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~

This edit does a very serviceable job cleaning up the original film, which was somewhat bland. The rewritten dialogue for the villains is a fantastic touch, but there is only so much an edit can do with the source material. I would give visual editing a 10, however there editing fixture that confused me if only momentarily. The hiccup I write of is in what seems to be the middle of a scene it fads to black, only to return back to the same scene.

TM2YC does it again, taking another film I don't have much of a fondness of and turning it into gold. Much of the changes made are smart ones, especially removing the pointless love triangle between Thor, Jane, and Lady Sif. Cutting out the opening prologue and instead re-inserting it as a flashback sequence when Odin tells Thor about the Aether is also a very wise move. I also loved how the dialogue for the Dark Elves is changed to lend it more gravitas and make them more interesting as characters, along with cutting much of the unnecessary exposition to keep things moving smoothly. A story and characters that were once uninteresting are now involving and given legitimate weight. I'm kind of shocked by how much I liked this. Absolutely the definitive version of this film.

I really love this edit, the original movie wasn't bad by any means but it wasn't good either.
Removing the Sif Thor romance was a good change.
The changing of the opening was also done really well.
The small changes are not noticeable in any way.
My only complain is removing the Odin to Loki transformation at the end
other then that really good edit.

Man oh man, TM2YC does it again! He took a mediocre MCU movie with some interesting elements and edited it in a way that makes full use of its potential.
The Thor movies are not the most celebrated in MCU, but I've always found him to be a nice change of pace espeically in the early years when everything was either Iron man or Captain America.
Overall, the editing was seamless, and it felt like an actual movie from MCU, albeit better. The quality of the version was excellent, pretty much blu-ray quality. I enjoyed the narrative much more, and I felt that it had a more mythological angle since, especially since we are experiencing the new details with Jane Foster, whose first trip to Asgard is made more interesting this way. Jane Foster, I feel, is redeemed in this way, and Thor is also made more interesting.
---SPOILERS---
I enjoyed how he cut the prologue and seamlessly put it back as a flashback when Odin is retelling the story. Instead of having to hear about the dark elves again, now it makes sense to show it here, and we are finding it out about all for the first time along with Jane. Changing the subtitles of the Dark Elves was a great idea too, as it gives them some gravitas with how they speak. Show, don't tell is emphasized in this cut, which I appreciate. He makes the ending more complete and satisfying by using some of the post-credits scene. Finally, cutting out the romantic triangle with Saif was a good idea in the long run, especially with the event of Thor: Ragnorok.
Also, by making Loki's return at the end made subtle, I feel like his replacement of Odin is more effective in Thor Ragnorok, in my opinion.
Overall, highly recommend this cut from TM2YC, who makes a 6.5/10 MCU movie into a 8.5/10 movie that is more re-watchable and is on par with other good MCU movies.