20 year-old technology. A clone of a Legoland ride. Barebones “warehouse” theming. An exposed ride system and track.
I was severely disappointed with the half-baked theming for Webslingers. They could have made the old factory an entirely (faux) brick building that had a high-tech interior. Instead we got stuck with an outdoor queue, exposed steel, and some of the laziest “science” set decoration I have ever seen on a Disney ride. Imagineering seems determined to top this with Stark’s Flight Lab, which looks like the laziest ride Imagineering has ever designed. They took Knight’s Tournament from Legoland, tripled its capacity, and then put the seats on an assembly line to speed up the load/unload process.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved Knight’s Tournament. But this is just about the laziest product I have ever seen Imagineering put forward. I already thought Webslingers was a Marvel-skinned version of Ninjago at Legoland, just with better technology. Now it seems they’re going further into the Legoland vault with even worse theming. What part of looking at the steel walls of a barebones warehouse is pleasant to look at?
I think Imagineering is reaching the point where they are actively engaged in a scam. They aren’t scamming the guests, though we are certainly losing out. They are scamming the executives. These executives are so clueless about ride technology that Imagineering is able to trick them into funding this project. Imagineers can sit back, put in 2 hours of work a day recycling old ideas and architecture from malls and Six Flags, and say that the ride costs them $100 million to build.
I know we always talk about Disney declining and failing to maintain standards. I think this is just about the starkest example of that, pun intended. Maybe the ride isn’t even named after Iron Man, but because the theming is stark bare. If this is the future of Imagineering, I’m legitimately considering telling my financial advisor to sell my Disney stock. Disney has weak plans to create original studio content, and now the theme parks, with their declining attendance, seem to be throwing in the towel. Unless the next CEO un-Iger’s the place, I don’t think Disney’s future is one of success. A Stark Flight Lab indeed.
