When Marvel announced this set back in June of last year, I was probably one of the first people to pre-order it. I already had blu-ray copies of all the Phase One movies, with the exception of the Avengers, but I decided this was the ultimate set to show my fandom of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But bad news arose a mere month before its initial release. Marvel was sued by Rimowa BhmbH for the design of the case. Marvel delayed the set, and I still eagerly awaited its release. I didn’t even buy a copy of the Avengers to tide me over till April. That’s how dedicated I was to this set.
And now that it has finally arrived 10 months after its announcement, I have to say, I’m a little disappointed. Don’t get me wrong it is a great set. The overall design, and the thought and detail that went into the prop replicas is amazing, and really that’s what your paying for when you get this set. There’s tons of little tidbits about the Marvel Universe from Thor’s medical bracelet to a napkin signed by Tony Stark. There’s even blueprints of the arc reactor that I wouldn’t mind hanging up on my wall. This set is loaded with interesting things, but when you get down to it, putting all the prop replicas aside, this is a blu-ray set. And that is where this set doesn’t quite meet my expectations.
The Disc Sleeves The discs themselves come in this uniform, minimalist design. Which in truth, is actually quite appealing and nice to look at. (Pictures of these designs came out some time last year and you can see the Avengers cover above) But what I don’t like is they’re made out of cheap cardboard, and they’re not all that big. The discs slide into them and are held in place, although not always very well. When I first pulled out the sleeves from the case, two discs fell out and onto the floor. I would have much preferred the classic push-button style.
And while they do match each other, they don’t match the rest of my blu-ray collection. They’re not the same height, they’re thin, and they don’t even have their titles written on the spine. There’s no way I’d want to put these on my shelf with the rest of my movies. So I’m left with pulling out this briefcase every time I want to watch any of these movies, or making my own boxes for them. I realize I’m nitpicking here, but I think anyone who’s into movie collecting will understand my concern.
3-D Marvel included 3-D copies of Thor, Captain America and The Avengers in the set. Which to their credit, they didn’t have to, and I really appreciate them doing it. And while I don’t have any 3-D technology now, I’m sure it’ll become a part of the standard home theatre system in the future, and I will make use of them. Unfortunately digital copies aren’t included with the set. Which is kind of a bummer. But at the same time, these movies have been out for awhile, and most people would probably already have a digital copy. It’s not a big deal.
The Discs It seems like Marvel completely forgot these movies were a part of a set when it comes to their discs. From here on out they added nothing new to the original blu-ray designs. Even the disc labels are the same as they were when they were originally released. To me this is where Marvel really dropped the ball. It’s not a huge deal because in the past Marvel has had a pretty standard look to their disc labels. But there’s one that stands out, and is a huge eyesore compared to the others. That is the Incredible Hulk. It still has that awful label that’s just a reproduction of the box cover from the original blu-ray release. Again, this may seem nitpicky, but this is a box set! A collection! I was expecting the same overall design for all of the discs. I guess I had my hopes too high.
Special Features For those of you hoping for more special features with this set, prepare to be disappointed. Each disc is a direct copy of its previous release. No additional special features, no commentaries. Nothing. They didn’t even make new menus for the movies. Which kind of ticks me off, because the Incredible Hulk still has the terrible Universal Studios blu-ray menu. But this isn’t even the biggest letdown. I have the 2 Disc Special Editions of both Iron Man and Iron Man 2. Both of those sets had a second disc loaded full with special features. Neither of these discs are in this set, and none of the aforementioned extras appear anywhere else, not even on the Phase One Archives bonus disc.
And speaking of the Phase One Archives, I don’t know why they even bothered. It doesn’t have a new menu, they just reused the Avengers’ one, and it has the bare minimum for special features. Which is ridiculous considering that it’s a ‘special features’ disc. The only extras it has on it is previously unseen deleted scenes for most, but not all of the movies, some animatics, pre-vis stuff, and an intro to each movie. The intros have Clark Gregg talking briefly about each film, but it seems that these were filmed for the AMC Marvel Marathon they had going last May. So it’s not even new footage filmed specifically for the box set.
There was one new featurette called “And Then Shawarma After” that was a measly 2 minutes long. Oh and the Target Exclusive 90 minute documentary on the Avengers? No where to be found. We were promised more special features as an apology for the delay, I hate to think that there was even less than this with its initial release.
Now before I sound too negative, everything on the disc
was new footage, and I did really enjoy seeing the new deleted scenes they had. I was just surprised at the lack of new stuff. Maybe the Lord of the Rings Extended Editions has ruined all other box sets for me.
But as promised there is an exclusive look at Phase Two. With the set, you get a SHIELD id card, and a decoder. Using the decoder you will find a hidden message inside the prop files telling you to go to a certain website. From there you type in your SHIELD id number, and you’re treated with a nice look at Marvel’s Phase Two. This is one of the highlights of the box set. And I really like the way Marvel did this, because it adds a level of exclusivity to everything. But I guess that didn’t last long, because the video is now up on this very website.
Conclusion Overall, this set can be very cool at times. I spent most of the morning ogling over the prop replicas and secret files of SHIELD. However the lack of delivery on new special features, left something to be desired. I mean there’s not even a trailer for Iron Man 3 on here. I was expecting them to go back and completely retrofit all the blu-rays. I was expecting to have more commentary tracks. Maybe have Kevin Feige do one for each movie. This was supposed to be the ULTIMATE collection for Marvel’s Phase One. In the future I hope Marvel does better.
That being said, it IS a nice collection. And if you want all the movies and a cool display case, and maybe some props to go with it this is the set for you. But if all you want is the movies, I would recommend spending your money elsewhere. You can pick up individual copies of all the Phase One movies for about the same price, and you might even get more special features with it.
As always leave your comments and questions below. Thanks for reading.