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Fast & Furious: Supercharged/Nighttime Studio Tour

I guess we're just going to disagree Allen. I have no idea where you get the idgaf attitude, but I'm not going to try to change you mind.

They cancelled a rehearsal. I don't see how that translates to dgaf. But alright.
 
I'll repeat myself. It's not WHAT they did, it's HOW they did it. Universal is still light years away from Disney in terms of how they handle these kinds of situations. I'm not gonna get any further into it than I have...

And as I've mentioned, regardless of all that, I'm still excited for the attraction. I think it's warranted that with everything going on that I'm a bit on edge, but I'm still trying to be positive and genuinely excited.
 
Listen Allen, I just asked you some simple questions. You never answered them so I just said I guess we're going to disagree. It's clear you're becoming upset and that is not my intention. You're on a forum, I figure if you post an opinion, you're alright with talking about it. I won't bug you anymore, brother. It was meant to be a peaceful conversation. 
 
Wow, is it really that bad? How disappointing, just when I was starting to get hyped for it. Can someone who has been on Supercharged explain its faults? I seen a video, but that doesn't really help compared to being there in person.  
 
Well, I got sick of waiting, so I caved in and watched the video (The one posted by SoCalAttractions). I'm not going to watch it again so that I have a fresh perspective when I finally ride it.

So, what do I think of what I saw? I don't think the ride looks nearly as bad as the unholy stench from the sewers that everyone was making it out to be. I think there's certainly room for improvement and I have ideas for it, but I'll get to that later. I didn't have to watch those awful preshow videos so I think that may be part of why I didn't mind it.

The garage looked wonderfully detailed. I liked how it was all set up. The only thing I don't like is that there was nothing going on in there. It's a shame to have such a wonderfully detailed set just used as a holding room. They should have something happen in there besides Roman Pierce just talking to us.

The second room, looked like it had some cool musion effects with the practical truck coming out. While the effect looked cool, the dialogue was....bad. Not really Tommy Weiseu's "The Room" awful, but it felt rushed. The FBI agent, from the way he acted was probably just some guy who walked in on the actor's meeting and said, "I wanna be the agent! Pick me!" and they said, "well, we're in a hurry here, so alright." Also, I thought that transition set piece with the parking structure wall was a nice touch. I will add that I think the whole party aspect to this animation is absolutely pointess. It serves no real purpose to the story and I just see it as an excuse to make it edgy and "cool". I was really surprised by how barely clothed some of those dancers were. Is that really necessary for a family experience?

Okay, now for the main room. I REALLY liked how the screen was going while the tram drove in. I liked the effect of the lights flickering and then coming on when the villain drives in (I spotted the Jurassic parking sign!) Now, I can't judge how the motion and wind effects felt from the video, but the immersion factor looked fantastic. I loved how the screen COMPLETELY enveloped the tram. You could see the front of the action which looked great. The fog effects looked cool. The graphics did look a little "GTA-ish", but it didn't look terrible. I also liked how the screen showed the containers when the animation ended to make it look real.

Overall, I thought the experience looked good.....not fantastic, but good. The length of the ride portion seemed adequate and not to short, thought it would be nice to make it a tad longer. Even if they didn't do much to anything else, pulling off the drones as a practical and improving the graphics would've brought it up to a "great" for me. I think this will end up getting mixed reviews from the GP though, if not more negative. There's no denying that the script and acting did need more time to improve. The few who realize this is a tram animation will end up liking it, but the majority who think that this is a full-blown ride, as they're marketing it, will probably hate on this. I'll post my initial thoughts when I finally go on the ride.

So....here are my suggestions to improve the experience. Although I didn't think it was awful, I still think it would GREATLY benefit from a re-shoot/redo....kinda similar to what Jaws went through at USH in the early 90's.

In the garage room, have a musion effect of Roman. IDK how it would work with the light coming in from the doors, but something has to "happen" in the two build-up to make things more interesting. Have the FBI agent come in to interact with him while he's there. Maybe the agent or pierce can accidentally fire a missile into the room to make it interesting.

In the second room, the party aspect has to go. Absolutely pointless and WAY too risque for a family audience. It's bound to get complaints. The experience can start off when the two walk into the "rooms" and then have the three others "rise in". Before the animation, maybe one of Luke Evan's henchmen can crash in or something and report that they spotted the tram with the witness. A struggle can break out and the heroes would win out. Now we have some excitement before going into the main room.

For the finale, I would say the whole sequence needs to be re-shot at night. Put in the practical Kukas for the drones in the theater. The night setting would help with that so it wont look out-of-place if it were during the day. Don't have so much water spraying at us. Improve the graphics and the script. Maybe add some music to add drama. That's all I really have for that.

Overall, it would also be nice to add thirty seconds to each of the segments so the ride an be a bit longer and that it would feel more like such. Do all that I suggested, improve the script, acting, graphics, and natural light setting, and I think it would be much better.
 
Heh... in my epic rant about Supercharged I forgot to add what I would've liked to have seen instead. Thanks for the reminder Freak. :)

While I find the "warehouse party" completely pointless & unnecessary to the attraction/story... I completely disagree with everyone saying its not appropriate due to Universal being a "family park". That's just crap. The last thing we need is everything toned down because it might offend parents of small children or kill old people. We deal with enough of that BS when it comes to HHN...(RIP B&T Hollywood & last year's Purge auctioneer). Anyway, yes the Studio Tour is for everyone, but Universal's history is rooted in horror which technically is not exactly "kid friendly". Its all in good fun though.. so are sexy dancing people. As Stewie would say: "Its time for a sexy party" :p

Enough about that... Since USH has already ripped off the Kilimanjaro Safari & Star Tours for this new attraction, lets rip off one more from Disney: Radiator Springs Racers! More specifically, the alternate show scenes where your car gets a new paint job or new tires before the big race. It would've been a lot cooler to see the musion effect with the characters amping up the trams...

For those that have seen the video and/or experienced it... did you notice that the trams can randomly reach fast speeds like the cars without any explanation what-so-ever? ....SIGH... Imagined if we got upgrades to the tram and instead of the stupid plot for the ride film itself, the premise was a street race? Sure its crazy to think of a studio tour tram being in a race, BUT it has been "SUPERCHARGED" (you're welcome for that pun).

oh and as for the sexy party goers.. The way they should've been used is the same way they're featured in the films... waiting at the start/finish. Do the whole "Ready... Steady... GO!" (which that footage used for the tv spot is from Fast/Furious 6 btw). It'd make more sense than random dancing. The plot would be a lot simpler. The preshow rooms would serve a purpose. The ridefilm wouldn't be as ridiculous (god I hate the flying drone part, so stupid). THOUGHTS?
 
There was a little too much skin showing on the club girls and mild swearing which is unfortunate because we cannot choose to skip the attraction while on the tour.  Parental discretion now requires that the entire Studio Tour be skipped.
Any parent concerned about the girls on screen showing too much skin will have to not take their children to the park at all on a typical summer day. Far more skin showing there and CityWalk than on the screen.
 
Long time reader-first time poster.  Felt the need to chime in here and say HOW ON EARTH is anyone talking about the Tram suddenly being not family friendly?  The Tram has featured a man bloodily being eaten alive by a shark for nearly 40 years.
 
I would argue the Jaws segment is too cartoonish with minimal blood to be considered non family friendly. Similarly with Norman, the body is covered and there's no blood. Still pretty much family friendly.

Adding in some half naked digital bimbos and cussing, that is not family friendly. There's enough half dressed sluts in LA already without me having to worry about a theme park putting it in my kid's face too. I agree with Chris, something like that crosses the line for a younger child. Not to mention could offend overseas guests with more conservative backgrounds.

Just playing devil's advocate here.
 
Just listened to the podcast, and I agree... the scantily clad females go hand-in-hand with the franchise. It should be expected. I think its ridiculous that we're so hung up on something not being appropriate for a theme park attraction. Disney has had dancers in sexy costumes for their stage shows/parades & they're the ultimate "family" destination, yet nobody has a cow about it. When Universal does something edgy or somewhat sexy, its considered taboo.

This dance party really isn't that big of a deal because it lasts all of 10-15secs. Not exactly "corrupt your child for life" material here. Seriously, they see worse walking around the park, citywalk, and anywhere else. Not too mention on tv. Do I think the dance party is completely stupid & pointless? yes, yes I do. It doesn't add anything to the already flimsy incoherent poorly thought out storyline they attempted to go for.

If they had gone with a street race based idea for this attraction, they could've had the sexy crowd of onlookers at the start "Ready, Set, Go!" & then have them at the finale to cheer because your "Supercharged" tram won the race. Or hell, the "cheering crowd" could be part of the post-ride on-board tram screen. (would love to have the clip of Paul Walker saying "Dude, I almost had you"). Eitherway, the sexy crowd shouldn't be an issue for a short experience.
 
It's not just that they're half naked... When they turn around to leave, you can actually see one of the girls' butt hanging out of her tight panties/shorts. I remember someone screaming "booty," when I rode it the first time. We all laughed, but then again, there no children aboard the tram.

A manager told my brother, who also works at the park, that AP previews were canceled due to all the negative feedback and the creative department is looking into the ride and thinking of starting over or making changes.
 
Think of it this way: If you were to bring a younger sibling, niece/nephew, or your own child on the Studio Tour, would you want them seeing that portion of Supercharged? It's just sort of tasteless, in my opinion.

A manager told my brother, who also works at the park, that AP previews were canceled due to all the negative feedback and the creative department is looking into the ride and thinking of starting over or making changes.
Wait, cancelled, or delayed? I had reservations for this Saturday and haven't gotten any notices or emails of any sort.
 
A manager told my brother, who also works at the park, that AP previews were canceled due to all the negative feedback and the creative department is looking into the ride and thinking of starting over or making changes.
This bit is both suprising and not suprising..and I don't exactly know why. I wouldn't be surprised of starting the entire thing over as this needs a Jaws 2.0 from USF. I do enjoy the animation but my problem is because of the overall experience. It doesn't seem Fufilling at the end.
 
With all of these negative reviews, Um not surprised. They have time to make changes from September to March/ April (When Potter us supposed to open). I hope they Fix the film, add effects, and maybe throw in the "rebel spy" effect to its fullest potential.
 
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