Dark universe is easily my most anticipated Epic Universe land. It's technically based on an IP, but the non- monster characters and locations are all original. A while ago I posted a thread about how I believed that this land was a calculated risk and that it was going to be vastly successful.
Universal, however, probably did not have the same opinion as I did. Dark Universe is still the smallest land in both size and the fact that it only has two attractions (if you count wand magic as an attraction), and the budget for the second ride looks tiny.
Let's start there. As someone who hasn't been, Curse of the Werewolf looks fun but underwhelming, and I expect it to rank higher than Gringotts but lower than cobra's curse if I were to compare it to similar rides. The letdown is that I've heard that the scene at the end doesn't include an animatronic, and the figure is just a mannequin. I hope the forest grows in, but otherwise the forest area outside of the ride is spooky (despite the rushed netting around the track).
The best part of the land looks to be the atmospheric and exciting headliner and surrounding village. After talking to several team members (none of whom had ridden MoM, for the record) they can all say that Monsters Unchained is in the top two, just behind Stardust, but some even said Monsters was better. The village and restaurant are appropriately spooky and the whole area seems like it's designed with passion.
The land still seems to suffer from its size, but that's nothing a phase 2 expansion won't fix. I'm excited to go when I get the chance (probably January). I think I was right about its potential.
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