I'm actually going to agree with TheLastAshen and take on the unpopular opinion that Revenge of the Mummy is overall a pretty underwhelming attraction.
Is the coaster portion fun? Yes, I love that pop of air time and the silk smooth turns. It's quite short, but it's still a ton of fun.
But the dark ride portion fails to live up to expectations and is frankly in shambles these days, and that's with the "upgrades." (I understand the projectors were upgraded, but I honestly think they may have hurt the ride more than they helped.)
Hear me out:
The storyline frankly makes little sense and is poorly communicated to the guest. The concept is there - you're visiting a movie set that is using cursed, genuine props that proceed to cause mayhem. This ride would have benefitted extremely from a mandatory preshow (ala Rock'n'Roller Coaster) to establish what the Med-Jai symbol is, what it does, who Imhotep is, and who Reggie is (and the coffee mission Brendan Fraiser sends him on so the current ending makes an inkling of sense to the average joe). It'd also help tremendously in establishing what YOUR (the guest's) role is - movie extras. We take all the plot details for granted, but I guarantee you most of the general public has no idea what's going on - and that's a shame, since this has so much more potential than a 30 second roller coaster ride in the dark.
The queue line, thankfully, is perfectly executed. Creepy, atmospheric, wonderfully lit, plenty of interactive entertainment, the works. No complaints at all.
The beginning of the ride is solid, but could be plussed tremendously to be more similar to Hollywood's ride - a handful of the Mummies could easily "come to life" with very minimal motions (i.e. a head turn, glowing eyes and whatnot). Imagine how atmospherically chilling it would be to see the mummy currently lying down on that slab silently turn its head towards you, eyes glowing! The "shadow" projection really makes little sense (it isn't Imhotep since he's still in his sarcophagus, and Reggie is already mummified, so...?). If anyone has any canon details on why that's there and who it's supposed to represent, I'd love to know - the effect is cool, at least.
I also never understood the lighting in these opening turns. The only well lit area is the slab to your right - all of the stuff on your left is left in relative darkness, making it hard to discern that the mummified bodies are supposed to be the tourists on the mine train before you. Why not brighten this up just a smidge? There's lots of great details lost.
The opening show scene with Reggie and Imhotep I used to be great, and then had a slow, painful decline over the years. Reggie used to be far more animated (though I understand he's had a refurbishment & cleaning recently?) Imhotep I was mostly hydraulics originally to be my understanding, and he moved quite smoothly and convincingly - but the figure was unreliable and slowly replaced with pneumatic (air) parts. This led to the figure losing any sense of realism, with the current jerky, frankly lame motions. Then, to add insult to injury, at some point they switched out the scene's lighting package (check older on ride POVs and compare with newer ones, you'll see the difference); the scene is now much too bright, and Imhotep's robotic arm is laughably apparent. The original scene worked fine, but a more reliable, hydraulic Imhotep needs to be installed (I also understand the original Imhotep was built on a very, very low bid by a movie special effects manufacturer, not a more reliable animatronics house), with the original lighting restored.
The transition to the treasure room is fine but slightly awkward... the lighting effect is nifty but so much more could be done besides the otherwise bare walls. The ceiling limbs effect from Hollywood would do great here and greatly enhance the story (i.e. the Mummies are coming to life and are after you!)
The Treasure Room I have almost no problems with... I don't mind the projection, it's the most convincing one in the attraction, and a sand-filled animatronic head would've been incredibly problematic (sand + advanced robotics? no thank you). What I do mind, however, as does most everyone, is the stupidly static warriors. They just come off as cheap and lame, and these days you can see them in their neutral position before they spring up and do nothing. If actual moving animatronics here aren't feasible, then why not take a cue from Hollywood's treasure room (which doesn't have warrior mummies) and use corpses instead? Have stakes spring up with mummified corpses spring up in the warriors' place, foreshadowing your eventual fate (Hollywood has such corpses, though they're pinned to a wall and illuminated by light, instead). They won't look fake if they don't move since, you know, they're dead. My only other nitpick with this scene is the bare wall underneath the falling doorway - couldn't they apply a basic Egyptian stone look to match the rest of the room? It's very apparent it's just a black wall.
The scarab room has lost most of its impact over the years (I can't remember the last time I was actually squirted with water upon the lights going out). The projectors are now stupidly bright, making it VERY apparent that we are looking at projected images. I wish they'd use the projection sequence from Singapore, in which we actually "crash" into the wall and break the sculpture, releasing the beetles. I still think the conveyor walls with the plastic beetles attached is a little silly and still visible when the lights go out, but whatever. Could at least get some of the leg ticklers from Hollywood to enhance the scene?
The turntable is where the storytelling/showmanship goes to hell. The projection's CGI is both terrible in quality and brightness; this is gotten worse recently, with the catwalks and black curtains embarrassingly obvious. A scene once almost pitch black is now merely dim, making it quite clear you're in a thrown together soundstage. Ideally this scene would be actually rethemed with Egyptian walls and hieroglyphics, with a new and improved Imhotep CGI head appearing alongside the glyphs as he does in the Treasure room.
The launch tunnel has also deteriorated over the years, with the audio seemingly cracked and hazy; the projection has seen better days, in part due to lack of sufficient fog and clarity. It'd be great to get Singapore's newer setup, which actually has a black "face" at the top of the tunnel that the projection is mapped too - it looks absolutely fantastic even in grainy on-ride POVs. It'd also be a wishful thinking to actually again get an Egyptian tunnel here with more glyphs... instead we get more black curtains and the bizarre "crystal" things (seriously, what are these supposed to be?)
The coaster portion is fun, but storytelling/show-wise, lame, lame, lame. Space Mountain is more impressive than this. You can barely see the flashing blacklit mummies, and the flashes illuminate the bare showbuilding you're flying around in. Why not use projections seen at Space Mountain Ghost Galaxy, where a CGI ghost actually has motion and follows along the vehicle? Imagine how terrifying and impressive that would be! In a perfect world we'd actually have a huge Egyptian sacrificial chamber of some sort with lots of fire effects and physical mummy figures... but I'd settle for the darkness coupled with projections.
The fake unload is a remnant of the largely failed/forgotten "psychological thrill ride" branding/hype Universal pushed down our throats leading up to the ride opening... problem is, the scene is neither terrifying, surprising, or convincing. It's highly apparent that this isn't the actual station for a plethora of reasons (no gates, no visible ride op, no apparent exit), and any chance of surprise is lost after the first ride. Singapore's updated take on the scene is much better, with Imhotep already being present upon rider's entering and simply harassing them with the fire.... no attempt at "faking" them out, just more Imhotep attacks.
And of course, we have the "we totally ran out of money - crap!" ending. The floating painted Imhotep head isn't the worst thing ever (even though it looks nothing like Imhotep), nor is the Med-Jai symbol that comes out of nowhere (!?)... but to the average guest no one has any idea what just happened. The Brendan Fraiser coffee ending would make slightly more sense if the mandatory preshow was instituted, allowing an actual punchline to a plot that EVERY guest had witnessed. To most, this is just a WTF ending. If we REALLY wanted to get generous, we could steal Singapore's ending, which has Imhotep being resealed into the sarcophagus seen at the ride's beginning... and then him shaking inside attempting to escape, declaring he would get out and get us yet. What a much more interesting and easy to understand ending, that realistically would not cost much to implement since the schematics already exist!
(If you haven't noticed... Singapore's ride is Florida's on steroids with the nonsensical plot elements removed or refined..)
Now I know what you're thinking... hey, the ride was only built for 40 million, at the time of the "dark ages" of the parks. I get that, and it's commendable that they were able to do so much with so little. But that does not matter (nor should it) to 99.9% of the theme park-going population... they just expect a great ride that makes sense. I'm not going to adjust my expectations of quality on how a dark ride should be handled due to budget constraints... it's either a good ride or it isn't. Right now, Revenge of the Mummy is mediocre but fun (shallow, really), which is a shame because it has the potential to be a superior attraction.
For what it's worth, my favorite attractions at the Studios are Men in Black, ET, JAWS (RIP), and likely-soon-to-be Transformers... I'm a sucker for show-based ride experiences with great storytelling. Mummy has the ride portion down, but it needs major help in the showmanship department.
