Let's face it, fans really were underwhelmed by the idea of another 3D movie. If Universal had waited until its media preview day in late June or sometime in July to get out the word that this raises the bar for theme park 4D, it would have been too late for many people (including the international tourists that Universal targets) to make vacation plans.
By getting word out now that this isn't a mere 3D movie, but a 360-degree, high-def, 4D experience, Universal is hoping that it will entice more people to make plans to come see it this summer, instead of going someplace else.
The risk Universal runs in doing something like this is that if the show is a dog, we would have called them on that today and undercut the park's promotional efforts. But I suspect that folks at Universal Creative were quite confident that wouldn't be a problem. :-)
And they were right.
When Universal went to Florida and deconstructed the Tour, it needed to extend Jaws, Kong and Earthquake so that they'd work on their own. The same would need to happen with Kong for me to consider it better than Spider-Man.
That said, Kong is going to blow away everything else currently on the tour - the tech is so advanced. I hope that this frees up some resources for Universal to make additional upgrades to the tour, because as a whole, it should be contending as one of the great themed rides in the country.
Sounds great. I wonder if they could modify this and bring it to Orlando in some fashion. I know they recently got rid of their Kong attraction but it seems like this could be the perfect thing to open up in a few years to remind guests that there's a reason to visit the Universal park that doesn't have Harry Potter.
That is, unless they want to give us the Battlestar Galactica ride, which I'd be up for in a heartbeat.