Avengers: Extended Edition, The

In its current form, The Avengers is one of my all-time favorite comic book films, not to mention one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's best installments. This fan-edit attempts to integrate previously deleted material into Joss Whedon's narrative with surprising success. While I did miss the chilling original opening with Loki encountering the Other, I loved the addition of Maria Hill talking to the World Security Council about the Avengers and Nick Fury. The way that this interrogation is written and acted adds a lot to the story and also adds a lot to Hill's character, which I really appreciated. I also really liked that there were more moments with Ashley Johnson's waitress character to add more of a ground-level human perspective to the Battle of New York. All the footage is put together fantastically from start to finish, and it further strengthens what was already a strong plot and characters in the theatrical cut of the film. This runs at just a little over two and a half hours long and yet the pacing is always smooth. I loved this, and it kind of makes me wish the deleted footage was kept in for its release in theaters, because they really do offer genuinely terrific character moments. Not to mention, more Ashley Johnson and more Harry Dean Stanton will never not be a plus.

While I liked this edit, I thought it could have been done better. Only some of the deleted scenes were colour corrected, meaning the ones that are not stick out like a sore thumb. I'm personally not a fan of the new framing device. But other then those things, the edit was well done.

A technically well-done edit, seamless to the eyes and ears. The new scenes were added in flawlessly and if it wasn't pointed out to me, I wouldn't of noticed.

Some of the new scenes were perfect and really added something (Cap in modern day, Hulk and the security guard) and others weren't really needed, but neat none-the-less.

If you're a big fan of the MCU, you'll love this

This edit is very technically sound, but I felt the scenes included did little to add to the viewing experience. I feel like while the new scenes explain and expand on some stuff, it makes the rest of the film less charming. The subplot showcasing Maria Hill as a mole or cool, but the new prologue that comes with it feels incredibly atonal compared to the rest of the film. The alternate Fury/Council scene, while explaining why Hawkeye didn't kill Fury, feels unnecessary, and it removes the line about wars being one by soldiers, thus making the transition over to Captain America more abrupt. Speaking of unnecessary explanations, it's easy to see why the scene where Loki devises to break the Avengers was cut, especially since it doesn't change the fact that it's, as Tony said, "not a great plan." Lastly, I didn't care for Cap handing the Chitauri weapon to the police officer, since that results in us seeing him get killed, which is a real downer, and at the point in the movie the audience shouldn't be feeling down.

There are only two scenes that I felt should have gone back into the film. The extended Captain America scene (maybe excising or doctoring the part where it says Peggy is in London, since she seems to be living in America by Winter Soldier) and the part where Harry Dean Stanton convinces Bruce to go back into the fight (cutting out where Bruce explicitly states that he's going to Stark Tower, we should figure out what the endgame is when Tony does. The scene would have Bruce going "yes...no...I don't know.").

I do feel bad being so negative in my review, but sometimes less really is more.

I am very grateful toward samspider3 for making this edit, it is well made and the cuts are very seamless.

Unfortunately most of the added stuff has been cut from the final movie for a reason, and I think that only 1 or 2 scenes should really have made it in because they detract from the main story, especially the waitress scenes, the added Loki scene, and Maria Hill replacing Nick Fury in the council scenes I'm not too fond of because 1. Nick Fury is a much more interesting character and is better written and 2. Samuel L. Jackson is a better actor than Cobie Smulders, at least in my opinion.

However, the editing is VERY well done, 10/10 from a technical standpoint this is a marvelous edit, really worth your time. Video/Audio quality is much better on the original but that's only because the deleted scenes are not available in HD (they're not on the blu-ray). The added scenes add a depth to some of the side characters and even some of the main ones, like Cap. His additional scenes really stand out as the best in my opinion.

Still, the action intercuts toward the end detract from the story so I don't think this will replace my Avengers copy for this movie seeing as most of it is really superfluous. I do think every MCU fan should watch this at least once though, it's well worth it.

Thanks again samspider3 for making this!