Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2: Pruned Edition

To preface this review, I couldn't stand to watch the theatrical cut of GOTG 2 for more than 20ish minutes when it was first released. The jokes present in the film not only failed to land but choose to linger, killing the overall pace of the film. It was a letdown compared to the first in the series, failing to capture the manic energy the original had.

With all that said, I am happy to report that this edit vastly improves the quality of the film. The most noticable improvement was the pacing of scenes, with jokes being truncated to make them snappier. This had two effects: a) Jokes that were ruined by overemphasis were given room to breathe, with jokes that fell flat given less screen time; b) it grounded the film and made it feel less like a medicore sitcom.

The video editing was crisp with no obvious flaws and the same holds true for the audio. While the edit is not particularly focused on narrative adjustment, the removal of the opening intro which gives away the primary plot twist is a welcome change to the film.

Overall, this edit improves GotG 2 to a point where it is an decent MCU film. I wouldn't say it's as good as the original, but that has to do with the writing rather than the edit. Also the short behind the scenes video included is an amazing touch. Thanks for the edit rb!

GotG 2 was one of those films in the MCU that was not flat out bad, but it just wasn't my cup of tea, especially after the excellent first one. The humor was too much and silly, and it also dragged too long. My enjoyment factor was around 5. Thankfully there weren't any highly important moments, just Mantis' introduction and the death of Yondu (spoiler alert), so I could easily skip it in any MCU marathons. Still, when I found this edit I thought I should give it a shot, why not try and salvage one more movie?

The audio and visual editing was pretty much excellent, I didn't notice or "felt" any tampering in any scene. The only thing I found out of place, is when Drax has a chat with Mantis and calls her hideous etc. That part is cut out, and when Mantis feels his past with his daughter she calls her disgusting, because of the missing dialogue before with Drax, and now it seems completely out of place and uncalled for. Also, at the beginning, originally Drax tells Peter to find a woman who is pathetic like him, but now the line "like you" is cut out. I mean, if you leave the "pathetic joke", why cut it in half?

Narrative wise it was pretty great! I did not miss any of the edited content. Most of the silly jokes where cut out, plus other scenes, so it was more streamlined. Unfortunately, this still didn't save the movie for me. I feel I needed the movie to be even shorter, especially towards the last act that drags sooo long.

That being said, I definitely recommend this to anyone who found the movie 'ok' and above. I believe this will be your go-to version! To anyone who disliked it, I don't think it will work for you, it's not That aggressive edit.

Thank you rb and thanks to anyone who read my review!

I don't remember hating this movie when I first watched it, but I was definitely underwhelmed. This edit breathes life into it and lets it shine as a fantastic sequel. Cutting down just the over the top jokes that go on too long really helped the tone of the movie. I couldn't really tell what was edited other than the intro, but I was much more invested this time around. Definitely recommend!

So, this was the movie that made me give up on the MCU. It was basically a stupid, soulless cash-in that was so busy trying to recreate the feeling of the first movie that it completely missed the point of what made the first movie one of the best movies in the MCU. I seriously haven't watched another MCU movie since it came out (lol, I know, a little dramatic, but I've also been busy, its not all drama). All that is here to put this in perspective. This edit is amazing. It trimmed out all of the BS and returned the movie to what it should have been, an exploration of the meaning of family and the question of the value of blood over found family. Simply amazing. I didn't really think the movie could be salvaged, but not only was it salvaged, it was pimped out.

As for the edits and the technical side of things, everything seemed seamless to me, I never noticed them at least, and that is all the technical info I have, so take that with a grain of salt.

Although I didn't mind the original, there was multiple things that didn't need to be included and this edit perfectly edits them out which improves the pace of the movie and improves the overall watching experience. I did notice what was cut but that's only because I have seen the original every day for the past couple months as my 2 year old son is currently obsessed with baby groot, but what was cut will not be missed and makes this movie much more enjoyable when I always have to watch it. So thanks rb for making my experience watching this movie much more enjoyable.