When I enter a place called EPCOT, I expect to see a park that makes people think about the future. How that's done, I believe, is by forgetting about rides for a moment, and first figuring out a story for Future World.
As of right now, Future World is a place that is celebrating the past along with present day achievements, and it has only a few things that actually make the visitor think about the future, like the end of SSE, Living with the Land, and M:S (if you can ride it).
Also, architecture, a human achievement, plays a major role in story-telling. You look at how the buildings are shaped and it's easy to figure out why millenials think the park is so retro. This place was designed as the future of the 70s. Because of that, a young person's mind is already thinking about the past and not the future. The main buildings I'm talking about are the ones as you enter the park (first impressions), the Innoventions buildings (central hub), The Land, Test Track, UoE, and even parts of the Imagination pavilion (even though IMO I think is the most beautiful).
Architecture has come a long way since the 70s, and let's face it... 70s architecture is really bad. We no longer just make certain shapes because they look cool. With modern architecture, everything is done for a reason, whether it be for line of sight reasons, direction of the sun, color theory, focal points, spacial dimensions, and the psychological effects of all that I listed, and so on and so on. Certain things, though, should be kept in order not to tick off nostalgic fans, like the volcano shape of The Land and the mural along its entrance. Just have it updated a little so it doesn't look like you're walking into your grandmother's house.
So right there, Disney has two very difficult things to address: the old architecture and attractions that don't really talk about the future. Just by changing the visuals of the park with modern day structures with, dare I say it, experimental prototypes of futuristic technology, Disney could really enhance the park and start getting it back to it's original message. I won't armchair imagineer too much right now, I know that makes people mad for some reason.
TL;DR
I expect to walk into Epcot's Future World and be shown a place about the future, not the past and present. Update the old 70s architecture and put in attractions about things that don't exist yet, and there you go.
From afar and upon entering: EPCOT looks amazing. You think, WOW I want to go there. But once inside, it gets beyond boring. Excluding World Showcase, Future World has long lost its mojo. Even the updated spaceship earth is no longer aha. I suspect EPCOT will get a complete overhaul in the next 20 years. The updated Soarin and this horrible Frozen Norway wide will keep the guests coming for years to come. And as long as the annual boozefests continue - EPCOT will remain on just above critical condition.
