JungleSkip
V.I.P. Member
Yeah, I have to give #1 to Journey To the Center of the Earth.
Meh. I'll let you know after I ride it in March, but the ride portion looks seriously underwhelming.
Yeah, I have to give #1 to Journey To the Center of the Earth.
It's not a pass. It's a greatly executed attraction. From the TMs as students who are "in" on the gang's plan to bust you out of the boring lecture, to the way they manage to sneak you out, to the thrilling "best of" the Harry Potter series. Love every minute of it.
There are a lot of things that are very forced in order to make it a ride thougj--nobody is saying its not a great attraction; but its story and coherence is off in some ways.
First off, why are we allowed at Hogwarts in the first place? Its picky, I know, but Kong, MIB, and Indy explain why you are where you are.
Second, its harder to suspend disbelief in FJ because the transition from screen portion to live sets are so jarring...SpiderMan's sets blend in perfectly with the screens, but in FJ the lines between live action and screen action is very clear.
The biggest issue for me is the liverties they take with the plot; why are dementors chasing us? How do we find ourselves in that cave thing at the end? And most importantly what is Hermione doing in the middle of the freakin Forbidden Forest when shes warning us about the spiders??
I also agree about Spider-Man having some flaws in execution--I think the levitation ray is great...us being last minute reporters? Not so much. And the SCOOP? How is that good for getting the news?
Im not saying these arent great rides, its just that some rides are easier for theme park nerds to pick apart than others
I don't see the hate for the scoop vehicles. The plot of the Spider-Man ride is that reporters are too scared to cover the story so out of desperation, J. Jonah Jameson sends you to get the scoop in their news vehicles lol. I don't think it detracts from the execution of the ride at all. It is one of the better executed rides at Universal, IMO.
Hate...? Ummm. It's not hate...but to me it doesn't make a ton of sense. I mean sending us out as reporters seems odd...why would we be up for that? And why, after the whole Doc Ock mess takes place, are we sticking around The Daily Bugle? The thing about the SCOOP is that its a great piece of technology but its usage was shoe-horned into the plot IMO. I LOVE how in Transformers we ride on EVAC...that's exciting. But the SCOOP is a news gathering vehicle...why? What about it is believable, how exactly does it help reporters? I love the thing, but within the story it is a bit hard to believe I think.
Here's the FJ article Fallow mentioned:
http://sparkthedark.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/theme-park-thoughts-harry-potter.html?m=1
But yeah. Tower of Terror. Although, if we're going to criticize Spiderman, what are we doing sitting down in an elevator?
The news media is a HUGE part of the Spider-Man lore. It makes a ton of sense, Peter Parker spends his time taking pictures for the Daily Bugle when he isn't fighting baddies and his relationship with news reporting is important. I'm a huge Marvel nerd and I'm biased towards Spidey, but as a fan I think it makes sense.
One ride that deserves a mention is the old Kilimanjaro Safari. It was what it was: a safari. The queue videos did an excellent job of foreshadowing the looming poacher threat and the ride itself was very lucky to have such a long ride length, which allowed guests to really be immersed in the world around them and become involved in the hunt for Little Red.
It really used to be an A+ attraction. In my eyes, at least.
The news media is a HUGE part of the Spider-Man lore. It makes a ton of sense, Peter Parker spends his time taking pictures for the Daily Bugle when he isn't fighting baddies and his relationship with news reporting is important. I'm a huge Marvel nerd and I'm biased towards Spidey, but as a fan I think it makes sense.
I actually quite like revenge of the mummy for theme