Written by Robert Niles
Published: June 24, 2004 at 10:50 PM
Within the walls of the former E.T. Adventure soundstage, visitors will find the most detailed queue Universal's ever offered in its Hollywood park. Take your time to stuff your hand in one of the holes in the wall, or, better yet, talk a squeamish friend into doing it instead. And don't rush past the preshow, even if you have the chance. The set-up you'll watch there will help you better appreciate and be thrilled by the effects that await you ahead.
Once in the heart's of Mummy's temple, riders board minimally-themed mining cars that whisk them through a what might best be described as a nightmare's version of Pirates of the Caribbean's grotto and treasure scenes. Decaying arms reach down toward your car as untold goo drips from the ceiling. As in Pirates, you pass the corpses to find immense treasure – riches that come with a curse. But unlike the Disney classic, you never find the "wink," that moment of self-deprecating humor that makes the attraction tolerable for young riders and perpetually amusing for the older ones.
Mummy takes itself quite seriously. This ride's as earnest as a state patrolman with a quota to fill. You'll find no dog with the keys to your freedom at the end of this ride. Nor will you find yourself accompanied by some smirking hitchhiking ghost. Not even Tinkerbell crashes into the wall, in a gleeful dig at Universal's competition.
Mummy does not relent, even for a moment, in its attempt to scare your bodily fluids from you. Bugs crawl around your car. Thunder blasts all around you. Skeleton Warriors drop from the ceiling (but to the car's sides, not overhead, as earlier promised) as linear induction motors accelerate your car into the roller coaster section of the ride.
With Disneyland having shuttered its Space Mountain, Mummy's blind curves and flashing apparitions, enhanced by Alan Silvestri's soundtrack, offer the area's only fix for coaster fans longing for a spin in the dark.
But Mummy falls short of providing the legendary experience that will endear it to fans throughout the decade to come. This two-minute trip's simply too fast -- and too short -- for riders to comprehend fully its narrative. And Mummy's sensory effects are not intense enough to overcome their brevity.
The relatively small soundstage Universal Creative engineers had to work with in Hollywood doomed this version to fall short even of its larger Orlando sibling. Two fellow riders who'd been on Orlando's version reported that the Hollywood ride simply didn't match the length and intensity of the east coast edition.
At least this Mummy concludes with an exhilarating effect, engulfing passengers in steam and fire. But why must this, and every other recent major new attraction, be so short? Riders who will want to get right back on board for another go on Mummy ought to do so out of passion for the attraction – not simply because they feel they need to get their money's worth.
Couple rising construction costs with designer's wishes to deliver more thrills for the ADD generation, and theme park fans are now left with rides that finish before they've had a chance to exhale. Disneyland trimmed its Tower of Terror. The action on Magic Mountain's X takes less time that the trip up the lift. Knott's Xcelerator hits the breaks before most drivers can get out of second gear. And Universal's Mummy packs tens of millions of dollars of technology in a ride that feels shorter than a movie trailer.
Enough. Designers, take a breather... and give us one, too. Please rent some Hitchcock and rediscover the art of anticipation. Show us again how nothing can be so much more terrifying than the sound and fury of $10 million in special effects. Give us the time we need to fall in love with the stories of these new attractions.
Kids looking for thrills won't care about such missed opportunities. This Mummy is fast. It's furious. Adrenaline-loving tweeners will declare it the coolest thing ever. (Well, until next summer's new thrill.)
Older, wiser riders will enjoy Mummy's impressive effects. With a few extra trips, perhaps they will grow in their respect and appreciation for the ride, as well. But it's doubtful that any but the most undemanding of those riders will ever fall in love with Revenge of the Mummy.
Perhaps it calls for a different category of dark ride? Tame and Wild?
Anyone else?
The Revenge of the Mummy was a fun ride and one I will definitely ride again. And I'll tell my friends that it's a must-ride at the park. But I was expecting more. The theatrics were GREAT!!!!!!!!! They salvage the ride. The coaster part was fun. Use the single riders line. Who cares if your friends are in the same car....once you're going at high speeds in the dark, you don't know who's next to you...besides the bugs and mummies, of course.
I want to know how Hollywood Mummy and Orlando Mummy compare. We've obviously got different storylines for both attractions--USF is themed to be a movie set populated with Egyptian artifacts that bring the curse of Imhotep and USH is supposedly Imhotep's tomb the entire time. I'm also curious how the coaster portions compare--USH is obviously shorter and probably doesn't have as many sheer drops as USF.
How can you call Mummy "fast" and "furious"? As a roller coaster, it was pathetic. As a dark ride, it's really good - until the coaster part gets started. What good is a roller coaster in the dark when you can see the track? With all the lights flashing, we could easily see exactly where we were going, even though we were sitting in the 3rd row. The launch was nice, but after that it seemed slower than Thunder Mountain.
We had no idea what the story of the ride was until after we rode, when we read it on the internet. The video at the beginning just seems to be a bunch of film clips, not a preshow for the ride - although it's hard to tell, because the audio is so muddy. We thought the end of the ride was a letdown - the Mummy attacked us with a ball of flame, and then suddenly we were safe (no explanation of how we escaped) and getting off the ride. I've read that the ball of flame was actually Imhotep exploding, but we certainly didn't figure that out while riding.
But it is a good ride, and I'm curious to go ride it again. I'm hoping that maybe things have been tweaked since we rode last Sunday. Al Lutz's review noted that the two times he rode it, the launch seemed to reach very different speeds - so maybe we just got a lame, slow ride.
We think Jurassic Park is still the best attraction at USH.
I should also say that I prefaced my "fast" comment by talking about kids. I think the 8-13 crowd is the target for this ride. Kids wanting the illusion of much faster speed (thanks to the dark) and some non-ironic scare effects will enjoy it. Anyone under age 7 won't meet the height limit and some 7-year-olds will be a bit squeamish for the ride. Anyone past puberty will likely find the ride too tame and devoid of the humor that would otherwise make it worthwhile. Still, I find that with multiple rides, it grows on you as you pick up more of what you missed on a first ride.
But don't get me wrong. This is no classic. None of the rides that debuted this year in SoCal blew me away. In fact, I thought Legoland's Fun Town Fire Academy was the most clever and entertaining one of the bunch. But it isn't as impressive as RotM.
So, it's good to get out grievances at this point so hopefully USH can fix problems we are having, but don't expect this to be the same ride now that it will be in six months.
This is rather odd, considering that action movies are getting longer and longer. Somers's two Mummy flicks clocked in at two hours plus, as did his wretched Van Helsing, which lurched around like the monster in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man until it stumbled into an action sequence. At least the lousy Hollywood movies of yore had the good sense not to waste too much of the viewer's time.
Big flicks super-sized like so much fast food--we're bloating our bellies while shrinking our brains.
well,Disney tested thier TOT for 6 months prior to the May 5th opening and its had very little problems.I think if Universal tested this ride for that long it would be much better off.
and it would have been in Universals best intrest to provide a almost flawless run of this attraction,so it would get better reviews.The reviews for this thing have been horrible,alot of that could be contributed to the fact that the effects are so spotty.How many APers got off the ride thinking that was how the ride was supposed to be,then going and telling thier buddies how much it "sucked".Its not good for Universal.This thing should work almost flawlessly at this point,and the reason its not,its purely Universals fault.
That said, I agree with Kevin. Not so much on the issue of show quality, but on wait times. No attraction anywhere is worth a two-hour wait, in my opinion. Ninety minutes is the longest I'll go, and then, only for something great. Throw in the fact that engineers often can tweak show quality to make it better with a few weeks' experience, and 30 days after opening is often a much better time to visit a new attraction.
I was disappointed with the ride. No mummys appeared at the side of the car from the ceiling or floor. The decor and theme was nice. The ride operators were trained well and could move people on and off the ride in an efficient manner. My biggest problem was being able to see the door rise from the fire room revealing a well designed effect. (The smoke and fog hiding the rising of the exit door)
And I was probably one of the few who did not applaud at the end of the ride when I came back into the station.
It is too short and leaves much to be desired. Now I have to make a trip to USF and ride the Mummy there to compare.
And in a more recent post I see someone say they didn't get any Mummies (I assume that's not counting Imohtep)... for the record, there are four - 2 just stand on each side and 2 jump down right before the coaster part begins but those falling 2 are not working and we are awaiting some new ones.
The only other ok ride there is Jurrsasic Park. Thge only good thing about that ride is the drop at the end. The dinousaurs in the ride dont look real and is kind of boring. The only other things to see there are shows (mostly 3d--most of which are o.k.) Its ridiculous.
O ya, the back to the future ride, wow, Someone just drop a nuclear bomb on the thing. Worst ride i have aver been on.
Thrill-seekers u have been warned, Universal Studios is not what u think. Go to the one in florida, Please!!!!
I've categorized Mummy as a dark ride in the attraction listings because I feel that best describes the experience that this ride offers. Yes, there's a roller coaster track. But the show elements here are as noteworthy, if not more, than the coaster elements -- unlike on other highly themed coasters such as Space Mountain. But I'm willing to debate this, if anyone wants to argue that Mummy ought to be considered more of a coaster than a dark ride.