Disneyhead'71
Well-Known Member
I enjoy Fallon. FoP is a better ride. But Fallon isn't a Mega E Ticket. I like Fallon more than NRJ. Which also makes sense since Fallon is a D Ticket and NRJ is a C Ticket.
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Fast & Furious- Supercharged details officially released
- Thread starter Tom Morrow
- Start date
raven
Well-Known Member
The film footage is the same as well as the party scene. It’s already been created so what’s the point on shooting an entirely different film...just because? But many other things have been added and the ride is better than the tram-filler in CA. The main theatre part feels much better since now you are able to see all around you without obstruction.
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
Yes. Old Universal used to actually take tram segments and build dedicated attractions around the concept. New Universal takes tram filler, tacks on a queue, some preamble, overspends on a glorified tram vehicle and calls it a headliner.
Can you clarify what you mean about being unobstructed? I've never done Orlando's Kong, but I think you mean the frontward view? Hollywood doesn't have that issue, the trams are unobstructed.
cheezbat
Well-Known Member
I agree with you. Just recently rode Flight of Passage for the second time, and still, while the ride is fun, it's literally overrated. It's definitely the successor to Soarin', and it has great visuals, but aside from that I really felt like this could easily have bee another one of Universals attractions...screens and all.
It's super popular now...and my be for the foreseeable future just like Soarin' still is to this day, but realistically, just like Back to the Future and Star Tours, I think if the ride isn't updated in a decade it won't be the 'marvel' that people claim it to be today.
Moving on to Fast and Furious...my personal opinion is that this ride is another missed opportunity for Universal. I'll ride it soon to make a legitimate opinion, but from everything I've seen so far, I'm not impressed.
Ragerunner
Well-Known Member
My family road it yesterday and enjoyed the ride. Most of us have never seen any of the movies and still had fun.
Casper Gutman
Well-Known Member
Wait, wait... are we idolizing “Old Universal” now? Old Universal was pretty bad. With the exception of ET, there’s really no part of Old Universal worth valorizing. Kong and Jaws were cute but buggy, short, mimimally immersive, and generally lackluster.
As for simply adding a preamble to a tram stop and calling it a day, Universal has done this exactly once, with FaF. Kong is a pretty significant plussing of the original, whatever you think of the result taken as a whole.
Yes, FaF looks like a pretty big stinker. It’s half filler, half headliner, all flop. I wish they could have better utilized the space. But Diagon, the best Orlando theme park addition since AK opened, is less then four years old. And Uni is currently building a new Potter coaster which, indications are, is definitely not filler. Oh, and they are also building a third park, set to open within five years. And this context is significant. FaF is a quick, insignificant stink. It is not, say, a cut-rate kiddie land being foisted off as half of a massive redesign for a never-completed studio park, a redesign that has been anticipated for more than a decade.
Oh, and screens are a problem in all Orlando theme parks. They are more tolerated at WDW because Disney fans generally have a far deeper emotional connection to those parks and are hesitant to find fault with them.
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What? They were amazing for their time and well liked. Kong was only closed because of constant maintenance issues and Jaws because it took up so much real estate.
It really isn’t just that though. Disney’s implementation of screens has been more restrained:
- using a screen as enhancement to a scene rather than being the scene
- understanding that action on a motion simulator screen should involve action happening TO you. Universal has this weird obsession with parking your ride vehicle as you watch action or exposition you are disconnected from.
- not relying on using screens to convey the same tired story of “you’re here to do X, but suddenly Y happens, and now we have to do C instead and bombastic chaos ensues!” It’s true that some Disney rides follow this trope, but they have largely avoided it for the last two decades.
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
When in doubt, make it about Disney or mention some sort of other distractors.
My criticism is strictly about Universal's recent conversions of Hollywood Tram attractions alone. You brought up like 8 other debates. This is about F&F. It is lazy, uninspired and a tacky attraction. Regardless of all the other good things Universal does now a days, this aspect deserves to be called out.
I have no personal experience of Kong beyond Hollywood. From all indications they certainly plussed it much more than F&F and the 3D segment in hollywood was much better to begin with. It was still a lazy move to recycle old tram footage.
The track record is Jaws, Kongfrontation and Disaster versus Kong and F&F. If people cannot see how new Universal is lazier these days they have their heads up Mark's butt.
Now globally I have no faith that today's Universal understands attraction design fundamentals, storytelling or pacing. I personally like Forbidden Journey very very much, but the core problems started there and have progressively gotten worse and worse. I hope this is the nadir like we've been promised. But we've just hit Superstar Limo.
Casper Gutman
Well-Known Member
I think I was pretty upfront about the fact that FaF is a bad ride. But that’s not all you’re saying. You’re arguing that there is a clear pattern, a decline. I take issue with several parts of your argument.
You’re trying to argue that Uni has a pattern of adding barely-plussed tram attractions. They’ve done that once, with FaF. Kong is as heavily plussed from the Hollywood version as the original Konfrontation was from its Hollywood counterpart. And modern Kong is, in my subjective opinion, better than old Kong.
You are also comparing FaF to Kong and Jaws. That’s not really a fair comparison. A fair comparison would be to Disaster, another bad attraction. Now, I could see an argument that Disaster was better. However, Uni replacing an attraction with one that is not clearly superior is a rarity, not part of a pattern. Mummy tops Kong, Diagon tops Jaws, and yes, it’s a very low bar, but even Fallon tops Twister.
Finally, you are indicating a general pattern of decline that has to ignore huge portions of recent history -Diagon, Springfield - and the near future - Potter Coaster, other developments discussed by trusted insiders like Marni. Essentially, it’s a pattern encompassing Kong, Fallon, and FaF - and, as indicated, I think Kong’s a good ride.
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
More the argument was that rides never used to be "plussed" the concept was re-used and something new was done with it. It's the fact that the tram attractions were not tram attractions in Orlando. Kong is fine, but they stretched the concept into the jeep to re-use the 3D footage. It's a very cleverly hidden tram attraction to re-use assets. Couldn't the attraction have been better if those shackles were removed?
I think Gringott's is a very poorly executed ride. Hogwarts Express is wonderful though.
Again, I'm talking about the present, not the future. What goes down can also go up. I'm very confident the Potter attraction is better. This is a nadir, but it is where we are in the present.
Casper Gutman
Well-Known Member
I very strongly disagree about Gringotts. I feel it is significantly superior to FJ.
And again, I don’t feel three attractions in three years, one of which Is very good and one of which is an improvement on what it replaced, is a fair basis to declare a decline. What I do think is fair to say is that FaF is bad, and if they don’t learn from FaF (which insiders say they have) they are fools
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
Agreed - that was my primary point. F&F doesn't get swept under a rug because of what comes before or after.
Gringotts is a hell of a subjective beast. I don't blame anyone for really it, nor is it something I think needs to go away anytime soon. I was just disappointed. Too much of a Pandora's box to re-discuss.
Forbidden Journey continued their tradition of poor storytelling and bombastic chaos approach, but it was such an impressive and unique attraction that it didn’t matter (still is).
In my opinion, Transformers started this weird trend of including segments where you are just observing action and aren’t connected to it (there are several moments where you just observe the robots fighting each other.)
Gringotts took this even further and promised you a wild ride on the cart system but instead you are immediately under attack and essentially just rush from scene to scene that you merely observe. Gringotts has enough going for it that it’s not terrible by any means but was the first attraction from Universal that felt “off” to me.
Kong took this even further. For most of the ride you are merely observing action. Much of Kong’s fight doesn’t involve you at all. This is where I said “alright, enough is enough now. Let’s change it up.”
And now F&F is the worst version of this.
In my opinion, Transformers started this weird trend of including segments where you are just observing action and aren’t connected to it (there are several moments where you just observe the robots fighting each other.)
Gringotts took this even further and promised you a wild ride on the cart system but instead you are immediately under attack and essentially just rush from scene to scene that you merely observe. Gringotts has enough going for it that it’s not terrible by any means but was the first attraction from Universal that felt “off” to me.
Kong took this even further. For most of the ride you are merely observing action. Much of Kong’s fight doesn’t involve you at all. This is where I said “alright, enough is enough now. Let’s change it up.”
And now F&F is the worst version of this.
AEfx
Well-Known Member
You absolutely lost me there.
Jaws was one of the most immersive rides ever built. The original Kong had arguably the most impressive AA in Orlando.
Both were a full five minutes long of actual ride time.
Both had highly immersive queues/entrances that were fully themed.
Kongfrontation's technical glitches were worked out within months. Once Jaws was redone by a reputable company within the first couple of years, it had no more technical issues than any other attraction.
You either didn't have much experience with them, or a really faulty memory.
That said, F&FS is unimpressive because they didn't do crap to elevate it from the tram stop version. And the filmed content is just lackluster, not to mention the acting is HORRIBLE.
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Okay, so I rode it. Took me a while to write this... because I have a LOT to say.
Let me start by saying two things: One, I’ve been critical of Universal on here as of late because I have not enjoyed the direction they have taken with their recent offerings, but I am in no way a Disney fanboy that automatically craps all over anything Universal does. I fully recognize that Universal has raised the bar several times for the industry and I want them to be great and meet the standard that they have already set for themselves. Two, I tried as hard as I could to find anything positive to take away from F&F. This is all I could come up with:
- The queue is decent (though it also isn’t that hard to place a bunch of car stuff in a big warehouse). I imagine there are tons of Easter eggs to find if you have the time and are a fan of the films.
- There are two spieling roles by team members as part of a dual pre-show, a pleasant surprise in an age where spieling attractions are almost extinct.
- The double bus dispatching means this will have incredible capacity.
- They learned from complaints of the front rows on Kong - the front of the bus allows for almost full visibility through it, and the 360 screen also fills the front facing view. However, if you are in the front of the rear bus, this is less effective.
Now that that’s out of the way… this is objectively the absolute worst attraction in Orlando. I am not being hyperbolic, I thought for quite a while about this, and I genuinely cannot come up with a single attraction with less redeeming factors that pleases less people than this. Even if you include spinners or something the fan community generally agrees is bad, such as Imagination, or Shrek, at least you can say that children are delighted by them. This is so blatantly lazy that it insults the patrons of Universal with the definitive worst version of everything they’ve already done many times before and will be a massive slap in the face to fans of the Fast franchise hoping for a cool experience.
The only other attraction in Orlando I can think of that approaches this level of complete misfire is Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin at SeaWorld. But at least at the end of that you get to see penguins, which gives it a slight advantage over this. It was also SeaWorld’s first attempt at a dark ride/simulator hybrid, not the same company that gave us Spider-Man, Forbidden Journey, and, well, every one of their original 1990 attractions.
I held out hope that maybe, maybe they had a trick up their sleeve and would surprise us with some surprise elements that would add some merit to the most bizarre choice for a copy/paste job in theme park history. Nope. It’s like they deliberately doubled-down on the laziness and all their negative tropes to the point of parody, but no elements of satire or tongue-in-cheek humor are anywhere to be found which might have saved some face.
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
So, after departing the loading area, your bus parks in a dark room as lights whiz by on the walls outside, meant to simulate traveling down a dark tunnel. However, the bus is completely motionless and the only thing happening is exposition on the onboard screens. You’re on a party bus, on your way to… another party? But the FBI is going to raid the party and is tracking you because… reasons? Like in the Hollywood version, Hobbs says there is a witness on your tram. The plan was for you to ride a party bus... to another, party? But now the party and party bus are part of some diversion? It really isn't that clear. Or maybe I was just too bored to care what they were saying because they were clearly in front of a green screen with a shift shoved in their face. You are told many times to “keep those cellphones off” – “because the FBI is tracking you”, and it comes across as filler dialogue and moment-breaking. The story is so simple yet they somehow managed to make it broken and convoluted. What it feels like: “you’re on a bus instead of a car on this car ride because shut up! That’s why!”
Then you go through the ONE physical scene in the ride, giving it the same number of sets as the Hollywood tram tour version. This scene is big, looks nice, and is obviously welcome, but nothing of note happens in it – you cruise down an alley while a handful of cars rev their engines. That’s it. I get the impression it was included just to shut people up.
Then from there on out it is the Hollywood version verbatim, only (surprisingly) not in 3D. This decision is understandable so as to not have yet another “3D glasses attraction” in the park, and is somewhat welcome, but at the same time it does make the 360 screen scene that much worse and un-immersive.
The scene where the party is busted is the cringiest scene in theme park history, both in premise and acting. People were laughing at how ridiculous the dancing partygoers look (which the front bus sees the same set of twice). If you are on the right edge of the bus, you can look up and see the screen that is creating the pepper’s ghost effect.
I do not understand Universal’s obsession with placing us on ride vehicles that stop to watch story exposition unfold on a screen or action that is not happening to us. This is the worst instance of that to date – literally everything before the high-speed chase could have and should have been in pre-shows. There are essentially four pre-shows (two in the queue and two scenes out of four on the ride), yet they all have so little to say. All the set-up provided by all of those on-ride scenes could have been condensed into the queue, allowing space for better and more appropriate scenes for the ride itself.
The reasons for the high-speed chase/escort mission even happening are unclear and muddy at best, like they knew it makes no sense, so they didn’t even bother to try to justify it. The visuals are PS3/Xbox 360 graphics level and the action is cheesy and cartoony. The edges of the 360 screen somehow seem even more visible than on Kong (I think the screen is further away from the bus?), despite that being a major complaint from Kong.
Then, as if they heard all of the complaints about Kong’s ending feeling unfinished and anticlimactic and covered their ears, there are no additional scenes after the 360 screen scene. I believe that on Kong, there needed to be one final scene after seeing Kong himself in which you regroup with “Kate” and the rest of the expedition team. Instead this was reduced to some onboard dialogue. So, to have absolutely no scene after the 360 screen scene here just makes it feel even more anticlimactic.
(END OF SPOILERS)
I just… I can’t. To think that we lost two classic attractions for this. To think of the millions of dollars that were sunk into this instead of something halfway decent. Last year I panned Fallon, however, I think that is a more effective experience than this. Fallon is more redundant than truly terrible anyway. It doesn’t present itself as a major headliner and is an effective traditional motion simulator – I just don’t like the ride video content. I believe Kong is somewhere between average and mediocre, but it feels like a masterpiece compared to this. With Kong, they borrowed a tram tour segment but came up with a premise and experience that warrants being on a bus. This, on the other hand, should never, ever have been considered for anything other than a filler scene on a tram tour.
I've also tried to look at Fallon, Kong, and Fast from the perspective of whether or not they would be a worthy edition to a park that wasn't already full of screen rides. With Fallon I would say yes, and absolutely to Kong. This, however, is so bad and tacky that it's borderline "tourist trap" territory. I would not be surprised if it is closed and re-worked into something more respectable because as is, I believe it actually brings down the resort worse than having no new attraction at all.
I feel bad for the team members working this attraction, who were trying their hardest to smile and be cheerful and play up the story to a sea of scathing negative comments. Kudos to them.
Universal, we all know you can do better than this. Please let the rumors be true that this is the last of these no-effort screen rides!
Let me start by saying two things: One, I’ve been critical of Universal on here as of late because I have not enjoyed the direction they have taken with their recent offerings, but I am in no way a Disney fanboy that automatically craps all over anything Universal does. I fully recognize that Universal has raised the bar several times for the industry and I want them to be great and meet the standard that they have already set for themselves. Two, I tried as hard as I could to find anything positive to take away from F&F. This is all I could come up with:
- The queue is decent (though it also isn’t that hard to place a bunch of car stuff in a big warehouse). I imagine there are tons of Easter eggs to find if you have the time and are a fan of the films.
- There are two spieling roles by team members as part of a dual pre-show, a pleasant surprise in an age where spieling attractions are almost extinct.
- The double bus dispatching means this will have incredible capacity.
- They learned from complaints of the front rows on Kong - the front of the bus allows for almost full visibility through it, and the 360 screen also fills the front facing view. However, if you are in the front of the rear bus, this is less effective.
Now that that’s out of the way… this is objectively the absolute worst attraction in Orlando. I am not being hyperbolic, I thought for quite a while about this, and I genuinely cannot come up with a single attraction with less redeeming factors that pleases less people than this. Even if you include spinners or something the fan community generally agrees is bad, such as Imagination, or Shrek, at least you can say that children are delighted by them. This is so blatantly lazy that it insults the patrons of Universal with the definitive worst version of everything they’ve already done many times before and will be a massive slap in the face to fans of the Fast franchise hoping for a cool experience.
The only other attraction in Orlando I can think of that approaches this level of complete misfire is Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin at SeaWorld. But at least at the end of that you get to see penguins, which gives it a slight advantage over this. It was also SeaWorld’s first attempt at a dark ride/simulator hybrid, not the same company that gave us Spider-Man, Forbidden Journey, and, well, every one of their original 1990 attractions.
I held out hope that maybe, maybe they had a trick up their sleeve and would surprise us with some surprise elements that would add some merit to the most bizarre choice for a copy/paste job in theme park history. Nope. It’s like they deliberately doubled-down on the laziness and all their negative tropes to the point of parody, but no elements of satire or tongue-in-cheek humor are anywhere to be found which might have saved some face.
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
So, after departing the loading area, your bus parks in a dark room as lights whiz by on the walls outside, meant to simulate traveling down a dark tunnel. However, the bus is completely motionless and the only thing happening is exposition on the onboard screens. You’re on a party bus, on your way to… another party? But the FBI is going to raid the party and is tracking you because… reasons? Like in the Hollywood version, Hobbs says there is a witness on your tram. The plan was for you to ride a party bus... to another, party? But now the party and party bus are part of some diversion? It really isn't that clear. Or maybe I was just too bored to care what they were saying because they were clearly in front of a green screen with a shift shoved in their face. You are told many times to “keep those cellphones off” – “because the FBI is tracking you”, and it comes across as filler dialogue and moment-breaking. The story is so simple yet they somehow managed to make it broken and convoluted. What it feels like: “you’re on a bus instead of a car on this car ride because shut up! That’s why!”
Then you go through the ONE physical scene in the ride, giving it the same number of sets as the Hollywood tram tour version. This scene is big, looks nice, and is obviously welcome, but nothing of note happens in it – you cruise down an alley while a handful of cars rev their engines. That’s it. I get the impression it was included just to shut people up.
Then from there on out it is the Hollywood version verbatim, only (surprisingly) not in 3D. This decision is understandable so as to not have yet another “3D glasses attraction” in the park, and is somewhat welcome, but at the same time it does make the 360 screen scene that much worse and un-immersive.
The scene where the party is busted is the cringiest scene in theme park history, both in premise and acting. People were laughing at how ridiculous the dancing partygoers look (which the front bus sees the same set of twice). If you are on the right edge of the bus, you can look up and see the screen that is creating the pepper’s ghost effect.
I do not understand Universal’s obsession with placing us on ride vehicles that stop to watch story exposition unfold on a screen or action that is not happening to us. This is the worst instance of that to date – literally everything before the high-speed chase could have and should have been in pre-shows. There are essentially four pre-shows (two in the queue and two scenes out of four on the ride), yet they all have so little to say. All the set-up provided by all of those on-ride scenes could have been condensed into the queue, allowing space for better and more appropriate scenes for the ride itself.
The reasons for the high-speed chase/escort mission even happening are unclear and muddy at best, like they knew it makes no sense, so they didn’t even bother to try to justify it. The visuals are PS3/Xbox 360 graphics level and the action is cheesy and cartoony. The edges of the 360 screen somehow seem even more visible than on Kong (I think the screen is further away from the bus?), despite that being a major complaint from Kong.
Then, as if they heard all of the complaints about Kong’s ending feeling unfinished and anticlimactic and covered their ears, there are no additional scenes after the 360 screen scene. I believe that on Kong, there needed to be one final scene after seeing Kong himself in which you regroup with “Kate” and the rest of the expedition team. Instead this was reduced to some onboard dialogue. So, to have absolutely no scene after the 360 screen scene here just makes it feel even more anticlimactic.
(END OF SPOILERS)
I just… I can’t. To think that we lost two classic attractions for this. To think of the millions of dollars that were sunk into this instead of something halfway decent. Last year I panned Fallon, however, I think that is a more effective experience than this. Fallon is more redundant than truly terrible anyway. It doesn’t present itself as a major headliner and is an effective traditional motion simulator – I just don’t like the ride video content. I believe Kong is somewhere between average and mediocre, but it feels like a masterpiece compared to this. With Kong, they borrowed a tram tour segment but came up with a premise and experience that warrants being on a bus. This, on the other hand, should never, ever have been considered for anything other than a filler scene on a tram tour.
I've also tried to look at Fallon, Kong, and Fast from the perspective of whether or not they would be a worthy edition to a park that wasn't already full of screen rides. With Fallon I would say yes, and absolutely to Kong. This, however, is so bad and tacky that it's borderline "tourist trap" territory. I would not be surprised if it is closed and re-worked into something more respectable because as is, I believe it actually brings down the resort worse than having no new attraction at all.
I feel bad for the team members working this attraction, who were trying their hardest to smile and be cheerful and play up the story to a sea of scathing negative comments. Kudos to them.
Universal, we all know you can do better than this. Please let the rumors be true that this is the last of these no-effort screen rides!
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Disney Analyst
Well-Known Member
I had heard from some friends before the ride opened, a lot of the TMs working it want to transfer ASAP.
Musicman20
Well-Known Member
It's a big shame this isn't a decent hit. I wasn't expecting much, although I'll still go in with open eyes to it, but early reports seem similar.
For the record, I think Gringotts is stunning. Yes, it's essentially a pretty 'fast' dark ride with screens, but I think the physical sets are great, the building is amazing, and the atmosphere for a Potter fan is perfect. I also love the ride system.
Kong is decent IMO. Not perfect but I enjoyed it. The AA is incredible.
I remember riding the original Kong in Orlando when I was much younger and I was totally immersed. Fantastic ride.
I am not a F&F fan - I've never seen one. But, I'll still give this a go. Fallon isn't too bad and the show building is cool.
For the record, I think Gringotts is stunning. Yes, it's essentially a pretty 'fast' dark ride with screens, but I think the physical sets are great, the building is amazing, and the atmosphere for a Potter fan is perfect. I also love the ride system.
Kong is decent IMO. Not perfect but I enjoyed it. The AA is incredible.
I remember riding the original Kong in Orlando when I was much younger and I was totally immersed. Fantastic ride.
I am not a F&F fan - I've never seen one. But, I'll still give this a go. Fallon isn't too bad and the show building is cool.