Review: Star Tours - The Adventure Continues

Note: This is a review of the Orlando version of the attraction, though I imagine it's likely identical at the other parks. And pictures would have been great for this review, but as they don't want to reveal much leading up to the grand opening, pictures inside the building are prohibited.

After being closed for several months for renovation, Star Tours re-opened over the weekend for "flight testing" leading up to the official grand opening this weekend, coinciding with Disney Hollywood Studios' annual Star Wars Weekends.

The original Disneyland version of Star Tours opened in 1987 and was imported to Orlando, relatively unchanged, in 1989. Created more than a decade prior to Episode I, it focused on a rebel assault on a Death Star similar to the finale of the original Star Wars (I could do a complete nerd rage post on why I refuse to call the original film Episode IV). The renovation, then, was not just to modernize a 20 year-old ride but to update the attraction with elements taken from the prequel trilogy.

Queue

The exterior queue, and for the most part the first room (the maintenance bay with R2-D2 and C-3PO) remain relatively unchanged. The most noticeable update is to the video screen on the far wall, updated to show the new "tours" being offered. 3PO, still in his same spot, will comment on the tours while occasionally yelling at R2 for his incompetence. You then enter the second room, formerly the a droid maintenance facility, which is now a luggage & cargo inspection area. For a cute shout-out to the original attraction, look immediately to the left as you enter this room. The new area now features two new droids: a luggage inspector (really cool & funny scene) and a security guard you could liken to a TSA agent. Also keep an eye on the window into the terminal in the corner of the room.

While the actual preshow room is virtually unchanged, the preshow video obviously is different. Like in the original, you view a live feed of your Speeder being prepared for your journey with the customary safety spiel.

Ride

So before you board you'll notice the first difference, the need to pick-up a pair of 3-D "flight glasses". Which leads me to my first, well complaint's not the right word for it, but the 3-D doesn't add much of anything to the experience. Muppet-Vision next door, an attraction which just celebrated its 20th anniversary, makes better use of 3-D. It's there and it works but if it wasn't there I think you'd feel the same coming off the ride. As most know by now, the "tour" you take is supposed to be different with each ride. I believe a cast member said there are roughly 50 different possible iterations. (To dispel a rumor I had heard during the renovation, you do not get to pick the scenes you'll be experiencing, Horizons-style.) After an opening encounter, which I believe is the same for everyone, the ride breaks into 3 different segments which changes each ride: 2 action scenes and a finale. Which brings me to my second... I'll go with concern. If you're just an average tourist with limited exposure to the Star Wars universe (like someone who would recognize Luke Skywalker but can't name off-hand what planet he's from), you'll likely enjoy the ride's "story". If you not only can name Tatooine but also the output of moisture vaporators, the storyline will likely confuse you. Because the different segments are independent, it's hard to nail down when in the Star Wars continuity this supposedly takes place. The opening scene I mentioned is definitely in the "original trilogy"-era with stormtroopers, TIE fighters, and Star Destroyers. But after that it can vary. On my second ride-through, we went from the Battle of Hoth from the beginning of 'Empire Strikes Back' to a battle over the planet Geonosis, likely an homage to the end of 'Attack of the Clones'. In addition, the Geonosis scene has a couple other major continuity issues that I won'g spoil but will definitely baffle a Star Wars fan.

Finally is the actual movement of the ride. The original version, the first mainstream flight-simulator, was a fairly intense action ride. Obviously not as extreme as a roller-coaster, there were instances where it'd toss you around and shake you a bit. But the new generation ride is toned down quite a bit. If the original was akin to the Back to the Future/The Simpsons Ride at Universal Studios, the new one is closer to EPCOT's Soarin'. The lightspeed jumps are probably the most extreme parts while the actual "action" scenes were relatively tame.

Conclusion

While definitely worth a ride, it didn't live up to the build-up that it's receiving on the Internet. I did go on it twice last night, but not because it was such a great ride, more because I wanted to see if the experience changed significantly based on the scenes you go through (it does, but it didn't seem like the scenes make the ride any calmer or rougher) and the line was only 10 minutes because Fantasmic! was just starting. So yea, not to disappoint, but I found it kinda meh. Nothing wrong with it but nothing overly great. This original type of motion simulator style ride is growing kind of stale, and really the only cool aspect of this ride is the different scenes you can go through. Still, I had fun both times I rode and would recommend to anyone to give it a shot.

Do Artists Need to Age With Their Audience?

As those of you who follow my Twitter know, I'm currently in upstate New York for my family's annual get-together later this evening. Taking full advantage of a little break from work and school, I'm going through some of the stuff that I've accumulated in the last few months. Amongst them, I finally completed Nick Hornby's newest book Juliet, Naked (it was a Christmas present) while listening to Weezer's newest album "Hurley". In doing both at the same time, it seems that each are appealing to their fans in different ways and it brings the following question to my head: Do artists need to age with their audiences?

Nick Hornby, whose book High Fidelity (and the subsequent movie) is amongst my favorites, spoke to me when I first found it just after college. The book, which tells the story of a late-20's hipster trying to figure out why his relationships have all gone bad spoke to me as my college girlfriend moved on to bigger-and-better things leaving me behind. In this book, a middle-aged English woman enters into an online flirtation with an aging reculisve American singer. So, in the 15 or so years since High Fidelity came out, the character's he writes about have aged roughly 15 years with him. And I ate the book up because I could still relate to its themes and characters as I've also aged with them.

Then, you go to "Hurley". I've been a Weezer fan since I first heard "Buddy Holly" playing on the old WKRO back in high school (back before they sold out and went country). "Hurley" seems to try recreating the themes and sounds of the Blue Album, though like High Fidelity, it came out nearly 15 years ago. And, while there are a few catchy songs, I'm just not that into it. What's funny is that this follows up last year's Red Album which I did enjoy, but that was because it seemed to have a mix of both the poppy Blue Album-style stuff with some more mature songs of Rivers talking about his wife and new baby.

There's just, to me, something off-putting about seeing someone write or perform something that seems no longer in their element. For ages, I hated Green Day for singing songs about life in high school though each of the guys looked like they were in their 30's, but Green Day also makes an apt example for my point. "American Idiot", which is a more mature and poignant album, I loved but many die-hard Green Day fans hated. So, does maturing as an artist alienate their fans, or do their fans appreciate that the group they started following 15 years ago because they could identify with them in their current lives still appreciate their music/literature, because they use themes that they still can identify with? Is their a difference between the two media - where readers are more accepting while music fans aren't? Just throwing it out there.

Random Stuff

• As Microsoft has decided to discontinue Windows Live Spaces, I have taken down my old blog over there. As I haven't been contributing much to my blog lately anyways, and for the last few months have been posting identical posts on both, not much will be lost. But, now Blogger is the official home of AOwL.com. Yes Google, you might want to consider having shirts made up.
• While also in my "non-school related" reading kick, I was also able to finish up John Booth's Collect All 21. I picked up the book, a collection of all the author's Star Wars related memories, following Star Wars Celebration V (speaking of which, I never uploaded the pictures from my camera... I will soon and post them here). Anyways, the book is great for the Star Wars fan like me as each of the stories is relatable. Even though Booth was at the age to see Star Wars in theaters (I guess I did too, technically. My mom took me to see it at the drive-in theater in Daytona. I'm somewhat hazy on the experience, though, as I was just 2 months-old), some of the stories about seeing the movies - especially Jedi and the prequels, which I was a little older for - I totally remember and can identify with. So, if you're a fan, it's cheap and fun and I'd recommend picking it up.
• Finally, another hand for Google, for finally allowing the non-"Coversation View" option for Gmail. I have been jumping between three e-mail addresses for the last few years because none offered a reading experience I enjoyed. My primary problem with Gmail was that, with Conversation View, it was so hard to find the message I was looking for. If an e-mail was sent out to a large group and out of 15 responses, you could have 14 just respond with OK or something while the 15th had something to add, but you'd never be able to find it without going through all of the others because it was such a pain to delete them. Gmail is finally a usable product for me. I think more love should go to whoever the new Gmail product manager is who's asking for these updates. Remember when you couldn't even delete anything in Gmail, and their response was "You have so much space, you don't need to delete things"? I appreciate the new features that Gmail offers, but I more appreciate that they make them optional now using the Labs feature instead of forcing them on you.