Guardians 2 Censored in Bahrain. Fill the the gaps for me? (Spoilers)

QuaziquestGM · May 12, 2017

So, I'm living in KSA and I go into Baharin for movies.

It isn't unusual here to notice a few seconds of a movie missing. Deadpool walks into a strip club, music jumps and Chastity is never seen. Muslim country. Lucky the censors didn't understand the unicorn references...... Other times they just blur a bit of cleavage without removing the scene.

This time I suspect the edits were due to religious content as opposed to T & A.

Then Starlord and company walk into Ego's home/museum there is a jump right after they walk in. The are suddenly looking at the shifting statue scene showing Ego's romance with Peter's Mom. They skipped Ego's origin story. The later reference to "searching for life" seems to refer to this missing scene.

The second cut happens just after Mantis puts the fear whammy on Gamorrah (sp). There seems to be a scene that should explain "expansion" , but instead it jump cuts to the continuation of the fear whammy reaction from Gamorrah. Seems they cut the intervening scene between Peter and Ego where the "master plan" is explained.

So I think they cut "godhood" stuff.

Can somebody summarize the missing scenes for me?

Tonguez · May 13, 2017

I think the first one is where Ego reveals that he is a Celestial, Peter says something like You're a God? Ego says god with a little g
Ego started as a brain floating in space and then over aeons built himself a body (the planet). He was also able to form extensions including his human form(s).

not sure what the second scene is that you're referring too. Expansion relates to the bud he 'plants' at the beginning of the movie and shows to Peters mother. He needs Peters energy in order to have the plants spread until every planet in the Universe is transformed into an extension of Ego. Did you get the part where Ego had many children but all of them except Peter were mortal? Peter apparently is immortal (or at least can be if he stays on Ego's World)

Ryujin · May 14, 2017

Sounds like the second scene, explanation of Ego's plan to expand his life force to thousands of planets thereby killing all other life on those planets, was cut. I don't remember specifically if he refers to himself and Peter as gods in that scene, but he certainly mentions Celestials and how Peter is the only one of his offspring to inherit the "Celestial Genes."

QuaziquestGM · May 14, 2017

The "small 'g' " was allowed to remain. The cut starts a few seconds after they get inside. The "Brain" explanation is cut. The "searching for life" bit also wasn't there. I saw a second of the "diorama" scene of the little girl with the flowers, then it went into Ego's romance with Peter's mom.

The second scene... what ever is cut is what goes with "I had one problem." Never said what Ego had the problem with, but Ii got that his solution was to have a kid so he would have the power of two celestials. I never heard a mention of "the expansion" until after the flower but sprouted.

Apparently, being a giant god-godlike (small g or not) planet-creating entity was too much for the Muslim censors.

On the drive back to KSA this morning I mentioned the censorship to my buddy. He happened to work as a translator decades ago for a local TV station. He said censorship used to be completely ridiculous. Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959), was cut to remove every image of a church or cross, and every mention of the supernatural. .... I can't figure out why they bothered showing it at all... cutting out the banshee plot? what was left?

Ryujin · May 14, 2017

I've often wondered about that sort of censorship too; the kind where they remove major chunks of plot. While it may be more obvious in the Middle East, it does also happen in North America. I recall when I first noticed it. It was while watching "Revenge of the Nerds" on TBS (Turner Broadcasting Service, a US cable station). There is a scene in which one of the two "nerd leaders", played Robert Carradine, pretends to be the boyfriend of one of the 'cool' sorority girls, has sex with her, and wins her over to the nerds side. In the Turner edit that scene was completely left out and you were left to wonder why she suddenly switched sides.

There were two separate scenes in which they walked around the dioramas. In the second Ego revealed his plan, including why he didn't go back to Earth for a 5th time. The first covered his origins and search for life, including falling in love with Peter's mother.

Tonguez · May 15, 2017

Ryujin said:
I've often wondered about that sort of censorship too; the kind where they remove major chunks of plot. While it may be more obvious in the Middle East, it does also happen in North America. I recall when I first noticed it. It was while watching "Revenge of the Nerds" on TBS (Turner Broadcasting Service, a US cable station). There is a scene in which one of the two "nerd leaders", played Robert Carradine, pretends to be the boyfriend of one of the 'cool' sorority girls, has sex with her, and wins her over to the nerds side. In the Turner edit that scene was completely left out and you were left to wonder why she suddenly switched sides.
.

is that the scene with the Darth Vader mask? I'm entirely baffled as to why it would be removed.

I do often wonder though about whether different countries get different versions of a movie and just what affect that has on the story overall. Good to hear that Bahrain has lightened up on how bad it use to be though...

Jhaelen · May 15, 2017

Tonguez said:
I do often wonder though about whether different countries get different versions of a movie and just what affect that has on the story overall. Good to hear that Bahrain has lightened up on how bad it use to be though...

I know it's become pretty much standard for animated movies. I've seen a special on 'Inside Out' about how they changed all kinds of details, e.g. the kind of vegetables (brokkoli, spinach, etc.) the girl didn't like or the kind of sports her dad enjoyed (baseball, soccer, etc.). When watching Zoomania (or Zootopia, as it was called in Germany...) I also noticed plenty of localized stuff, which stood out all the more because it wasn't localized properly in every scene.

I also recall seeing a special about the first 'Captain America' movie, pointing out that the list he's writing up of things he'd like to see is different, depending on the country where you watched the movie.

The thought that struck me about this trend is that there's no longer really an 'original version' of a movie you can watch. There's only plenty of versions.

Ryujin · May 15, 2017

Tonguez said:
is that the scene with the Darth Vader mask? I'm entirely baffled as to why it would be removed.

I do often wonder though about whether different countries get different versions of a movie and just what affect that has on the story overall. Good to hear that Bahrain has lightened up on how bad it use to be though...

Yes, that's the scene. There's brief nudity in it but rather than fuzz the picture, as they did elsewhere, they cut it wholesale.