Yes, I do. It's your
opinion if you like something or not. However, not all opinions are created equally because they could be based on misconstrued facts. It's your
opinion, I can't
force you to change that, but it doesn't mean you aren't either misinformed or that you aren't looking at the objective aspects to get to
your opinion.
Let's go over some facts, shall we?
Scenes without any screens at all (not counting minor projections):
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What exactly are the screens you have a problem with then? Are these the screens that are a problem to you, the supplementary ones like Na'vi River Journey? Mind you, the ride vehicle NEVER parks in-front of any screen.
Supplementary screens to scenes:
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There are only two 'exclusively screen' scenes versus the half dozen or more on the much shorter Ratatouille and Gringotts with much less time spent in them on Shanghai's Pirates. The waterfall-esque thing is a projection before the first screen of you going underwater. The first 'screen' finds us underneath the ocean approaching Davy Jones' Locker.
It's worth noting that
the scene that follows is an equally mind-blowing
physical set with the Flying Dutchman at the bottom of the ocean:
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The second exclusively-screen scene has the vehicle rising to the surface for the
physical set pirate ship battle scene (notice how you can't even tell where the water begins and ends? It literally looks like that at times in-person):
To understand why fears about 'screens' on this ride are overblown, these two scenes clock in at a combined ~58 seconds of a 540-second-long ride. While this is subjective, in my opinion, having ridden it, neither scene takes you out of the ride, but actually, enhance the experience. I don't think a non-IMAX screen would be more effective which is why I don't view it as a cop-out. What isn't subjective is that there's only two of them:
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Both of these scenes have this eerie realness to them in-person, similar to the screens in Rise's Cannon room. There is depth to them and are very convincing in what they set out to do. Given that you are moving sideways the entire time, it never feels like a simulator or screen-based ride like Gringotts during the two brief scenes (especially compared to the ride's length). Both of these transitional scenes are followed by MASSIVE set pieces that last longer.
Frankly, I don't think these transitional scenes would be improved by making them set-based, that is what's notable here. I genuinely believe, having been on it in person, it is the best execution for the story content it is handling. Mind-blowing doesn't even quite grasp those two 'screen' scenes either, I'm hard-pressed to find anyone that has been on it having a disdain for them. That is my opinion, and you can argue all day that one screen-only scene is too many, but
you're acting like that's most of the ride when it's not even a quarter of it. That is what I'm talking about when I say 'objective' here.
If I'm counting right, there are 2 exclusively screen scenes, 1 screen-heavy scene (the screen I discuss next), and 8+ without screens at all or only supplementary ones.
No, I didn't 'admit your opinion' because it's a 20-second scene in a 540-second ride. Even if we assume the two transitional 'screen-based scenes' I already talked about are inherently bad (I don't think so), that amounts to less than 15% of the entire ride!
However, and exceptionally notable as it's unlike the other 2 screen-based scenes, this is the
only scene on the entire ride where
a screen was used in place of what sets could do, akin to Ratatouille, Mickey, Gringotts, FnF, or Kong. While it looks way better in person, as it's nowhere near as out-of-place as this YouTube POV makes it look, this is my
single criticism of the entire 8-and-a-1/2-minute ride. A scene that lasts
20 seconds at most.
Add an additional 20 seconds to that previous 58 seconds of 'screenz' for the only scene that feels like a cop-out on the ride. By comparison, the transition screen-based underwater scenes, in my opinion, enhance the ride:
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I'm
not arguing that a classic-style Pirates is bad.
DLP's Pirates is literally one of my favorite rides of all time (Orlando's pales in comparison), alongside DLP's Phantom Manor, HKDL's Mystic Manor, TDS' Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Universal's Hagrid's. None have 'screenz'. Those rides can co-exist with rides like Shanghai's Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure and Rise of the Resistance. They are all incredible in their own ways. My issue with your take on Shanghai's Pirates is that it actually has more in common with Rise of the Resistance than the rides with 'screenz' that you think of (like Gringotts).
Your perception of what this ride is like is inaccurate, NOT because my opinion is different than yours but because you are making Shanghai Pirates out to be
something it's not exasperated by the fact, you're basing it exclusively on a POV. However, even then, you can still tell the objective metrics I have talked about. It's not remotely similar to screen-based rides like Gringotts for reasons I have already listed such as Shanghai's Pirates not being dominated by cop-outs for physical sets. Since you've said you're not opposed to all screens, I am hard-pressed to figure out what's so bad about this ride to you. I can see why you'd think that, before I rode it, I was concerned too about it being like Gringotts (a ride I'm merely lukewarm to), but I literally am laying out objective evidence to placate your concerns as they are unfounded.
If you don't like supplementary screens which this ride has a lot of, fine, that's your opinion, and I respect it, but this ride isn't objectively dominated by screens like Gringotts, and is more like a Na'vi River Journey meshed with Rise of the Resistance which is what you seem to be implying is bad about it.
For comparison:
This is just misinformed in so many ways.
I know this is a TRON thread, but there's always that occasional person in this thread that's like, "I'm so glad we got TRON and not that screen-based rip-off Pirates," so I think it's time to settle it.
TRON is fun, but infinitely inferior to another particular ride at Shanghai Disneyland.
