You know a show is an out-of-the-park homerun when people are nitpicking the name because there isn't really much to otherwise complain about.
I am not yet sure it's a home run.
HEA was a home run, and this definitely not that level.
HEA did not have to grow on me.
For me personally : Out of the gate, this show had a better first impression on me than Harmonious. While Harmonious absolutely grew on me with subsequent viewings I really wanted to love my first viewing of Harmonious and I really just didn't. I had a bad view, too easy to do with the set up for Harmonious, and more then that the show just bored me. I felt the only reason why it had "more fireworks" was it was much longer. But it's firepower per minute definitely, in my opinion, was very weak. Even during big numbers like Dig a Little Deeper and it's finale the firepower in both just underwhelmed. I walked away kind of scratching my head wondering what snoozefest did I just see?
Now my first viewing of Luminous I absolutely enjoyed it. I thought the finale was fantastic, the best of out of Reflections of Earth, Harmonious and Luminous.
Having said that I also like to listen to the crowd's reactions. This entails listening to the final reaction of applause/cheers and also actively listening to what people are saying about around me post show.
Having seen the show a few times now I don't feel the post show Luminous crowds are as energetic as Harmonious. That's a head scratcher for me because this show absolutely out fire powers Harmonious especially during the finale yet the post show buzz seems more tempered.
I do enjoy reading all the love Luminous is getting on this forum. It's nice to read positive things about EPCOT, nice change indeed.
I think Harmonious had the cards stacked against it. It was the rebound relationship if you will. No matter how great it was it was never going to be better than Reflections of Earth, because well, Reflections of Earth
. And for that reason alone Harmonious was doomed to fail. Now with that failure out of the way a new show can come in, expectations have been reset, understanding that reflections of Earth is now gone has definitely taken root, and as long as it was better than EPCOT Fornow
, it will be accepted. Luminous checks all that and a lot more. But I would still stop shy of calling it a home run.
