I'll say that for
what it is, I like the way the sound stage looks by itself and I'm sure it'll be great once all the little details are added in. On the other hand though I think some of the frustration with Universal's approach seems to be (and someone touched on this) the seemingly random minimum standard in which an attraction/land is built.
When MM was initially built, it worked for what it was. Now that they're adding this ride and creating a "land" (or mini-land) I think the expectation for how cohesive and themed the area is as whole greatly increases. For sure stand-alone attractions are hit and miss with how much is invested for theming and design (F&F vs. Kong vs. Transformers) but Universal has certainly been leaning heavily on a higher standard for lands. Considering that this is also in the front of the park and sets the tone for guests entering and leaving the park, it's natural to want to have it done well.
Yes it's true that Universal built themselves into a corner but it's also true that they could have bulldozed the whole building and create something custom than retrofitted. And before anyone mentions "but costs!" also remember we're talking about a company that is
definitely not hurting for money in the way the average person would (less profit? sure. going broke soon? no.), other people in charge of financials just don't allocate funds for that—Universal has to work with what they're given for the fiscal year, and we've seen when they've skimped in one area to plus something elsewhere. Simultaneously they also just increased AP fees again, so it's sort of expected for guests to want to see that reflected in the parks. (This is a whole other, multi-faceted discussion though; not for this thread.)
On a practical level it's also
right in front of the park which may have limited what they could do in the area without massive disruptions that really may not have been worth building a "better" attraction in the needed time frame. They probably didn't want to do the EPCOT thing although it's not like they would've taken as long to complete the build.
It could also be plans were based on how much life MM's ride system has left and are saving up for a future replacement at that time or maybe they'll knock all of it down in like 10 years when it finally keels over, so they may not want to put a huge amount of resources on this; we don't know the long term plans here either.
All that said, my overall expectation has settled around this area being about equal to the Simpsons area. Oddly enough they both started out in a similar fashion: An old ride system where the themed land was built around it.
P.S.: I'll mention again that I do wish they actual entrance plaza was freshened up. Maybe they'll do that right before EU opens?
What about people with balance issues or vertigo? You made me think about how people may be able to handle straight paths fine but the curves may throw people off, especially if they're attention is elsewhere. I don't have balance problems so I can't speak on that but I'm interested if anyone with problems like that and how they might fair going through something like this.
One way I was thinking was that the turns would be between scenes, allowing guests to take a break and be attentive to the turning. I'm not expecting street racing levels of drifting here but it all depends on how fast the walkway is moving and how sensitives some guests may be.
I prefer having unique things at each park instead of copy/pasted rides and lands. They could all have the same franchises but as long as each implementation of them in the parks is different I wouldn't mind all that much.
