Avengers: Extended Edition, The

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!

First, let me comment on the skill of the fan-editor, samspider3: in a word, Excellent. The edits here are virtually seamless -- it was only my familiarity with the source material that clued me in to what was being added and changed. If you aren't familiar with the theatrical release, you would never guess what was changed (except for one scene, which was unfinished in the source).

Now as for the movie itself, I have less kind words. The Avengers as theatrically released is practically a perfect movie. Sometimes movies are cut for timing, sometimes because of studio meddling -- but sometimes scenes are cut out because they just don't work. An archetypical example of this is the Jabba the Hutt scene from Star Wars Episode IV: not only is it a clumsy scene in itself, but it simply restates the much better earlier Greedo scene -- and in the larger scope, completely spoils Jabba's arrival in Episode VI. It is better and rightfully left on the cutting room floor.

Just about all of the scenes added in Avengers EE are of this nature. While I love Maria Hill, she's just not a significant enough of a character to bookend the entire movie around. Scenes with The Waitress just stop the movie cold, especially during the Battle. An added scene with Loki and Hawkeye seriously spoils the later scene where Black Widow "interrogates" Loki. And is there any one person in the world who is finally satisfied knowing where Banner got the motorcycle from?

Even so, as a die-hard MCU fan, I would recommend this edit for an MCU fan's collection. I enjoy the Universe, and this EE allows me to spend 11 more minutes in the Universe, and for that I am grateful.

In closing, here's an idea I'd like to throw out there: Kevin Feige recently commented that they would not be doing any more One-Shots. It might be interesting (if possible) to take a bunch of deleted and other scenes and re-cut new One-Shots out of it. The Waitress, for example: make a little mini-movie with her as the main character. You'd even get a Stan Lee cameo in it. Other possibilities are out there, too. That would be fun to watch.