Wizarding World of Harry Potter - Ministry of Magic - General Discussion Thread

[LPCaptainDeath]

I have no issues with the screen use in something like Monsters or Rise, because those are well-integrated effects with lots of energy.

The majority of the screens on Ministry revolve around you watching characters doing stilted dialogue at each other. The blocking is flat, most of the dialogue is exposition, and none of it uses the characters in interesting ways. You could swap the characters out for entirely different ones and have the exact same dialogue for everyone, and nothing but names would have to change. Most of the villains are nobody Death Eaters, and Umbridge doesn't have much room to shine here. It's rather dull and lifeless.

Say what you will about Gringotts, but Bellatrix, Voldemort, and the Goblins all feel like themselves. The core trio has always been a bit dull in these rides, but at least Hagrid, Ron, and Dumbledore get some solid quips. Nothing like that here.

It mostly feels like nothing more interesting than the preshows in Forbidden Journey, Gringotts, and Hagrids. The least interesting element of all three attractions, and the thing most people would rather skip over to get onto the rollercoaster faster. Except, there aren't any great thrill moments like Rise, Unchained, FJ, or Gringotts either. It's just rather static and dull for me.

IMO this ride needed a drop(or 4).

If there would've been a way to LITERALLY drop us at any point on the ride, people's satisfaction with this ride would be way higher. I can think of 2 to 5 moments where ANY sized drop would've helped. Especially the end, where you're literally falling and you land in a completely different room/space. It needed a drop when we hit the transition to black.

It's one thing to ride a simulator where you're just kinda looking at stuff.
It's another thing to have cool practical effects.
BUT if you're in a box that is eerily reminiscent of Tower of Terror, you can't help but think about Tower of Terror while you're on it. And the thing about thinking about Tower of Terror is... It's a much better ride. Ministry is literally a ride about being on an elevator and it doesn't FEEL anything like an elevator! They MISSED the ELEVATE part. It's honestly pretty funny, in hindsight.

We all know the blame is the ride vehicle, but this ride is missing the ACTUAL THRILL factor that makes the other HP rides tick and it's glaringly obvious after you've rode it. If the vehicle was going to be the downfall, go back to the drawing board and give us something else because this ain't it. There's no reason this couldn't have been Mission Break-Out(with screens/props) had a baby with Tower of Terror(with movement between lifts and shafts) to have us TWIST and TURN and look at different things but ALSO have us RISE and DROP. It only does half of that, and that's the downfall. buh-dum-tiss*

I still liked the ride, but it's easily the weakest of the HP rides. And in a land with only ONE HP ride - that stings.

 

[kristenabelle]

I am surprised by (what seemed like) fewer interactive wand spots in the land. Given the awesome enhancements at USF and IOA, I think I was expecting more. The ones they had were fun with some great effects, but the Goblet Noir area especially was lacking. I wonder if they'll add more over time?

 

[LPCaptainDeath]

I am surprised by (what seemed like) fewer interactive wand spots in the land. Given the awesome enhancements at USF and IOA, I think I was expecting more. The ones they had were fun with some great effects, but the Goblet Noir area especially was lacking. I wonder if they'll add more over time?

Completely agree and i hope they do!
I just checked and saw that Hogsmeade has 11, Ministry has 12, and Diagon has 18.
One more than Hogsmeade and six less than Diagon with ALL OF THAT ROOM TO SPARE makes it seem all the more obvious that this land was supposed to have a second attraction at launch, keeping it squarely in the 'lacking' department.

 

[GA-MBIT]

IMO this ride needed a drop(or 4).

If there would've been a way to LITERALLY drop us at any point on the ride, people's satisfaction with this ride would be way higher. I can think of 2 to 5 moments where ANY sized drop would've helped. Especially the end, where you're literally falling and you land in a completely different room/space. It needed a drop when we hit the transition to black.

It's one thing to ride a simulator where you're just kinda looking at stuff.
It's another thing to have cool practical effects.
BUT if you're in a box that is eerily reminiscent of Tower of Terror, you can't help but think about Tower of Terror while you're on it. And the thing about thinking about Tower of Terror is... It's a much better ride. Ministry is literally a ride about being on an elevator and it doesn't FEEL anything like an elevator! They MISSED the ELEVATE part. It's honestly pretty funny, in hindsight.

We all know the blame is the ride vehicle, but this ride is missing the ACTUAL THRILL factor that makes the other HP rides tick and it's glaringly obvious after you've rode it. If the vehicle was going to be the downfall, go back to the drawing board and give us something else because this ain't it. There's no reason this couldn't have been Mission Break-Out(with screens/props) had a baby with Tower of Terror(with movement between lifts and shafts) to have us TWIST and TURN and look at different things but ALSO have us RISE and DROP. It only does half of that, and that's the downfall. buh-dum-tiss*

I still liked the ride, but it's easily the weakest of the HP rides. And in a land with only ONE HP ride - that stings.

Yes! Exactly!!

The ride vehicle misses on all counts. Why build an elevator simulator ride that doesn't simulate rising and falling? I don't think that's a wild expectation!

Why doesn't it look anything like the Elevators from the films, or even the ones that the characters in the ride itself are inside of right in front of you! If anything, the elevator scene from the Gringotts preshow is far more accurate to the way the elevators were portrayed in the films.

The setup for the previous Potter attractions was gotten out of the way in the preshows, and / or as an incredibly quick moment at the start of the ride itself like the Hermoine Levitation spell scene, or Harry and Ron on their brooms. It's not 15 seconds after the broom scene that we come face-to-face with a practical life-sized Dragon, that breathes fire in the right seat rider's face!

Meanwhile Ministry's big story moment necessarily has to happen during the events of the ride itself. It'd maybe feel a little silly for Umbridge to have escaped the Trial before you enter the queue, and then after a 3 hour wait, it's only 2 and a half minutes later that she's brought to justice. But that also means that the whole first half of the ride is just an exposition-y preshow scene! Could we not have structured this a little better? That line is long, could none of that been used to get across this exposition instead?

Why is the Fantastic Beasts scene here? Like, actually. Why? Is there a deeper reason outside of it being a leftover from the scrapped Wizarding Paris land? It feels like a random detour in the middle of the ride that has nothing at all to do with Umbridge, the Trials, or the Ministry. And I'm not especially impressed with the Erumpent itself either.

The land's whole thing is the time-turner. They make a big deal of it in the ride, and it's the icon for the Portal. Why is there no attempt to explain how we make it from Wizarding Paris in the 20s-30s, to Wizarding London in 2007? Not even a contrived "Tiana has a salt mine"-style answer? It's so strange to draw attention to the time-travel in literally every other facet of the Land EXCEPT the moment that features the time-travel!

Why is Umbridge having such a hard-time finding a Time-turner in the first place? Apparently, Muggle tourists in Paris have been using them daily since the 20s! Chock it up to the wonders of European public transit, I suppose.

The first Floo effect is great! It does the Diagon facade / Hogwarts Express 9 and 3/4 "passing through a solid wall" effect so you can't see directly where you're walking to from the front. It just looks like a fireplace, especially when the "Floo Powder" fog rises up with good timing!

So why is the second Floo effect awful? No attempt at the faux-Fireplace wall thing; you can just straight up look out into broad Parisian daylight from inside of the Ministry. The fog effect only happens sporadically when you walk through, and even when it does happen, it's pretty thin and wispy, so most of the time it doesn't even look like a fireplace. It just looks like an open door. It bleeds light into the dim Atrium too. And it's also the very first thing you see after entering the Ministry Atrium via the first effect! Why is it built this way?

It needs a thrill moment. A small drop, at least. It needed to save the Atrium set for a big wow-moment on the ride itself. It needed an I-Rex-esque chase scene with the Erumpent. It needed a better story that uses the strengths of Umbridge as a villain, and that allows the expostion to be secluded within the queue. It needed to be rethought pretty substantially imo.

Hmm, maybe I do feel rather strongly about this one.

 

[simon]

Yes! Exactly!!

The ride vehicle misses on all counts. Why build an elevator simulator ride that doesn't simulate rising and falling? I don't think that's a wild expectation!

Why doesn't it look anything like the Elevators from the films, or even the ones that the characters in the ride itself are inside of right in front of you! If anything, the elevator scene from the Gringotts preshow is far more accurate to the way the elevators were portrayed in the films.

The setup for the previous Potter attractions was gotten out of the way in the preshows, and / or as an incredibly quick moment at the start of the ride itself like the Hermoine Levitation spell scene, or Harry and Ron on their brooms. It's not 15 seconds after the broom scene that we come face-to-face with a practical life-sized Dragon, that breathes fire in the right seat rider's face!

Meanwhile Ministry's big story moment necessarily has to happen during the events of the ride itself. It'd maybe feel a little silly for Umbridge to have escaped the Trial before you enter the queue, and then after a 3 hour wait, it's only 2 and a half minutes later that she's brought to justice. But that also means that the whole first half of the ride is just an exposition-y preshow scene! Could we not have structured this a little better? That line is long, could none of that been used to get across this exposition instead?

Why is the Fantastic Beasts scene here? Like, actually. Why? Is there a deeper reason outside of it being a leftover from the scrapped Wizarding Paris land? It feels like a random detour in the middle of the ride that has nothing at all to do with Umbridge, the Trials, or the Ministry. And I'm not especially impressed with the Erumpent itself either.

The land's whole thing is the time-turner. They make a big deal of it in the ride, and it's the icon for the Portal. Why is there no attempt to explain how we make it from Wizarding Paris in the 20s-30s, to Wizarding London in 2007? Not even a contrived "Tiana has a salt mine"-style answer? It's so strange to draw attention to the time-travel in literally every other facet of the Land EXCEPT the moment that features the time-travel!

Why is Umbridge having such a hard-time finding a Time-turner in the first place? Apparently, Muggle tourists in Paris have been using them daily since the 20s! Chock it up to the wonders of European public transit, I suppose.

The first Floo effect is great! It does the Diagon facade / Hogwarts Express 9 and 3/4 "passing through a solid wall" effect so you can't see directly where you're walking to from the front. It just looks like a fireplace, especially when the "Floo Powder" fog rises up with good timing!

So why is the second Floo effect awful? No attempt at the faux-Fireplace wall thing; you can just straight up look out into broad Parisian daylight from inside of the Ministry. The fog effect only happens sporadically when you walk through, and even when it does happen, it's pretty thin and wispy, so most of the time it doesn't even look like a fireplace. It just looks like an open door. It bleeds light into the dim Atrium too. And it's also the very first thing you see after entering the Ministry Atrium via the first effect! Why is it built this way?

It needs a thrill moment. A small drop, at least. It needed to save the Atrium set for a big wow-moment on the ride itself. It needed an I-Rex-esque chase scene with the Erumpent. It needed a better story that uses the strengths of Umbridge as a villain, and that allows the expostion to be secluded within the queue. It needed to be rethought pretty substantially imo.

Hmm, maybe I do feel rather strongly about this one.

Definitely. Being Atrium as a big wow moment in the actual ride would have been great. Or, Vichele passes the Atrium queue at the beginning of ride after passing the station(so ride gets extra scene and people waiting can see glimpses of vichele get excited. Also, I heard that Erumpent chase scene was planned but there has been a budget cut