I would not have guessed that Monsters After Dark, Disney’s half-baked yet inexplicably enjoyable Halloween overlay for Mission Breakout, and Monsters Unchained, Universal’s Golden Ticket Award winning new dark ride, would end up having the same assessment from me: "B+ objectively, but A+ in my heart."
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Monsters Unchained. In fact, I’m hesitant to do anything but sing its praises, because it’s exactly the kind of attraction I keep wanting parks to make but they generally… don’t anymore. It’s based on a public domain/original IP. It’s focused on animatronics rather than screens/projections. It’s themed specifically around a horror theme I enjoy, and does not feel the need to play to only the mildest or most popular properties available.
But at the same time, I’ve seen few, if any, major dark rides with presentations this…messy.
You wouldn’t expect that from the queue. The queue is one of the most well-themed, extremely detailed queues in all existence. It’s a walkthrough attraction all to itself! There are SO many details for fans to find, slowly letting the story unfold of Victoria Frankenstein and her attempts to re-create and outdo her great-great-grandfather’s experiments. Fans of both the classic books and the 1930s Universal films are going to appreciate how closely the designers clearly studied the source material—this is, without a doubt, Tower of Terror lobby “we watched every episode of The Twilight Zone twice” levels of care and detail. I caught so, SO many Easter Eggs. The strikingly large scale of Frankenstein Manor’s gothic facade, crackling with electricity, likewise has Tower as its only peer.
Much like Tower, stormy Floridian skies only add to the atmosphere
The surprising problems start once you get to the actual ride. Possibly my “hottest take” in this is the fact that I felt a disconnect between the choice of ride system and the actual ride presentation. While Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey shows off the dynamic motion of the KUKA arm to an actually uncomfortable degree, I’d say it’s too restrained here. It felt like 80% of the ride could’ve been achieved with a traditional omnimover type vehicle; movements tend towards the gentle and mild, with riders comfortably reclined on their backs for most of the ride. Indeed, given that one of the prominent effects is that electricity/magic blasts make the back of your chair vibrate, it gave the impression of “relaxing, air conditioned massage chair” rather than thrill ride for me. The few places where the ride motions do get more extreme felt shoehorned in specifically to give the arm something to do, rather than as a more natural consequence of the storytelling. That’s not to say I didn’t like the “relaxing massage chair” vibe—it was a very welcome reprieve from a hot day at a theme park—it just wasn’t what I expected from one of the more extreme and dynamic ride systems available.
Beyond the vehicle though…wow, I’ve never seen a dark ride have this many exposed wires/plugs/canned lights, obvious boom arms and strings, and bare divider walls and blackout curtains like this! Filmed footage of the ride hides it all much better than it does in person. This thing is BLATANTLY in a mostly-empty props warehouse with curtain dividers. If you’re seated on the end seats it’s especially bad; you can see where Dracula is plugged in! I honestly can’t tell how much is “bad show” versus “on purpose” either. Because, well, this IS a ride based on very old, budget-limited horror films. If you watch those movies, you’re going to see a lot of obvious wires and dollar store bats held up on strings. Can you see the strings holding up the figures because the designers didn’t bother to better adjust the lighting/set to hide them? Or can you see the strings because you could also see the strings in the movies?
I was genuinely shocked that a ride that won awards, that got this much buzz, was set up in such a way where you can see the plugs and wires!
Although, admittedly, I might be at a “disadvantage” in this case. As someone who geeks out over details in themed design, I saw the wires right away. When I mentioned it to my family members, instead an exchange similar to this happened:
Me: “I can’t believe you can see where Dracula is plugged in!”
Family: “What, you could?”
Me: “Yes, how could you miss it!?”
Family: “I was too distracted by the fact that they BUILT A FULL SIZED DRACULA.”
Which, yes. Those animatronics really ARE that impressive. The screens in the ride, likewise, are the best-done screens I’ve ever seen. They have actual depth to them, somehow, in a way that I have no idea how Universal actually achieved (layered screens with multiple projections? Some kind of Nintendo 3DS-style technology?). So I suppose it varies by the person whether the stunning heights of this ride’s design hide the equally stunning lows, or if the brilliance only highlights how odd it is the designers didn’t care to hide where things are plugged in.
This isn’t really an issue I’ve seen at other dark rides of this prestige/scale. You don’t see where the Pirates of the Carribean are plugged in. Wires or other support structures for ghosts on The Haunted Mansion are disguised as carefully as possible. Rise of the Resistance takes the care to hide the borders of its screens in things like window frames or ship paneling. Even my absolutely be-loathed Mission Breakout carefully frames its Rocket Raccoon animatronic to look as realistic as possible (no wires showing, no duplicate paws or tails for different effects are visible at the same time, or when they’re not in use), and even attempts to frame its big, obvious screen in a doorway. Even Universal’s other dark rides don’t have this problem, even the ones falling apart from age (poor Jurassic Park and The Cat in the Hat). It’s just not what I expect from this medium, or a company of this prestige and budget.
Also, I find it perplexing that Universal did not use the classic versions of the monsters that it owns. One would think that the benefit of being Universal is that they could use the very specific Bela Lugosi Dracula, Boris Karloff Frankenstein, Lon Chaney Jr. Wolf Man, etc. from their own classic horror series, rather than making new “dodging copyright” versions. Instead, the Wolf Man seems to be the 2010 remake version, Frankenstein’s monster is a new design (although at least he has a story excuse, being literally a different monster made by Victoria), and Dracula is now inexplicably… Brendon Urie from Panic at the Disco? I’m especially peeved at Dracula’s redesign—either make him Bela Lugosi, or make him the book-accurate mustachioed aristocrat, you cowards! I guess it does give Dark Universe the benefit of getting to be its own continuity, essentially an original IP, but it’s surprising to see a company foregoing the famous versions of the characters it owns.
Thus, we end up back at my initial statement: both this and Monsters After Dark arrive at “B+ objectively, A+ in my heart” status, albeit from different directions. This is a true swing-for-the fences effort towards a world-class original IP dark ride that inexplicably trips at the finish line of polished presentation, while Monsters After Dark is a cheap retheme-of-a-retheme that somehow presents a polished fun thrill experience by the end. The overall land of Dark Universe/Darkmoor, however, is so incredibly well-done and to my exact tastes that perhaps the only theme park attraction I like better is Tower of Terror itself. This land may as well have been made in a lab for me. But damn if it isn’t bizarre that its headliner doesn’t bother to hide the wires.
No comments:
Post a Comment