Captain America: The Steve Rogers Cut

I'm a big fan of the MCU, but the original film was just okay for me. I like the fast pace of this edit and it has replaced the original for me. Well done!

This was a pretty cool edit, though it was ultimately underwhelming. Similar thoughts could be said about Captain America: The First Avenger, I suppose. I had hoped that this edit might be a replacement, but, alas no.

I did enjoy the original film, quite a lot actually. It's in the upper end of the Marvel Cinematic Universe films. But it is not without it's issues. If fan editing is criticizing the original work, then AEmovieguy does a good job with his edit of showing how little time is spent with the titular Cap in the original film. While that makes for a good critique, it does not necessarily make for a good edit.

Not to say this isn't a good edit. No, that's not what I mean at all. This is a very good edit. It's just limited by the source material. If this is, in fact, the "Steve Rodgers" cut, then there isn't enough of him.

Removing most of the Hydra-centric bits works well to keep the focus on Steve, and certainly tightens the film up, but the pacing is almost silly fast. Again this is mostly a fault of the filmmakers, but the edits made here do not help matters. I'm not too happy with any of them, but hey, it's not my edit. I get cutting corny dialogue, I really do - but I think it fit with the feel of the film. One thing I cannot condone however is the trimming of the Star Spangled Man montage. And if I were making a Steve Rodgers cut, I wouldn't just keep everything with Steve in, I'd add in any relevant deleted scenes (though I don't know how many of those there are), anything in an attempt to make it feel like a fuller movie-watching experience.

AEmovieguy opts for a more streamlined approach, however. In the info for this edit, he says it's a FanMix, which provided him creative freedom. I almost wish, if this was the case, that he had made it even less like the original, but making it more closely resemble a 40s adventure film with B&W or something.

But here I am talking about how I'd edit the film, and that's not what this review is supposed to be about. This edit is not what I, personally, would look for in a Mix or a Fix of this film, but it does stand on it's own as a super fun and super fast 84 minutes of Captain American glory. If that's what you're looking for, then definitely check this out.

this is a very enjoyable edit focusing on the journey of steve rodgers as he becomes the superhero known as Captain America. the slow reveal of the Red Skull is well done though i agree with another reviewer the painting scene would have been a welcome inclusion. also i believe the edit would have benefited from the removal of the pre-avenger scene at the end making this edit a more stand alone film and not apart of the MCU

not an edit to replace the original but a nice alternative

my original Captain America score 8/10
my fanedit Captain America score 7/10

Out of all the MCU movies I enjoyed Captain America the least (or Iron Man 2 it is a close call)

While the movie has its fair shares of good ideas and a nice retro vibe it just dragged forever to me. The Red Skull was doing evil things the whole times but nothing that had a genuine effect on the hero’s journey.
The entire storyline is very simplistic: cap gets born, he frees soldiers, they invade the fortress of the overlord

With that little plot the movie just dragged for me, so when AEMovieguy annoucned a quickened version I was more than intrigued.

And what a ride this edit was!
The time flies by like nothing and similarly to his Harry Potter shortening the edits are very well chosen and a lot of time pretty creative.

I was not sure how the new opening would work and found myself laughing at it because it is a pretty cool “meta”-framing device as the people in the cinema complain that the movie should finally start, which would have been a fantastic way to open the movie in the cinema after having to endure millions of trailers before the movie you really feel like “come on just start the goddamn movie”

Further on the plus side most of the re-editing manages to energize scenes that were pretty unremarkable in the original. Moving Lee’s monolog during the training montange manages to combine two sequences without losing anything and adding much more energy than “mandatory exposition” followed by “mandatory montage” now it is just one mandatory scene that goes way faster.

Pretty much all the quickening helped me enjoy the movie much more. We don’t need to see Steve apply a million times as it is stated so many times thorough the movie. Also removing the bland Red-Skull/Weaving shots from the Doctor’s narration helps wonders and does not remind you of matrix revolutions with dozens of Hugo Weavings.

Almost all of the Red Skull scenes where he is scheming are gone and the movie profits a lot. Pretty much all the Skull does is extract the energy from the cube – which Stark finds out later and feels redundant in the original. In this version we discover what the red skull has done alongside the heroes

The only scene I missed was the portrait of the skull which was a pretty neat foreshadowing, but hey..

Removing the framing device also works wonders and helps the cliffhanger to be at least surprising to the audience. In the original it is not really a big surprise when Cap wakes up and you spend more time wondering why shield has set up the chamber in the style of the 40s… in this version it still makes little to no sense (“we wanted to make the transition easier”-yeah for sure) but you don’t have time to think about this because like Cap you are not sure what exactly is going on

The minor nitpicks:
While I liked the trimming of the Red Skull I would have preferred for the first confrontation to be a bit longer.
The idea of intercutting the Captain America war montage with the announcer of the tour is pretty fun but I still think the money-shot of the shield on the back is a pretty cool shot of the hero being fully formed and it gets downplayed a bit in this version

Overall a vast improvement and to everyone who kinda liked Captain America but felt it was a bit lackluster just go watch this version

9/10

You really managed to insert some energy into this – it’s much more exciting and entertaining than the original.

Technical quality – 9/10 – video quality was sufficient. The audio levels fluctuated a bit, but were crisp.

Editing – 8/10 – most of the time, the video and audio editing was great. However, there were a few places where things could have been changed – the audio from the theater should have started a little earlier over a black screen before the Paramount logo showed up – as it is, it’s a bit sudden. It also would have been nice if the opening shot of Steve was longer. The removal of the “right partner” line was a bit awkward. I was kind of hoping you would keep “That was Penicillin,” but that’s only my opinion. I wish you had cut Peggy touching Steve after he gets out of the machine (kind of looked like you tried to cut it, but it’s ok). The audio crossfade to the Captain America show montage should have started a bit later, seems like it began in the middle of a line. I noticed a couple iffy audio transitions in the scene where the blonde kisses Steve (which I still wish you had cut, but I realize now how hard it would be). I found the new cutting of the war montage clever, but the line “That’s your cue” was cut off rather abruptly. You also should have added “The Steve Rogers Cut” to the credits. Sorry for all the complaining. Overall, the editing was professional.

Presentation – 9/10 – the menu was nice – I especially liked the shields on the scene selection. The Harry Potter trailer was cool too (made me want to watch the edit!). Cover art was simple, but it gets the job done.

Entertainment – 8/10 – I love the new pacing, it’s very fast and energetic. Introducing the Red Skull later works well for a while, especially with the foreboding discussion about the Nazis between Steve and the doctor. The first Red Skull scene is nicely cut to avoid showing him. I appreciated that you shortened that dancing montage. In fact, I pretty much love all the cuts in the whole edit. You have a good feel for what to cut – the dialogue scenes were more effective and the action sequences were more intense. Here’s my main problem with the edit: you toned down the plot way too much. The Red Skull only has a couple scenes, and we don’t have time to accept him as the villain. Then suddenly we’re already at the finale, without sufficient build-up, and we don’t have a good idea of what’s at stake or what the odds are. The film whizzes by well-paced, but the plot is severely under-developed. I enjoyed this edit, and in fact I might prefer it over the original, but I’m going to take off one point for the editing problems and another for toning down the plot too much. Fantastic job overall though, I think I’ll check out some of your other work.

Overall – 8/10