Rise of the Resistance POV VIDEO Reaction thread [SPOILERS]

[SkippyXS]

So ROTS opened in WDW today, and youtube is flooded with the first wave of cell phone POV videos. Since an identical version of this attraction will open in Disneyland soon, I feel it's on topic and fair to discuss these POV videos if we feel so inclined.
**** SPOILERS BELOW****

My impressions from ride POV:

The good:
• Excellent sound design and FIRE music.
• The escape pod simulation looks fun.
• Light saber cutting though the ceiling effect is nicely done.
• Lots of going down corridors and lights going flashy flash - looks fun.
• lots of projection mapped laser damage on real sets, looks cool.
• "NO! NOT UP!! I said down!" Nice moment.
• Really like the unload area! Nice that it's connected so closely to the outdoors. Something new for an attraction of this scale.

Not so good:
• For all the game imagineering talks about being great storytellers (and imagineering has certainly achieved great feats of storytelling in the past) - having characters directly narrate to us about who, what, when, why, is bad storytelling - and this attraction makes excessive of narratized dialogue in the extended preshow. First we're lectured by the good guys - then we get captured by the bad guys and they lecture us again! It's not interesting and will grow tiresome with repeated rides.
• No laser bolt special effects.
• Aside from two Kylo Ren animatronic set-pieces, very static look to the show.
• The portion of the show where you're navigating a row of huge turrets going bang-bang - falls flat, at least on video. The were going for a big dynamic moment on the scale of Indy's rolling boulder - but what we have are large, slow moving props pointed at video screens. Doesn't look great.

What do you all think?

[stovk]

I have to agree with you about the constant "narration". It's the same thing with MFSR. The constant barking of orders and instructions gets annoying really fast.

As you stated, when done right, you don't need this constant hand-holding. The Attraction's story-telling should be designed in a way where the Guest instinctively knows what is going on.

Unfortunately, SWGE and it's Attractions are a manifestation of state of the Star Wars franchise today.

Disney, by allowing Kathleen Kennedy and her inept guidance, has screwed up the Star Wars "universe". By introducing new pointless characters, plodding and incoherent plot lines, and changing the base "rules" on how the SW Galaxy works, the audience left scratching their heads and asking themselves, "What the heck is going on?"

** Update **


And just like that, this article appears 2 hours ago:

Rise of Skywalker to introduce New Force Powers - likely to divide Fans

[Tapdawg]

This is the best video I've seen thus far - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MafNvVYpvBg

[MrSarcastic]

This looks to be the best attraction Disney has created in years. It seems they’ve finally figured out the right combination of story telling, animatronics, technology, and digital displays.

I was just in Hong Kong last week and went on Mystic Manor for the first time, which wow’d me. This feels like it took that level of immersive attraction, and elevated it on multiple levels! I’m not even a big star wars fan, but I can’t wait to experience this.

[denyuntilcaught]

I was blown away by the POV. Honestly, IMO, it's looking like the best attraction Disney has made stateside since Indy.

[Jspider]

I have to agree with you about the constant "narration". It's the same thing with MFSR. The constant barking of orders and instructions gets annoying really fast.

As you stated, when done right, you don't need this constant hand-holding. The Attraction's story-telling should be designed in a way where the Guest instinctively knows what is going on.

Unfortunately, SWGE and it's Attractions are a manifestation of state of the Star Wars franchise today.

Disney, by allowing Kathleen Kennedy and her inept guidance, has screwed up the Star Wars "universe". By introducing new pointless characters, plodding and incoherent plot lines, and changing the base "rules" on how the SW Galaxy works, the audience left scratching their heads and asking themselves, "What the heck is going on?"

** Update **


And just like that, this article appears 2 hours ago:

Rise of Skywalker to introduce New Force Powers - likely to divide Fans

The narraration issue is kinda similar yet I feel like the causation is a bit different between the two attractions.

MFSR is having the issue where it has to assume that each ride is the first ride for the crew. This in gaming terms means you're kinda in a perpetual tutorial that just has a decently steep rise in difficulty for the second act. It'd certainly be interesting if they could perhaps update the app at some point to detect general experience of the user and cut back tutorail directed dialogue for the event. But I'd suspend that the return on such an investment wouldn't be deemed high enough.

On the other hand Rise of the Resistance really shows an evolution into more directed storytelling. I feel like the type of experience is more akin to how simulator rides take you through a directed sequence. It isn't about a passive enjoyment of easedropping in on dinner convesation that the classics like Pirates of Mansion demonstrate but rather a journey with beginning middle and end.

The design clearly goes a level beyond a simulator ride as we get a healthy variety of different types of effects and practical setpieces to make the environment feel real.

I suppose there is room for debate on if the attraction should include more interchangable unique story beats but the video to me certainly looks a level above Pooh or Mystic Manor. I often felt at least in video these attractions didn't benefit from the trackless system so much. The format is clearly the Pirates esque passive experience but the fuction looks as though the vehicles had to line up to do whatever their demonstration was before moving to the next thing. Rise of the Rebellion shows a new type of deficiency stringing all the scenes together as connected events directed towards the rider while still maintianing a high effeciencey that the older attractions share.

It doesn't suffer from repetition in the same way that I feel most of the redone Pirates dialogue does because it doesn't force us to listen to a repeated setup and delivery of a repetitive set of lines (sure they rotate around the words a bit but the bride for instance just says the same basic thing repeatedly and you hear it five different ways before you see her).


I feel like the over narrating isn't too much beyond the basics of lower medium tier TV writing in alot of ways. I'm sure they could be more sophisticated but honestly the rides not a bad outing and I think the tenor matches the relative writing level of the new movies anyways so I think it matches the tone which accomplishes the goal of riders feeling a part of the universe.




I guess it sounds to me like you're not a fan of the direction of this Star Wars in general, but it is important to seperate the weaknesses of the new trilogy with the strengths of Imagineering. If you're not attached to the new characters or tone of the new films I can't imagine an attraction is the proper venue to resell you on them.


Personally I guess I am a bit impressed by this new type of effeciency and would be curious to see the new type of artform develop further. I guess we could debte weather the techniques could be used in service of something more but I don't believe that it takes away the technical levle of coordination the attraction has to undergo to function and execute its premise.

[J. Thaddeus Toad]

The narraration issue is kinda similar yet I feel like the causation is a bit different between the two attractions.

MFSR is having the issue where it has to assume that each ride is the first ride for the crew. This in gaming terms means you're kinda in a perpetual tutorial that just has a decently steep rise in difficulty for the second act. It'd certainly be interesting if they could perhaps update the app at some point to detect general experience of the user and cut back tutorail directed dialogue for the event. But I'd suspend that the return on such an investment wouldn't be deemed high enough.

On the other hand Rise of the Resistance really shows an evolution into more directed storytelling. I feel like the type of experience is more akin to how simulator rides take you through a directed sequence. It isn't about a passive enjoyment of easedropping in on dinner convesation that the classics like Pirates of Mansion demonstrate but rather a journey with beginning middle and end.

The design clearly goes a level beyond a simulator ride as we get a healthy variety of different types of effects and practical setpieces to make the environment feel real.

I suppose there is room for debate on if the attraction should include more interchangable unique story beats but the video to me certainly looks a level above Pooh or Mystic Manor. I often felt at least in video these attractions didn't benefit from the trackless system so much. The format is clearly the Pirates esque passive experience but the fuction looks as though the vehicles had to line up to do whatever their demonstration was before moving to the next thing. Rise of the Rebellion shows a new type of deficiency stringing all the scenes together as connected events directed towards the rider while still maintianing a high effeciencey that the older attractions share.

It doesn't suffer from repetition in the same way that I feel most of the redone Pirates dialogue does because it doesn't force us to listen to a repeated setup and delivery of a repetitive set of lines (sure they rotate around the words a bit but the bride for instance just says the same basic thing repeatedly and you hear it five different ways before you see her).


I feel like the over narrating isn't too much beyond the basics of lower medium tier TV writing in alot of ways. I'm sure they could be more sophisticated but honestly the rides not a bad outing and I think the tenor matches the relative writing level of the new movies anyways so I think it matches the tone which accomplishes the goal of riders feeling a part of the universe.




I guess it sounds to me like you're not a fan of the direction of this Star Wars in general, but it is important to seperate the weaknesses of the new trilogy with the strengths of Imagineering. If you're not attached to the new characters or tone of the new films I can't imagine an attraction is the proper venue to resell you on them.


Personally I guess I am a bit impressed by this new type of effeciency and would be curious to see the new type of artform develop further. I guess we could debte weather the techniques could be used in service of something more but I don't believe that it takes away the technical levle of coordination the attraction has to undergo to function and execute its premise.

Really great analysis.

[MonteJ]

I think it’s a huge win for Disney and the early reviews are incredibly positive. That’s good news for future and I think it totally change the vibe in Galaxy’s Edge. Hopefully it will cause Disney to green light addition entertainment & expansion.

[WaltDisney'sAlec]

I couldn't help myself after saying I wasn't going to watch ridethroughs. At the risk of echoing everyone here, I'll just say that the ride looks like an absolute blast.

More than anything, I love Disney's ability to continually innovate with their ride systems. Roger Rabbit was putting a spinning teacup on a dark ride track. Indiana Jones was putting the motion simulator on the ride vehicle. Now, Rise of the Resistance has put the ride vehicle in the motion simulator that is also its own vehicle. This gets orders of magnitudes more difficult, and the whole WDI team should pat themselves on the back for this one.

I love the story of the ride and frankly think it fits in nicely with the Star Wars stories we know. The narration can be a bit heavy handed sometimes, but I remind myself that often kids will be riding this who might unknowingly appreciate that extra nudging. Seeing as I agree with the sentiment articulated here, I'm mostly okay with it.

If I had to nitpick, I think I would have 2-3 small things to raise. The first is that I would replace the screens of stormtroopers firing with animatronics. In this case, it's clear to me that they wanted the full range of motion from the stormtroopers so that the battle sequences looked realistic. That's a design choice and I think I just prefer less realistic movement in exchange for a 3D character, but it's nonetheless a judgment call. The second point is Kylo Ren's final scene. Did he die? What happened there? It wasn't super clear from the video, but if he had a Leia moment like she did in The Last Jedi, that seems like a pretty big deal. I'm just a bit confused.

The third thing, of course, is that I just want more. I want more stormtroopers everywhere, from the hangar bay to firing at prisoners! I loved what I saw, so it isn't really a complaint at all. Disney left me wanting more. Consider my faith restored.

[WaltDisney'sAlec]

Not so good:
• For all the game imagineering talks about being great storytellers (and imagineering has certainly achieved great feats of storytelling in the past) - having characters directly narrate to us about who, what, when, why, is bad storytelling - and this attraction makes excessive of narratized dialogue in the extended preshow. First we're lectured by the good guys - then we get captured by the bad guys and they lecture us again! It's not interesting and will grow tiresome with repeated rides.
• No laser bolt special effects.
• Aside from two Kylo Ren animatronic set-pieces, very static look to the show.
• The portion of the show where you're navigating a row of huge turrets going bang-bang - falls flat, at least on video. The were going for a big dynamic moment on the scale of Indy's rolling boulder - but what we have are large, slow moving props pointed at video screens. Doesn't look great.

What do you all think?

Something that I haven't seen addressed anywhere really is the stormtroopers firing. They had some projection mapping, but that was the extent of the blaster bolts "firing" from stormtroopers blasters. It's not perfect, but I couldn't think of a viable alternative. That's not to say that Disney hasn't already invented one, though. What I did find interesting is that to achieve this effect, Disney went back to the tried-and-true pepper's ghost rules used in the Haunted Mansion. There weren't mirrors, but Disney used angles to always place stormtroopers and characters above the ride vehicle rather than at eye level. It's not just easier to see, but the sightlines for special effects that come from those characters are easier to track. It makes sense when you see a stormtrooper above you shoot his blaster across the ceiling. That's what I would do if I couldn't have them eye level with blaster bolts whizzing by me.

I didn't mind the turbolaser scene as much. It struck me as very similar to a video game where you have to time your jumps. In this case, prisoner transports move between recoils of the lasers, but because the ride system has to make sure there's no risk of the lasers hitting riders you do wait a bit longer than normal before crossing its path. Still, if I had to analogize, I would say the turbolaser scene was similar to the dart-throwing scene in Indy, while the escape pod drop is the grand finale akin to the giant boulder. Nothing ends a Disney ride like a narrow escape (looking at you, Mr. Toad)!

[CWH2000]

Has anyone put out a written synopsis, scene by scene, for the ride? I’ve seen a couple completed previously based off rumors on what they think would happen, but not actually what we ended up getting. We aren’t going until June, and I’ve made it two days now without watching any videos. Hopefully I can make it three

[Natalie Price]

Videos are one thing. But actually riding it is a whole new experience. I left the ride trying to process what I had just been through. Videos will spoil the experience because you'll know what's coming, so I highly recommend you not watch them.
I was lucky to have gone on as part of the ride testing last week at work (Disneyland), so I had no idea where the story was going. Speaking of story, I really wanted to go on the ride dressed in my Batuuan costume and I got to do that. I've been playing a citizen of Batuu since May and this ride was the ultimate in my role playing.

[CWH2000]

I agree. While IJA was (is) a great ride, what made it even better was it’s inaccessibility. You had to ride it to experience it, and I do think that the advent of ride videos have hampered the impact imagineers are able to have these days. Sure, ROTR will be a great ride. But I imagine it’s handicapped a bit by social media and POV videos. Social media creates buzz, but it’s also not the way the Imagineers intended for you to first experience it. The debates on this topic are long, and I hold an idealistic stance. Then again, June is a long ways away......but at least for the imagineers and what they’ve created, I agree with Natalie Price and will try my best.

[stovk]

This is a good POV from The DIS.

[TLand2055]

Roger Rabbit was putting a spinning teacup on a dark ride track. Indiana Jones was putting the motion simulator on the ride vehicle. Now, Rise of the Resistance has put the ride vehicle in the motion simulator that is also its own vehicle.

Yep, if I recall correctly it's a trackless ride inside a motion simulator inside a drop tower. I've even heard people say that the lights on the top at the beginning of that scene are real and not screens, which in itself blows my mind.

Rise definitely is in my top five rides of all time, even without me riding it. I really want to know how the hologram and lightsaber scenes were actually feasible.

The only downside I have is that there are more screens than I would like, but I must say that the second(third?) preshow (interrogation) did make the best out of having screens with the "shadows" on the ceiling.

[tarheelalum]

It looks good. Kind of like an enhanced Star Tours on steroids, and I love Star Tours.

[Natalie Price]

It look good. Kind of like an enhanced Star Tours on steroids, and I love Star Tours.

I rode it. You start with a mild Smuggler's Run, then Luigi's Rollickin Roadsters, then Indiana Jones Adventure, a quick Guardians of The Galaxy into Star Tours.

[PDSchweitzer]

Sorry, but I'm not impressed. Yes it is very high tech and trackless ride vehicles are 'cool', but it looks like a bad video game.

Another thumbs down for the entire SWGE land in my mind.

[J. Thaddeus Toad]

Resisting the urge to watch until I can visit in person .

Will do same thing with runaway railway 😬

[Eagleman]

Resisting the urge to watch until I can visit in person .

Will do same thing with runaway railway 😬

I would bet....Disney would put there "PR" spin on it !........