, but that's okay. I like it anyway.

[crewgrrl]

Is that like sabotaging Battlefield Earth by continuing to let John Travolta act?

[cofax7]

I love this theory.

[batrachian]

Another supporter here.

[ursamajor]

I don't remember how I got here (sorry, many many Airbender review link tabs open), but I really, really like your theory.

[kickair8p]

Huh. Plausible.

~

[viridian5]

I've heard that the original 2D version of the movie was longer, but when they processed it into 3D on a short schedule a lot was cut out. That has to contribute to the need for voiceovers and major exposition, which lead to suck.

[jmtorres]

Yeah it went from 2hr10 to 90 minutes. I have to say. As an editor, if he wasn't pissed off with this crap before that happened, he was probably pretty hacked off after getting that request.

[pairatime]

what 40 minutes gone?!

[mjules]

IAWTheory. *grin*

[cesy]

I love this theory.

[gool_duck]

I like this theory :)