Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2: Pruned Edition

the main problem with guardians of the galaxy 2 was that some scenes just lingered far too long between jokes which made some of the dialogue seem awkward but RB has trimmed some of the slower paced scenes and made the the movie flow more freely.the viewer is no longer bombarded with jokes and forced one-liners.The movie now has a steady pace which make for a more fun viewing experience. definitely worth a rewatch

Ever since I walked out of the theater after watching Guardians of the Galaxy 2, I knew it was a good film that would be great with some editing. I knew it didn't need an intense regrade or reordering of the scenes, moreso just a good trim to cut out some excess. Come a few months after the films release, and rb has taken that style of editing and applied it to the film with great effectiveness.

Every cut that is made here runs smoothly, and creates no feeling of a lost scene or newly formed plot inconsistency. What is removed takes a strong "less is more" approach towards pruning the movie of jokes or other moments that went on too long, making the movie run at a stronger pace that the theatrical version. Also, the removal of some key lines helped this fanedit to stay away from undercutting the tone or importance of what was going on, something the official cut struggled on in moments.

What we have left with the removal of these lines and scenes is a Guardians film that runs about the same length as the first one and recaptures that great pace of strong emotional beats and laugh out loud moments. The film no longer feels that it is trying too hard to recapture the humor of the first one. Rather, it just proves itself as a strong sequel that now has tighter editing that allows you to appreciate the big picture and more sharply feel the intended emotions of some scenes and character interactions. I can't recommend this cut enough if you loved Guardians 2, were disappointed in it, or are just looking to see what a different cut of the movie would feel like.

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!

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Aside from a few issues of having a joke payoff without it, really, having been setup, this was an excellent edit. I would recommend this over the theatrical cut any time.