Captain America: The Steve Rogers Cut

Out of all the MCU movies I enjoyed Captain America the least (or Iron Man 2 it is a close call)

While the movie has its fair shares of good ideas and a nice retro vibe it just dragged forever to me. The Red Skull was doing evil things the whole times but nothing that had a genuine effect on the hero’s journey.
The entire storyline is very simplistic: cap gets born, he frees soldiers, they invade the fortress of the overlord

With that little plot the movie just dragged for me, so when AEMovieguy annoucned a quickened version I was more than intrigued.

And what a ride this edit was!
The time flies by like nothing and similarly to his Harry Potter shortening the edits are very well chosen and a lot of time pretty creative.

I was not sure how the new opening would work and found myself laughing at it because it is a pretty cool “meta”-framing device as the people in the cinema complain that the movie should finally start, which would have been a fantastic way to open the movie in the cinema after having to endure millions of trailers before the movie you really feel like “come on just start the goddamn movie”

Further on the plus side most of the re-editing manages to energize scenes that were pretty unremarkable in the original. Moving Lee’s monolog during the training montange manages to combine two sequences without losing anything and adding much more energy than “mandatory exposition” followed by “mandatory montage” now it is just one mandatory scene that goes way faster.

Pretty much all the quickening helped me enjoy the movie much more. We don’t need to see Steve apply a million times as it is stated so many times thorough the movie. Also removing the bland Red-Skull/Weaving shots from the Doctor’s narration helps wonders and does not remind you of matrix revolutions with dozens of Hugo Weavings.

Almost all of the Red Skull scenes where he is scheming are gone and the movie profits a lot. Pretty much all the Skull does is extract the energy from the cube – which Stark finds out later and feels redundant in the original. In this version we discover what the red skull has done alongside the heroes

The only scene I missed was the portrait of the skull which was a pretty neat foreshadowing, but hey..

Removing the framing device also works wonders and helps the cliffhanger to be at least surprising to the audience. In the original it is not really a big surprise when Cap wakes up and you spend more time wondering why shield has set up the chamber in the style of the 40s… in this version it still makes little to no sense (“we wanted to make the transition easier”-yeah for sure) but you don’t have time to think about this because like Cap you are not sure what exactly is going on

The minor nitpicks:
While I liked the trimming of the Red Skull I would have preferred for the first confrontation to be a bit longer.
The idea of intercutting the Captain America war montage with the announcer of the tour is pretty fun but I still think the money-shot of the shield on the back is a pretty cool shot of the hero being fully formed and it gets downplayed a bit in this version

Overall a vast improvement and to everyone who kinda liked Captain America but felt it was a bit lackluster just go watch this version

9/10

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

“Captain America: The Steve Rogers Cut” is an interesting edit. You have edited “Captain America: The First Avenger” into a shorter, faster-paced version that differs from the original in interesting ways. I say “differs” because I don't find it so much an improvement as an alternate version with its own strengths and weaknesses.

In the original movie, the second half felt a bit slow, but your edit makes the whole movie speed by. Unfortunately, while that is one of the main strengths of your edit, it’s also one of the weaknesses. For example, while the removal of Johann Schmidt’s scenes did make the first part of the movie flow better, it weakened it later on. When Schmidt finally takes of his mask to reveal himself as the Red Skull, it no longer has any impact, and the rivalry between Captain America and the Red Skull now seem almost like a footnote. I also felt that Schmidt had more presence when he was wearing the mask than as the Red Skull, so I missed seeing him with the mask on. I also felt that you removed/shortened some lines that should have stayed, such as “I have seen the future, Captain! It has no flags!”. However, a lot of your edits worked brilliantly. Most of the action scenes have a better flow to them, and parts of the movie that previously went slowly are now fast-paced. My overall opinion is mixed, but mostly positive. I feel that you cut out some fat, but took some of the meat with it.

The video quality on the DVD version is actually higher than on the official DVD of “Captain America: The First Avenger”. I haven't seen the HD versions, but I'm sure they are top-notch as well. Almost all of the cuts you made were seamless, although some did make scenes feel a little too abrupt.

Overall, I feel that you succeeded in your goal: to create a version of “Captain America: The First Avenger” that focuses more on Steve Rogers and speeds up the pacing, and that you have made some improvements in the overall flow of the movie. However, I also feel that you also removed a little too much at times.

***WARNING THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS***

So I was pleasantly surprised by this edit. I watched the theatrical cut the night before in preparation for watching the edit. I haven’t read the detailed cutlist nor have I read any of the other reviews. But I did go into the viewing experience knowing that you had wanted to cut out a lot of the corny dialogue and some unnecessary comedic lines.

Good choice to rearrange where/when Schmidt is introduced in your cut. I think it works a lot better from a pacing stand point that way. You’ve established Rogers and now he’s undergone this change. Now we need a villain!

The way you started the movie was cool and a great way to get right into the introduction of the Steve Rogers character. You did some excellent editing in the scene where Dr. Erskine has the drink with Rogers in the barracks and discusses Schmidt and the Nazis.

I was impressed with pretty much all the line/scene removal work you did here. When cutting out a corny line here and there etc. in an edit it can be easy to get lazy, but its clear to me you took the time to make everything seamless. So job well done! Although I gotta say I was sad to see the fondue line cut from the scene where they’re in the plane with Stark !

I watched the DVD version.

Video editing: was pretty much flawless, no flash frames etc.
Audio editing: as mentioned above, excellent audio editing!

Simple Nice Looking Menus.

I somewhat enjoyed the theatrical cut, but it felt bloated and i didn’t like how quickly the villain was introduced into the story. Luckily this edit remedies both of those problems.

I rate this a 9/10. Excellent job AEmovieguy! This is the first fanedit of yours that I’ve seen so I’ll definitely be checking out your other work.

“Captain America: The Steve Rogers Cut” is an interesting edit. You have edited “Captain America: The First Avenger” into a shorter, faster-paced version that differs from the original in interesting ways. I say “differs” because I don’t find it so much an improvement as an alternate version with its own strengths and weaknesses.

In the original movie, the second half felt a bit slow, but your edit makes the whole movie speed by. Unfortunately, while that is one of the main strengths of your edit, it’s also one of the weaknesses. For example, while the removal of Johann Schmidt’s scenes did make the first part of the movie flow better, it weakened it later on. When Schmidt finally takes of his mask to reveal himself as the Red Skull, it no longer has any impact, and the rivalry between Captain America and the Red Skull now seem almost like a footnote. I also felt that Schmidt had more presence when he was wearing the mask than as the Red Skull, so I missed seeing him with the mask on. I also felt that you removed/shortened some lines that should have stayed, such as “I have seen the future, Captain! It has no flags!”. However, a lot of your edits worked brilliantly. Most of the action scenes have a better flow to them, and parts of the movie that previously went slowly are now fast-paced. My overall opinion is mixed, but mostly positive. I feel that you cut out some fat, but took some of the meat with it.

Video: 10/10. The video quality on the DVD version is actually higher than on the official DVD of “Captain America: The First Avenger”. I haven’t seen the HD versions, but I’m sure they are top-notch as well. Almost all of the cuts you made were seamless, although some did make scenes feel a little too abrupt.

Audio: 10/10

Improvement: 7/10. I don’t see this as so much an overall improvement as an alternate version with its own strengths and weaknesses, but you did improve certain elements of the movie.

Overall: 8/10. I feel that you suceeded in your goal: to create a version of “Captain America: The First Avenger” that focuses more on Steve Rogers and speeds up the pacing, and that you have made some improvements in the overall flow of the movie. However, I also feel that you also removed a little too much at times.