I really hate to continue to derail this thread but I must agree that the linear narrative on Cosmic Rewind is messy. I am not some hater who hasn't been to the parks in years, and I am not saying I don't understand the narrative as presented in the queue, preshows, onboard audio, and physical attraction. I ride Guardians frequently and I understand what it is attempting to deliver narratively, but that narrative is messy and it took multiple takes to fully soak in.
The first preshow frequently and deliberately establishes that the Cosmic Generator can be used to travel through different points in space, effectively teleportation. Fine. Then why is it that when the Celestial steals the Cosmic Generator in the second preshow, it can now be used as a time travel device? The characters are seeing him for the first time but somehow immediately infer that the jump point he creates has time travel properties, and that it is being used to travel back to a time before the known universe existed, no less. What? How could they possibly know that? And then the Celestial immediately confirms their suspicions without another thought.
Even further, the reason we as guests must travel through the jump point is that it is closing and we need to "keep track" of the Celestial until the Guardians arrive and Nova Corp regain power. But the moment we dispatch from the ship and enter the jump point, the Guardians immediately follow in behind us. I suppose it would make for a boring ride if we had to wait around for the Guardians to show up, but the fact that they were able to just follow in right with us makes our mission feel a little contrived.
In terms of actual on-ride scenes, the mechanic of time travel is being used as a justification to show elements of the Big Bang and creation of our galaxy. However, this idea of a whirlwind tour of the formation of the galaxy is at odds with the battle taking place, so the only elements of it we see are the bang itself in the reverse launch, a static model of the Milky Way, a static model of Earth's moon, and a static model of Earth. Admittedly, the reverse launch is a really strong element and an effective way of using the ride system to convey a signature narrative moment, but other than that the time travel mechanic does not get much mileage.
If I were to script-doctor/armchair imagineer Cosmic Rewind, I think I would honestly remove the time travel mechanic because it's clearly only present as a remnant of when the ride entered development as a Big Bang coaster before receiving an attached IP. Letting distinct scenes form that actually focus on the heroes using their unique abilities on a large enemy would be effective in terms of making a ride that is representative of its IP. Of course, this would remove the ride's already thin excuse of being edutainment and its justification for existing in Epcot, but many would argue that either; A: the ride is so thinly related to education it does not belong in Epcot to begin with, or B: the education ideals of Epcot are so dead that it's irrelevant for Cosmic Rewind to include them, so long as it is vaguely futuristic enough to fit World Discovery. Just let the time traveling Big Bang launch coaster be its own idea that can fully realize that one unique identity (not that such an attraction could possibly be built under current leadership).
Additionally, the Guardians not actually being physically present during the queue and preshows absolutely reeks of budget issues. Narratively, it would make sense for Peter Quill (and by extension the rest of the team) to be present at the opening of the Wonders of Xandar exhibit considering he was personally involved in the selection of the location. And being human, he also acts as a liaison between humanity and Xandarians. The only reason the story has them call in remotely is because the budget did not allow for animatronic figures of the characters.
If you've been paying attention you might say, "Ah! But if the Guardians are physically present for the preshow then they would have no need for the guests to keep track of the Celestial, and we would lose our narrative justification for guests to be on the mission." Which brings me to what I think is another huge missed opportunity with the ride's narrative. Our justification for joining the mission should have been to help the Guardians fight the Celestial with the Nova Corp's golden laser-net technology seen in the first film (and at numerous points in the queue and ride). The technology only works if you have an excess of ships to do it, and the Nova Corps fleet is currently without power. If our Starjumper ride vehicles were also given this ability, not only would it be a really convincing and exciting justification to join the mission, but it could also afford the opportunity to have a unique lighting package on the ride vehicles, creating a bespoke effect. I'm imagining not just the different cars in each train interacting with each other, but potentially even multiple trains at the same time being visible to each other in the show building. It could create that extra layer of kinetics found in a ride like Indy where you see multiple jeeps dodging around the temple.
At the end of the day I could dream of unlimited nitpicks for this ride, but ultimately the story isn't even my biggest issue (surprise, its the exterior of the show building). Cosmic Rewind is still a good ride, maybe even a great ride, but its identity is one of incredibly apparent circumstance. The same is true of Mission Breakout which makes this even more interesting. These rides might seem burdened by the IP mandate, existing ride concepts, and mismanaged budgets but those limitations brought forth incredibly distinct narratives that might have never been imagined if not for those limitations. It almost makes me less interested in whether Cosmic Rewind's story is "good" or "bad" because those are arbitrary and consider no weight of the context for how it ended up being created. But if you want to get that deep I suppose the same could be said for many attractions and other media in general. Regardless, Cosmic Rewind is certainly an interesting case.
