There are a lot of things that are very forced in order to make it a ride thougj--nobody is saying its not a great attraction; but its story and coherence is off in some ways.
First off, why are we allowed at Hogwarts in the first place? Its picky, I know, but Kong, MIB, and Indy explain why you are where you are.
Second, its harder to suspend disbelief in FJ because the transition from screen portion to live sets are so jarring...SpiderMan's sets blend in perfectly with the screens, but in FJ the lines between live action and screen action is very clear.
The biggest issue for me is the liverties they take with the plot; why are dementors chasing us? How do we find ourselves in that cave thing at the end? And most importantly what is Hermione doing in the middle of the freakin Forbidden Forest when shes warning us about the spiders??
I also agree about Spider-Man having some flaws in execution--I think the levitation ray is great...us being last minute reporters? Not so much. And the SCOOP? How is that good for getting the news?
Im not saying these arent great rides, its just that some rides are easier for theme park nerds to pick apart than others
Yep - this. Here's some other quirks in FJ's plotting...
-First and foremost we're Muggles. Allowing us into the Wizarding World, much less Hogwartz, makes next to no sense within the context of the universe, creative liberties taken or not. Just say we're new wizards or something!
-A nitpick, but an important one. How the hell did we get from the bridge to the Forbidden Forest in half a second, and why is it suddenly storming when we get there? There's a big logical jump there.
-Why the hell is Hermione in the Forbidden Forest with us? How did she get there?
-Why did Harry and Ron abandon us? Did they really just leave us on our own with that dragon so they could start their Quidditch match?
-Why.... are there dementors everywhere? Seems awfully random for them to attack.
-Even bigger issue... the films and books make it a HUGE point that muggles CANNOT SEE DEMENTORS. That's the premise for the opening scene of the third book/film - Dudley can't see the dementor that's trying to kill him. It's hammered again and again that we're muggles... How can we see them?
-I don't mind us visiting the Chamber of Secrets at all, but why is the Dark Mark there? Who summoned it?
-The ride pretty much forgets about the conflict of the dragon on the loose... yeah, I mean, we see it land on the roof of Hogwartz in the final dome sequence, but that's hardly a conclusion... that's an enormous dangerous dragon on the loose!
As for the ride experience itself, the musion effects don't really work. Both Hermonies (especially the Forbidden Forest) look pretty obviously fake and awkward. The dome scenes were too dim and plagued by motion blur (intentional or otherwise), and now they're over saturated and still unclear. As Tyler pointed out, there's an obvious distinction between the film segments and the practical ride elements. The dragon looks neat but it has next to no motion - it's practically a statue that spits fog, it hardly looks "alive." All of the spiders are stupidly stationary, especially the big Aragog himself. Whomping Willow scene is crazily dark and fairly unexciting visually. Chamber of Secrets fares better, but the Dementors look odd without their hands (which we just saw in the dome sections) and the final encounter lacks punch due to the cutting of the "horde" of Dementors. The Great Hall scenes are awkward since it's pretty obviously a flat screen - I imagine had the ride actually been in 3D, this wouldn't be an issue.
Some of the concerns I listed above are nitpicky, others are major problems that affect the experience. An attraction can have a handful and still be considered incredibly executed (for example, Indiana Jones Adventure's "rat" scene is fairly unimpressive), but Forbidden Journey has many obvious show cuts and makes no sense thematically (or from a storytelling perspective) as soon as you begin to think about it for more than 5 seconds. It sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the land, which is thought out and extremely committed to the rules of the Wizarding universe.