GOTG1 is a far better movie to me. Everyone raves about the emotional beats of Vol. 2 but I found the characters backstories in Vol. 1 did that better because they didn't feel as forced, telegraphed or cliche as the ones in Vol. 2. They felt more natural, in a conversational/dialogue context especially. Rocket's creation, Peter's Mom and Drax's family were all much better, felt more naturally acted and hit harder than anything in Vol. 2.
The Father/Son thing felt ridiculously forced to me, partially because I thought Kurt Russell gave a pretty hammy/campy performance. The only part of the Father/Son trope that worked for me was when Star-Lord and Gamora were talking about it and she gave the response about Peter "finally finding his family" - "I thought you already did". Because it felt far more natural than anything said between Peter and Ego. The Yondu "Daddy" moment was played much better as well.
The jokes in Vol. 2 also didn't land for me nearly as often. Drax was the only consistently funny character, Rocket had a few moments, Yondu had a line or two that was good but rest of the jokes fell flat for me. Mantis was a completely useless character other than being the brunt of some of Drax's jokes. Vol. 1 was vastly superior comedy wise to me.
One of the things I was hoping for in Vol. 2 was seeing more action/fighting scenes for Gamora and Drax that would make them live up to their nicknames (Deadliest Woman/Destroyer), they failed at that again and I actually think they both had less scenes in this that showed that off.
Finally, I think Ronan was the way better villain of the two movies, it's not even remotely close for me at all. Ego was cheesy and preachy, never felt like a threat despite his great power, yet also never felt believable at just wanting to be a good Father before the "twist" that you could see coming a Galaxy away (pun intended). Ego's "scheme" wasn't any deeper than Ronan's IMO, actually I think Ronan's revenge plot was better to be honest, it made more sense than Ego's take over the Universe cuz... reasons... "plot", it was super flimsy to me. Ronan felt like a threat, was mean, nasty, mopped the floor with Drax, took a hit from Rocket's canon and still kept coming. Ego was just kind of there, or not there since half the time he wasn't in a solid form and his speechifying was terrible during the climax. Plus they had the orb, Thanos and Nebula mixed in which was more interesting than just Ego and his maid slave that joined the Guardians almost immediately and The Sovereign who were just terrible period.
Vol. 2 is the better looking film cinematography wise though, I will give it that for sure. It was still a decent movie but nothing about it felt as natural as Vol. 1, most of the movie was easy to telegraph. Vol. 1 was funnier, had more memorable scenes (the jailbreak scene in Vol. 1 is better than anything in Vol. 2), better supporting characters (Nova Corps > Sovereign by a MILE), Star-Lord, Rocket and Groot were all much better in Vol. 1, better villain by far, better action sequences, more interesting story. Just everything about Vol. 1 was better for me except some visual stuff.
But thinking about it, I really do think I prefer Vol 2 overall. Ego was just a vastly more interesting villain than Ronan and there are so many moments in Vol 2 that make me grin like an idiot and get a warm, fuzzy feeling just thinking about them. 
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