Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2: Pruned Edition

A clear improvement on the original.

GOTG2 felt too long and was full of "the jokes worked well in part 1, let's cram as many as we can into the sequel." The Pruned Edition removes the lamer jokes and tightens the pacing, making the remaining ones stronger. In the process it reduces the runtime enough that the film no longer feels overly long.

The editing is flawless. The stereo mix is adequate, though high-bitrate surround would have been nice (as rb already acknowledged in the forum).

In short: this is the version to watch!

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.

When GotG2 was announced I was apprehensive, but cautiously optimistic. I think the first Guardians might be the best movie Marvel has put out, and one of the best action adventure films in the last decade. With the sequel I think they built on the characters very well, but the movie still felt bloated. The filmmakers wanted make you feel the struggles of the characters, but it's like they had a specific ratio of jokes that they had to adhere to. Plus they had to include a lot of baby groot, the cute mascot of the film.

RB's edit fixes pretty much all of my problems with the film. He delivered on all his promises in the change list. Plus this edit is incredibly smooth! I never felt like a scene was too long, or too short. The deletion of few longer jokes and gags really helped sell the more dramatic moments. It's nothing too drastic but it made me take certain situations a bit more seriously. My only complaint is the audio. Fight scenes would be noticeably louder than dialogue or musical scenes. I wasn't turning the volume up and down constantly, so it wasn't that bad. Overall, the 'Pruned Edition' of GotG2 turns a fine sequel into leaner, meaner, more emotionally resonant sequel. As of right now, I prefer this version to the original. But I'll have to compare the two in depth to know for sure.