Thor - The Dark World: Hard Forged Edition

Oh... my... god...

Never has a film been so legitimately improved by a fanedit until now. This edit is beyond what I've come to expect from faneditors, legitimately going out on a limb to understand the intent of the filmmakers completely rather than going out on a limb to reject them misguidedly. THAT'S what makes this edit stand apart as THE GREATEST FANEDIT OF ALL TIME.

Alan Taylor has spoken of how his film was ruined in editing by Marvel, in favor of focussing on action rather than theme. The theme of this movie is now so clear to me: convergence. The convergence of people who are separated, as exemplified through the character arc of Thor and Jane. Their arcs start occurring on two different worlds, as we cut back and forth between them to emphasize that they are separate. But when the convergence happens, their character arcs unite into one, as they are re-united.

Before, this was made totally unclear by Marvel's ham-fisted editing. They were so eager to make sure the film put action first that they sacrificed this carefully mapped out thematic arc completely. Thus instead of opening with Loki, thus beginning Thor's half of that arc, they chose to open the film with an action prologue that had almost nothing to do with that theme at all out of context of where it actually was in the screenplay. Little mindless tweaking like that make it totally unclear what the meaning of the film was!

By re-ordering the film back to the order Alan Taylor actually intended it to be presented in, and with much longer sequences at each location before cutting to another one, we are more able to feel the contrast that Alan Taylor intended between Asgard and Earth both narratively and tonally. This contrast is part of what helps the theme! Even the different narratives are separated until they converge!

Ideologically profound subtext like this in a Thor film would have flown over my head forever if this editor did not completely restore Alan Taylor's vision. Not only is it entertaining at the very least, as it was in the original edit, but now the entertainment is deliberate towards some larger takeaway. This is by far the greatest fanedit of all time for that reason, and I highly suspect it will be for years to come.

Bravo, Take Me To Your Cinema.
~Silver Screen Samurai~

A great edit of what could have been an awesome movie if it had been streamlined like this.

Thor is my personal favorite Avenger and I am glad and grateful for TM2YC's hard work on this, which can be appreciated thoughout.

No screen time is wasted this time around and the exposition is reduced to the bare minimum, falwlessly edited for video in HD and audio; sadly, as many other faneditors these days, it provides a 2.0 audio track; therefore I have to apply my rule of deducting points from the A/V Quality department.

***spolier alert***

My only complaint is the removal of the Loki surviving and taking over posing as Odin twist in the original. Not only it stays true to Loki's character arc and motivations, I think that will play an important part in the upcoming entries in the MCU and shouldnt have been removed. Enjoyment department loses a point for this.

This was a very fun edit. The fat was trimmed off of what was already a pretty good movie. The new subtitles add the nice Shakespearean flare that TM2YC was aiming for but don't distract either. The editing was very seamless and nothing really stands out as a flaw. Leaving the humor intact was certainly the way to go and I highly recommend the edit.

Thor - The Dark World: Hard Forged Edition is a great example of how editing can change the pace of a movie.

Thor - The Dark World theatrical release was the first marvel movie that felt...off. The story flow was off, the jokes where off, and most glaringly obvious, the pacing was off. TM2YC has done a wonderful job picking up the pace of the film and making it more engaging. Removing the prologue was a great choice. It allowed us to immediately get on with the story that was left off at the end of the Avengers. This new beginning really sets the tone of the rest of the story.

The editing was pretty spot on. I only noticed one cut and that was probably because I was looking for cuts. And now that I'm talking about I can't even remember where it was so it wasn't that awful.

I hope Marvel/Disney asks TM2YC to take a look at their next Thor movie before it's released. It may just make all the difference.

Very entertaining edit.
I liked that the original intro was moved to later in the movie.
I have only one minor issue with the edit and that is the ending, I like that Thor goes back to Jane but I would have preferred seeing Loki or adding the cut back to his "no, thank you" line a bit before Thor's lighting brings him back to Jane, making it seem that he transforms and says his line as Thor travels.. since it has the sense that it sets up the next Thor movie. Either way, the ending scene with Jane works very well, this edit is now my go to version of the movie.

Thanks!