MCU Abbreviated Cut - Phase One

The Challenge:

Create an "abbreviated" cut of the Marvel Cinematic universe, keeping all the best moments but watchable in a single sitting - or at least a weekend. Cut up chronology any way you like, but limit the time to 3 hours for each Phase and/or year of television.

My main process for shaving down the runtime is to cut a lot of villain "buildup" moments because, let's face it, it usually doesn't go anywhere, because most of the villains in the MCU are one-and-done. Following that, cutting any abandoned plot point that doesn't go anywhere saves a lot of time (Iron Man 2 has a lot of those because of the lack of continuation into Iron Man 3). Finally, any extensive buildup for characters or drawn out foreshadowing can be left out, because for this cut, we can assume it's fans watching, not a GA who doesn't know who characters are.

So here we go, draft one of my Phase 1 cut - let me know how you would do it!

Captain America: The First Avenger
I'm going to cut out a lot of "skinny Steve" moments because we know he becomes Captain America, so a lot of that is, for this cut, a waste of time. But I want to keep in a little so that we see that Cap spirit even without the body.

I would open in the theater scene, with Cap telling the bully to show respect. Include the alley fight and Bucky's entrance. Then cut all the way to the Stark Expo where Steve decides to enlist again. We don't need to hear about all the other times, just starting here will do. Include the talk with Bucky while Erskine overhears, and Erskine's offer to Steve. From there, we go to boot camp where we only spend a fraction of the time. Again, we know he's going to do it. But we include the introduction of Col. Philips and, more importantly, Peggy Carter. Cut out a lot of the "Steve's a weakling" shots, but include Philips talking to Erskine and my personal favorite moment of the film, the dummy grenade. Keeping the flagpole gag in too will help build the relationship with Peggy and the fact that Steve thinks differently than other men.

Pretty soon I would cut to the operation because, again, we know that's where it's going. So we have the operation, the death of Erskine, and the Heinz Kruger chase and fight. Show Skull with Zola containing the cube, but we don't need to see Skull obtaining it. Cut out the "chorus girl" subplot and go straight to Rogers rescuing the POWs. Maybe a brief snippet of the stage days to explain the costume, but we don't need to see a lot of that. After rescuing the soldiers, show Stark equipping Rogers for future combat, and the Howling Commandos montage, going right into the death of Bucky and the final assault on the Skull and the plane crash. No ending scene in modern times yet

Most of the cuts are from the first two-thirds of the film.

Agent Carter
From the series, show some footage (very trimly cut) of her working with the Howling Commandos, discovering the Red Room, rescuing Fenhoff, fighting Dottie, Fenhoff killing Dooley, and being put in prison with Zola.

The series is actually pretty self-contained, so we don't need a lot of it. More Howard Stark would be nice and certainly some of Jarvis, but the series shouldn't contribute too much to this cut. The short, however, would be nice to include, because that's already very trim, and aside from character points shows as much as clips from the show would.

Ant-Man
As a bonus, we could include the Pym-Carter-Stark exchange from Ant-Man's opening, and the scene of Ant-Man and Wasp in action.

Iron Man
Open with the opening shot of the convoy, but when it explodes, skip the whole casino scene. Cut right to the cave, waking up and speaking with Yinsen, and the "deal" made with Raza's second-in-command. I would cut out most stuff with Raza himself, because he's not actually that important. Skip right to Stark explaining the plan to Yinsen and them starting the breakout. Keep the Yinsen death speech of course and then Stark getting the Hell out of Dodge.

Back in the US, skip the press conference and Stane buildup, and testing of individual suit components (maybe keep a little for the comedy) and focus right on the test flight, and Mark III design. Keep the Stane reveal at the party, the scene with Pepper after Tony's first mission (Are those bullet holes?) and the Iron Monger reveal with Coulson and Pepper, leading to the final fight. No stinger yet.

The Incredible Hulk
The opening montage is gold - keep that in. Cut the subplot with Mr. Blue until it actually becomes important, but show Banner's homemade lab. Show the blood spill in the factory (Stan's first cameo in this cut) immediately followed by the attack by Ross et al. Cut to Betty finding Bruce at Stan's and meeting Sterns, along with Blonsky becoming abomination. Forget most of the helicopter shots and cut right to the Harlem fight. No Stark cameo yet.

Iron Man 2
Cut the opening Stark Expo nonsense. Cut the entire palladium poisoning and not-"demon in a bottle" subplot, and the new element, because none of those plot points are continued in Iron Man 3 (thanks, Shane). Even the Howard Stark subplot can go. Stark's first scene should be in the ring with Happy, introducing Romanoff and showing Pepper becoming CEO. Forget Whiplash's first fight - forget everything at the Grand Prix. Again, this is all about the Howard Stark subplot that Shane Black completely ignored, so it can go. Whiplash's first moment should be Justin Hammer breaking him out of prison, and him and Hammer meeting should be Hammer's first appearance.

Cut Stark meet with Fury at the donut shop and save the "Rushman" as Black Widow reveal for her scene with Happy. Show an argument between Rhodes and Stark ("they're gonna take your suits!") but skip the party. Just show Rhodes taking the suit and getting it weaponized. Cut to Hammer taking the stage at the Stark Expo (we don't need to see Vanko working on the drones much), and the whole fight between the Hammer Drones, Crimson Dynamo, Iron Man, and War Machine, and of course keep Black Widow's best scene in the movie, with Happy in the background.

Finally we get to

The Stingers
First show the scene with Fury in Stark's house. I know this isn't technically correct chronology but it fits nicer. Then show the donut shop scene from Iron Man 2, cut to avoid plot points from that film (poisoning), but revealing Romanoff as Black Widow to Tony. Include the "Southwest Region" line from Fury to lead into A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer, and finally show The Consultant complete with the ending scene from The Incredible Hulk.

Thor
Cut out a lot of crap with Foster, Selvig, and especially Darcy. Focus on Thor.
Show the flashback of the battle against Jotunheim, but cut the coronation scene before the weapons vault. We need the weapons vault fight to lead to Thor leaving with Loki, Sif, and the Warrior's Three. Most of the battle on Jotunheim can stay, including Odin's interference and the subsequent banishment of Thor.

Cut to the "Excalibur" scene and the talk at the diner (we don't need to see Thor get hit, tazed, injected, and hit again), where Thor learns Mjolnir's whereabouts. Skip Jane's back-and-forth and cut to her driving Thor there (sorry, no "I need a horse!). Thor breaks in, keep Coulson, Hawkeye, and Selvig. After he fails, skip the interrogation, skip Loki's scene, cut to Selvig getting him out. From there, cut right to the Warrior's Three arrival (don't need to see Thor and Selvig act like fratboys), the arrival of the Destroyer, and the battle between the five of them. Thor returns to Asgard (cut out as much Jane as possible) and destroys the Bifrost. Then cut straight to the cube (no Heimdall, we don't need to see Jane and Darcy again), being shown to Selvig, and Loki's influence.

The Avengers
Cut out a lot of buildup. We've had five movies, four shorts, and a TV show of buildup. Cut all that filler. Show Loki attacking project PEGASUS to introduce Hill and show Hawkeye being taken. After that, show the scene from Captain America: The First Avenger where Cap wakes up and Fury makes contact. Then cut to Germany, where Cap and Widow attack Loki, and Stark comes in (Cap meets Stark). Keep some of the forest fight, but not too much because we know they aren't going to be enemies. At this point (not the same time as the film), have Coulson call Widow to recruit Banner. Show Fury imprisoning Loki, and Loki's speech to Widow. Keep some of the "Phase 2" banter but not much. Jump quickly to Loki escaping, Coulson dying, and almost immediately to them heading the Manhattan. Keep most of the fight, Thanos, and Shawarma.

Agents of SHIELD
Item 47 doesn't lead anywhere, because we haven't seen those again. If you include it, trim it. The more important coda to Phase 1 is the Pilot of Agents of SHIELD, showing Coulson back from the dead and the beginning of his adventure.

Can that all fit into 3 hours? I have no idea, and I probably won't find out anytime soon. But what do you think of this cut? Was there anything you think should be left out? Anything you thought I should have included? Let me know what you think!

A quick summary of MCU comics: Part 4/9 [Agents of SHIELD]

This is part 4. Read the other parts!

Part: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Part 4 will focus on the comic Iron Man: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The comic is presented in three parts. One focusing on Fury, one on Coulson, and one on Romanoff

"Who Made Who"
Fury is giving orders to some soldier at a Ten Rings operation, when Iron Man shows up. This is the scene from the first film where Iron Man goes to Gulmira after seeing news on TV of the attacks. Fury orders the soldier to track Stark's movements, and Stark records the conversation, reviewing it later. It shows that Stark is aware of Fury attempting to recruit him even before Fury meets him at the end of the film, and Stark is being deliberately difficult (because he's Stark). Kinda neat to see this familiar scene from the film from a different perspective.

"Just off the Farm"
Coulson is training a new SHIELD agent, "Mister Hendricks." We get to see some cool SHIELD tech, and Coulson being a badass, but no real reference to the film after the first page, where Fury complains to Coulson about the press conference from Iron Man 1 since Coulson was supposed to cover the alibi. At the end, Coulson welcomes Hendricks to SHIELD, so it may be a character that's eventually put into live action, but maybe not. If so, it'll make this story more interesting.

"Proximity"
It starts off with Black Widow being badass and jumping from a plane without a 'chute, because she's the Black Widow. Fury assigns her to slowly work her way through Stark Industries to get close to Stark, partly to keep an eye on him and partly to make sure he joins the Initiative. We see how she creates her own luck (including jumping down an elevator shaft, because she's Black Widow) to get to Stark, and the comic ends with her walking into his training room while he's boxing with Happy (seen in Iron Man 2). Like the first part, it's cool to see a familiar movie scene from another angle, and it's neat to see how Black Widow got into that position. I honestly prefer this mini-story over the three-part series she had by herself. It tied into the movie character that we know, and showed us a familiar setting.

Overall, I like this comic. The stories are all pretty short, but its because they tie into the movies that we all know, which is the point of these comics in the first place. We get a little closer look at the methods of Fury, the cool of Coulson, and how much of a badass Black Widow really is. If you can find it cheap, I recommend checking it out.

A quick summary of MCU comics: Part 3/9 [Black Widow Strikes]

This is part 3. Read the other parts!

Part: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Here is part 3, on the prelude Black Widow Strikes.

Part 1: We start with Black Widow undercover in a strip club. But if you're a ScarJo fan, the artistry doesn't much look like her, so don't buy it for that alone. After running around in a leather bra for several pages, and some interplay with Coulson, she leaps off a roof and has a fancy Widow-logo themed flight-glider-harness-thingy. Not sure what to call it, but its cool.

The next page has her in a new set of lingerie, but she's getting dressed. Can't finish though, cuz she gets attacked. So 6 more pages of her fighting in underwear before finally wearing clothes for the last three pages. Turns out there is something of an actual plot -- a Russian assassin and former fan of Romanov (uses the alias Sofia) is disappointed by her lack of menacing methods since joining SHIELD, and is challenging her for who gets to claim the title of Black Widow since this new person thinks Natasha is undeserving.

Part 2: We start with Natasha on some crazy "rail bike." We see some flashbacks on all the horrible things shes done in the past that made her the object of Sofia's obsession. We make it all the way to page 4 before they take her clothes off again, now in a bikini. She gets nearly killed by Sofia, before Coulson (who else?) saves her. For the latter half of this book, she's actually wearing clothes. Albeit a low cut super-cleavage dress, but clothes. Along the way, Sofia kills a few SHIELD agents, and Natasha vows to kill her.

Part 3: Starts the book out in full costume! Yay! Practicality! Chasing chasing chasing. Ten Rings reference? Whoaaaaa first real tie to the movies. Flips and twirls and shooting things. Finally face to face with Sofia, both are out of bullets. Classic. More fighting, and Sofia apparently dies in an explosion. But are we sure. Then Widow says something in self-pity when talking to Fury.

Conclusion: Not very many ties to the movies, but some backstory on Widow if you care for that. I personally think that they might bring this stuff into future movies more than what they have now. There's a Ten Rings reference, and the whole idea of a second Black Widow is something that I think could be a great plot point in a future movie. If they focus more on Widow in future films, then this series might be worth buying as a connection to the MCU. Otherwise, its pretty tangential. And bikinis and strip clubs and bras don't really make great comics in my opinion, but thats what 2/3 of this series is. But it's nice that they give Widow some attention in this reality, I just wish Hawkeye could get a book.