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February, 2009

Mission: Space at Disney World

Way back in my post talking about the thrill rides I experienced in Disney World during our September vacation, I mentioned I’d say more about a couple of the rides.

The most horrible ride experience I have ever had was with Mission: Space in Epcot. I went to see this ride by myself, while the rest of the family went back to our resort rooms for a break (Calfgrit4’s naptime). There’re two versions of this ride: Less Intense and More Intense. I figured I should try the less intense version first, so that’s the line I got in.

At the end of the line, I waited for my “mission team” to be assembled, and then we stepped into a “preparation room” where we were given the “pre-flight briefing.” When the “ship” was ready, we were directed to the flight simulators. There are four people to each ship crew, and each person has a “job” to perform (firing the rockets, turning on the cryo-sleep system, firing the break rockets, etc.), so it’s a bit of an interactive ride as well as an experience ride.

The whole mission is blasting off from Earth, flying through space (with a sleep mode to hand wave the long distance), and landing on Mars. The mechanics of the ride are your basic flight simulator –- the sealed capsule leans back to give the feeling of blasting off, rotates about to give the feeling of steering through asteroids, and leans forward to give the feeling of breaking. The only view out of the capsule was through the “window” in front of me which showed directly out the front of the “spaceship.” The ride takes 4 or 5 minutes from blast off to crash landing, and it’s a decent experience. But it’s definitely “less intense.” When I got off, I was thinking, “Meh, it was OK.”

But since I had plenty of more time left to kill at Epcot, waiting for the family to return from their siesta, I wanted to give the more intense version a try. Everything looks pretty much exactly the same for both versions, but along the line, and in the prep room, there are signs warning about the intensity. One major warning is to keep your head against the seat back at all times.

I got on this more intense ride with two Mexican teenagers who didn’t speak much English. They asked me if the ride was really hard, and I told them that I didn’t know, as I’d only ridden the less intense version. I’m not sure they completely understood me.

Once we were strapped into our flight seats, and the ride started, it became apparent what the difference between the two versions was – the more intense ride is a centrifuge. Way cool! Blast off was much more intense, with a real feeling of increased Gs. When it came time for me to perform my crew functions (push buttons), I found my hands and arms incredibly heavy. I had never experienced anything like that before. I was excited.

About a minute into our mission, one of the Mexican boys in the capsule with me said, “Aye, mommy!” It made me chuckle, and I turned my head to look at him. The capsule seats don’t let you look directly to the sides, so I lifted my head (not easy in the centrifuge) and looked to my left.

UGH! It felt like my brain was hit with a bat (bypassing my skull). My head immediately fell back against my seat, and I was more intensely dizzy than I have ever been in my life. My vision spun, my head ached severely, and my stomach felt liquefied. My head and stomach felt more horrible than any illness has ever made me.

To be continued . . .

Bullgrit

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Clone Wars

Viewed: DVD

After the Star Wars prequels, I lost a lot of interest (maybe all interest) in any Star Wars story taking place in the pre-New Hope time. George Lucas just so terribly screwed up the story and characters and well, everything, that watching the movies actively annoys me. Yes, I really dislike the three prequel movies that much.

I’ve mentioned that Calfgrit8 has seen A New Hope with me — we still need to see Empire and Jedi — and recently he asked to see Clone Wars. “My friends have seen it,” he told me.

So I rented it and watched it Saturday night. I wanted to see if it was suitable for an 8-year-old. I sat at my computer with my headphones, after everyone else was asleep, and I watched this movie. I determined that the content was okay for Calfgrit8 to see.

Probably 70% of the movie time is showing warfare, but the only deaths are robots and faceless clone troopers. There’s no blood and guts.

But, there’s also no attachment for me. It didn’t move me at all. It was just a lifeless, shell of a film, to me. In fact, after watching the first 30 minutes (out of 98 total minutes), I started fast forwarding. I’d fast forward a couple minutes, watch a minute, then fast forward several minutes, watch a minute, then skip to the next chapter, watch a minute, etc.

So Sunday afternoon, while Calfgrit4 took his midday nap, Calfgrit8 and I watched this movie together. For me, watching this was like watching the boys’ What’s New Scooby Doo videos — nothing of interest to me whatsoever. But for CG8, he loved it. He *loved* it. I can see why he loved it, and I figured he would judging from the bits I watched the night before.

I’m glad he got to see it. I’m glad he enjoyed it. And I’m glad I was with him when he experienced it. But it showed that prequel Star Wars is completely dead to me. The only emotion it got out of me was . . . well, I don’t think it got any emotion out of me.

There were many parts that had me rolling my eyes — the clone troopers leaving cover to charge into the robot army and fight literally muzzle to muzzle; the battle robots having vocal personalities that were stupid for comic relief; Anakin Skywalker being so damned aggressive and ornery, yet so highly thought of among the Jedi masters; a very young padawan learner being so powerful in the force — that I wanted to shoot the computer monitor and TV screen with a blaster.

Basically, this movie is purely for Star Wars fans under 12 years old. If that was the intention for the film, (and I suspect it was), then it is successful at hitting it target.

Bullgrit

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