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!

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.

The technical elements of this edit are flawless. Seriously, great work. They help to move the narrative along at a quicker pace, and you really don't notice a single issue with the cuts A/V wise.

However, as a big Guardians of the Galaxy fan, Vol. 2 being my favourite, I did not enjoy this edit as much as the original. I have an echoic memory (audiographic memory - like photographic memory but for sound), and thus I remember things like song lyrics, sound effects, soundtrack queues and, most importantly, film dialogue very well. So, having seen this movie a number of times, I did notice what was cut a lot of the time.

And, while I do feel MCU humour does tend to 'break' the moments a bit, I actually think they generally work perfectly in the Guardians films. So, the cutting of that kind of stuff did throw me off a bit (not a problem if you don't have the same connection to the franchise, or an echoic memory).

Additionally, a more valid criticism then my hyper-awareness, is that I felt cutting out a lot of 'banter' or even just normal dialogue that got removed made for some strange moments. For example, when Quill and Gamora are arguing, I'm pretty sure some of the dialogue got cut, and it made them get aggressive way too fast. Instead of their voices getting progressively hostile, they just kind of go from chit-chat to yelling down each others' throats. There were also some moments where I think the soundtrack was replaced due to cuts made, which also stuck out to me.

Essentially, the editors' technical elements are flawless, but sometimes these technical elements ignore other elements of filmmaking such as pacing and dialogue, which stuck out to me very much.

Take this all with a grain of salt, as other reviews don't really express my criticisms, and maybe a lot of these issues were already present in the original and I just never noticed because I wasn't looking for them. Again, a lot of this stuff won't be a problem if you don't have the same hyper-awareness to this sort of thing as I do. I will be sticking to the original on a rewatch of Guardians 2, so I can't recommend this edit for people like me. However, it does have great merit and there's no reason you shouldn't watch it for yourself.