The DW rode it today after waiting in line for 30 minutes (first time I've ever waited that long). There's actually switchbacks on either side of the entrance. Who knew!
Loved most of the ascent except for a couple things. The paperboy moved to the back of the scene. Why? I could hear his voice but just couldn't find him. Just weird. Judi Dench is OK but everything is dumbed down in the narration. It actually irritated me at points. Plus, the speakers are so loud that I could hear the car in front of me before my narration began. Then, when she stopped in between scenes, it all started again. Can we turn the volume down a little please?
I was also bummed that Robin from the Howard Stern show was moved from her rightful place in the radio booth, dressed up in go-go boots and put to work on a massive computer. The computer room, although cool at first, did kinda give off the vibe of "here's a panel of flashing lights that's made to look like a computer of old". Kinda like when you go to the fair and see one of those "handwriting analysis" machines. Is that really what old computers looked like? Maybe.
The matrix tunnel screams "copyright infringment" to me. How about something original projected? Also, that tunnel must be open to the 180 because there is a TON of light washout. I just remember the 180 being a lot darker. The starfield doesn't look as good to me and the earth projection doesn't look as bright. Look back towards the matrix tunnel when you're up there. You'll see what I mean.
The e-surance video during descent did put our heads on the cartoon bodies. An unexpected surprise. I guess the questions (an ultimately a different video) lead to rerideability, so that's a good thing. I just think they've backed themselves into a corner with the touch screens. If you have scenes and screens, you're asking yourself what to look at. I guess you could one or the other but the thing you're missing will be distracting. If they do both, I'll be interested to see how it all meshes.
Ultimately though, there's gotta be some other stuff behind those descent curtains! They're just too clumsy not to be. Speaking of clumsy... COULD SOMEONE FIX THE TRACK! Sorry, just had to get that off my chest. Absolutely terrible during the descent. I thought my fillings were going to fall out.
Can't wait to see what they do with the descent. Come on people. Do we really miss the lame scenes where kids in a classroom talk about riding on giant bees? Or maybe you were a fan of the motionless kid being beamed to Asia to talk to another motionless figure (but the videophone screens always showed them perfect, hmmm). Anything they do there will be an improvement.
Just hoping they do.