Releasing on September 25th on Blu-Ray/DVD is Joss Whedon‘s The Avengers, one of the summer’s biggest films. In the weeks leading up to the release, we’ve seen numerous deleted scenes, extended sequences and an alternate opening.
Of course, this has all caused a bit of commotion on the internet, with fans questioning why certain scenes were left out. Luckily, Whedon opened up recently and gave us two reasons for his editing choices.
“Two factors. One: The movie was three hours long. Two: Audiences didn’t respond to it as well in the movie as I think they would as a DVD extra. Most of them didn’t know who this character was or what the context was, and they were like, ‘Uhhh, I don’t know why I’m supposed to be personally involved in this character I don’t know.’
The rollout to the Avengers getting to Loki was so gradual that people were getting restless. I thought Cobie [Smulders] nailed it, and the reason I thought it was necessary is because I was trying to make a war movie and I wanted to give context that something bad had happened in the past,” Whedon told Vulture.
“In a war movie, you don’t know who’s going to live or die, but you do know that this war happened and that [the characters] are going to be in a dire circumstance, and I wanted to create that atmosphere.”
As always, King Whedon speaks sound words. What he says does make sense and in my eyes, the theatrical cut of The Avengers was near perfect. While I am enjoying what we’re seeing of the deleted scenes, I understand Whedon’s reasoning and I think that the scenes in question are better left for bonus material on the Blu-Ray/DVD.
What do you think? Is the extra footage better left on the Blu-Ray/DVD? Did Joss Whedon make the right decisions while cutting the film?