Review Detail

Another beautifully done edit of a Disney+ show by Spence, it's amazing how smoothly this works. The pacing is fast and there are very little things that get dropped as a result but overall what a far more pleasant way to experience this story. Sam's grappling with his identity and his country is so much clearer now and it sucks that most people won't get to see this version. I remember liking the therapy scene with Sam and Bucky in the beginning but I literally forgot about it watching this edit because it all flowed so well. Zemo showing up having already been broken out of prison was excellent and another scene I forgot was cut. I think the whole Madripoor story is superfluous except for the knowledge they get that more serum has been made but I understand for that reason why it couldn't be cut. Really well done, I would recommend this to anyone who is watching or rewatching Phase Four!

Note: Through no fault of the editor, this streamlining and cutting of unnecessary sideplots unfortunately reveals the deep moral inconsistency and frankly heinous politics of the show which were definitely present in the original but now are even more highlighted. The governments of the world want to hurt refugees but they're senators who have a job to do so they're Good; John Walker is a veteran who maybe did war crimes in Afghanistan and kills an unarmed civilian in the streets of a foreign country but he fights the "terrorists" at the end so he's Good; Sharon kills a teenaged civilian while on the run and while running a crime operation but the teenager was Bad so she's Good. Meanwhile Karli wants to help refugees but she's "radicalized" and kills innocent people so she's Bad. And the answer to all of these problems is to give a nice speech on TV. Obviously there's no way for a fanedit to fix these problems but for this reason it will always be a lower tier Marvel project for me.