After my fifth ride on Ministry yesterday, I think I’m ready to say that I just don’t think this ride is very good. It is a purely emotionless experience for me, and that’s from someone who lived and breathed Potter for my entire youth and young adulthood. Technical aspects can be wonderful, but they should be tools for conveying emotion above all else.
I genuinely don’t think Ministry has a soul.
There’s just something so “fake” about it. The weird manipulated voices coupled with stilted performances (the projection faces are downright garish and never should have been implemented), the fact that all the interesting story moments are just one big room with a neat figure and the fact that the overall storytelling is a bottom of the barrel narrative that screams “what else can we possibly do with this version of Potter?”
Is it better than Gringotts? I’d say so. But even comparing to its neighbor Paris attraction, Cirque, Ministry just feels empty. Whether or not you have affection for Fantastic Beasts, there’s a genuine sense of wonder and magic to the critters over there- the puppeteering, the effects, stage and sound design all make something that resonates with people. The thunderous applause leaving that theater vs the dead silence returning to load on Ministry was noticeable.