In May of 2012 Marvel released the highly anticipated Avengers to audiences worldwide. It quickly went on to be one of the highest grossing movies of all time, and the biggest blockbuster of the summer. One of the things that came out after the movies release was that the DVD/Blu-ray would have another one of the Marvel One-Shots, and also a host of deleted scenes that director Joss Whedon hated to take out of the movie. With the release of the Avengers on September 25th, did it deliver the goods in the bonus features?
The Good
First of all the movie was just as much fun at home on Blu-ray in the home theater as it was seeing it on the big screen. It still had the great pacing, fun dialogue, fan-boy nuggets galore, and the amazing special effects that we all remember seeing on the big screen. This movie is simply fun regardless of what medium you watch it on. As for the extras the Marvel One-Shot: Item 47 was actually pretty good. In fact it was a bit longer than the other ones. Basically it is about a couple named Claire and Benny who find one of the alien guns left over from the invasion in New York and they get it to work. This leads to a bank robbing spree and an intervention by SHIELD. All in all a good little short movie. Another of the extra features I enjoyed was the gag reel. This may seem silly but it was fun seeing how much fun the actors had making this movie, and the Smokey and The Bandit reference was great, as well as the Cobie Smulders spoof on Agent Coulson's death. The gag reel was hilarious. On a more serious note the making of the Avengers was a fun watch, especially seeing how much time and effort was taken to capture the core essence of the characters from the pages of the comics. I was also fortunate enough to buy my version of the movie at Target which was selling it with a special ninety minute bonus disc on the making of the Marvel Universe. This was simply great. If you can find it, BUY it. It takes the concepts of what Marvel wanted to do with their characters from all the way back in the pages of the comics all the way to the silver screen. It was a great addition that I enjoyed immensely. I can't help but wonder if it will eventually be packaged in the Marvel Phase One compilation. Only time will tell.
The Bad
Quite frankly I was disappointed in the deleted scenes. Joss Whedon had said in one of his gazillion interviews that the fan-boys would love all the deleted scenes and that he really wanted to include them in the movie but it made it to long. Most of the time when you watch the deleted stuff it is easy to see why it ended up on the cutting room floor, the Avengers is no different. While the clip of Captain America going through the file of his deceased team members, and seeing that Peggy was still alive was interesting, as well as the clip of him having lunch looking up at the Stark Tower, it was easy to see why the scenes didn't make the final cut of the movie. It didn't fit the feel and pace of what the final version felt like. The only scene I thought was really good and wished it could have been fit in was the longer scene with Bruce Banner talking to the security guard and the dilemma he faced going back and being part of the team. I thought it was very well done. The other deleted scenes had to do with Maria Hill and Nick Fury. It looked as if early on they were wanting to show Hill's distrust of Fury as the head of SHIELD. While from a comic perspective it was interesting to see how it was approached, from a movie and story standpoint it just didn't work. Part of being a good director is knowing how to edit and work with a shifting story as the movie is filmed, and from that aspect Joss Whedon did a great job. While I was disappointed in the deleted scenes because there just really weren't that many juicy ones, I think it shows that Whedon really understood what this movie needed to be and was willing to make the cuts necessary to make it work.
Overall
This is a movie I was very happy to purchase and is one that I will watch over and over again like I do with the first Iron Man. For me this completes my Marvel Phase One collection on Blu-ray. I would highly recommend trying to find the Avengers edition at Target that includes the bonus disc as it is a great watch. I couldn't be happier with the movies that led up to the Avengers and with the movie itself. I look forward to the Phase Two movies starting up. Until then I can watch this movie once a week at home.
Score: 4.5/5