Draws from deep funds of creativity and imagination

Rating: 9/10 (24 May 2017)

The contrast is so stark: the trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi which preceded a showing of Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2.
The latest installment of Star Wars has the same formula - 3-5 main protagonists, fighter ships zipping around shooting with the same sound effects and the same universe-defining concepts - the Force, an evil empire. How boring, how been-there-done-that.
** Possible spoilers***
Then GOTG, Vol 2 come on the screen. We meet a living planet named Ego and a highly-evolved alien race called the Sovereign and a super-empath named Mantis. We get a glimpse of the Watchers - a immensely-powerful alien race that observes but does not intervene. We learn the back-story of Nebula, who suffered amputations to her body that were replaced by cybernetic prostheses. We learn more about the Ravagers - both the internal gang politics on one ship and the loosely-organized network of galactic pirates that they have become. We see the unrestrained use of a kind of weapon (Rondu's arrow) that is original - we have never seen this combination of weapon attributes before.
And all this cosmic fantasy is leavened with familiar 80's music and references to Sam and Diane on Cheers and a way-cute baby Groot character and a humorous shtick involving a character named Taserface and the shock of Drax's lack of a verbal filter.
GOTG has the advantage of drawing from deep funds of creative ideas that are in over 50 years of Marvel comic books. Thousands of those comic book ideas were not-so-good (or downright bad) and will never again see the light of day but there were also hundreds of good fantasy concepts and character ideas. And Marvel Studios seems to have a combination of people and production values that is able to consistently turn out high-quality movie product.
The GOTG universe (and MCU)is exciting - rich in imagination with a wide-open creative future. In contrast, the Star Wars cupboard seems bare. An endless loop of fighter spacecraft battles, light sabers and taverns populated by weird aliens.