Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: Centipede

As I have said before on the forum page, I thought the first half of this season was ok at best. Plagued with filler "freak of the week" episodes, cliche jokes and other problems, many have dropped the show after only a few episodes and haven't picked back up. Me, however, stuck with it and haven't regretted that decision at all. I believe this edit here fixes a majority of those problems and is worthy of being a part of the MCU. You managed to bring out the well written banter and dialogue, better pacing, good character moments and a single/focused narrative that was not only interesting but worth being invested in. And, as I also stated there a few problems with the edit (I noticed that these are/have been fixed) such as audio/video transitional problems that are jarring on a first view basis, and some pretty noticeable pixelation/blockiness (I suggest neatvideo to easily fix it if not already thought of). With all that said, this is definitely worth checking out and placing next to any MCU dvd/blu ray source on the shelf. Can't wait for the next installments in this series!

As anyone who knows me from the forums knows I am a big comic fan, and that includes their adaptation to Movies and TV. In my personal opinion, while it has had its missteps, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is my favorite adaptation of the comic characters to live action media.

I agree with DSM2337's assessment of Agents of SHIELD, and it is not limited to its first season; the show does provide interesting plot points and character development, but it stumbles and does a lot of navel gazing wasting precious screen time. I put partial blame for this on the selection of TV producing house - ABC studios has been known to over stretch plots on many of their TV offerings and they have yet to adapt to the current 13 episode or less per season format.

Anyway on to the review of this edit, a great job is achieved of boiling down the plot and story offered by the first arc of the premiere season of this show, we get all the required information in two hours without any of the filler; which is a great achievement in itself. High marks for enjoyment.

The editing is also very well done, if not perfect; some fades that have no apparent reason like for instance when Coulson and Skye fly away on the flying car Lola stand out, some black screen transitions that do not work to well are also peppered throughout the edit. Wish this could have been avoided. 9/10 on video editing.

Audio editing, quite well done; no noticeable breaks or cuts; which is suspect was achieved with the aid of the aforementioned black transitions. Sill full marks.

A/V quality, as with every review a 2.0 audio track gets a 7 from me, also I noticed some issues with the audio, dialogue was somewhat muted while music and sound effects were comparatively much louder, I had never experienced this in my entertainment system with similar audio tracks; don't know what caused this but another point is deducted from the score making it a 6 overall. Video is crisp at 1080p. - On a side note I wish reviews allowed to give separate scores for audio and video quality, in case any site admin/mod reads this.

Enjoyment and Narrative - the best that could be done from source material is achieved in my opinion, yet it still feels somewhat lacking. 9 on narrative for effort, 8 on enjoyment.

On a personal note, the song used for the end credits is too loud and in my opinion does not fit with the tone of the plot. One point deducted from Audio Editing for this.

This is quite an interesting project and I look forward to watching the next installments.

It was great to revisit the first season of AoS in this new way. I was impressed by just how expertly DSM created a feature from the materials he had to work with -- it looks and sounds great, and the pieces are tightly interwoven to really flow like a feature film (or at the very least, a really good tv movie). Using the throughline of Mike Peterson's journey to carry Skye's introduction and Coulson's mystery was wise and works wonders to keep the story together. I particularly like the way the team members' introductions are handled in this version -- much more organically that the original pilot, IMO. Well done.

From a narrative stance, I do wish we'd had a montage or "___months later" (perhaps repurposing a climax from an episode not used here or in later planned fanedits?) to show the passage of time and growth of the team indicated by Skye's comments to her hacker buddy, and I'll agree with other commenters that Coulson's rejected phonecall feels abrupt. Part of me wishes that there'd been some way to work in at least one more "Tahiti... it's a magical place" somewhere, to tie in its use at the beginning with its use at the end, making it more clear that it's a Pavlovian response.

Those nitpicks aside, again, my compliments to DMS, and I look forward to seeing what comes next!

Great work giving this such a cinematic feel. Visually in particular you feel like you're watching a HQ MCU production. Plot wise, the episodic nature of early season one makes it hard to tie something like this together well, and you've made a great effort. The only thing lost I feel, is the steady character development for Skye as she grows in confidence and connection to the other members of the team and begins to feel at home and valued. But this is an ongoing thing and couldn't be helped. Very well done.

There's not much more I can say that hasn't already been said. After a disappointing first season that felt a little haphazard, this edit certainly condensed bits of the season into a cohesive story. Everything flowed very well, though sometimes a little too quickly. This wasn't the fault of the editor but more the nature of American television. Scenes are short with plenty of commercial interruptions so it's hard to edit a show into something that flows like a film. That's partly why I rated the A/V editing and narrative down slightly: some edits are a little abrupt, though I'm not 100% sure it's the fault of the editor or because of the nature of the footage. But because of it it did take me out of the moment from time-to-time.

That said, there is nothing wrong with this edit that would stop me from recommending it. Generally it's very well edited with a good pace, and it's nice to have a 2 hr edit of one of the more interesting stories from the first season.