Well, I got sick of waiting, so I caved in and watched the video (The one posted by SoCalAttractions). I'm not going to watch it again so that I have a fresh perspective when I finally ride it.
So, what do I think of what I saw? I don't think the ride looks nearly as bad as the unholy stench from the sewers that everyone was making it out to be. I think there's certainly room for improvement and I have ideas for it, but I'll get to that later. I didn't have to watch those awful preshow videos so I think that may be part of why I didn't mind it.
The garage looked wonderfully detailed. I liked how it was all set up. The only thing I don't like is that there was nothing going on in there. It's a shame to have such a wonderfully detailed set just used as a holding room. They should have something happen in there besides Roman Pierce just talking to us.
The second room, looked like it had some cool musion effects with the practical truck coming out. While the effect looked cool, the dialogue was....bad. Not really Tommy Weiseu's "The Room" awful, but it felt rushed. The FBI agent, from the way he acted was probably just some guy who walked in on the actor's meeting and said, "I wanna be the agent! Pick me!" and they said, "well, we're in a hurry here, so alright." Also, I thought that transition set piece with the parking structure wall was a nice touch. I will add that I think the whole party aspect to this animation is absolutely pointess. It serves no real purpose to the story and I just see it as an excuse to make it edgy and "cool". I was really surprised by how barely clothed some of those dancers were. Is that really necessary for a family experience?
Okay, now for the main room. I REALLY liked how the screen was going while the tram drove in. I liked the effect of the lights flickering and then coming on when the villain drives in (I spotted the Jurassic parking sign!) Now, I can't judge how the motion and wind effects felt from the video, but the immersion factor looked fantastic. I loved how the screen COMPLETELY enveloped the tram. You could see the front of the action which looked great. The fog effects looked cool. The graphics did look a little "GTA-ish", but it didn't look terrible. I also liked how the screen showed the containers when the animation ended to make it look real.
Overall, I thought the experience looked good.....not fantastic, but good. The length of the ride portion seemed adequate and not to short, thought it would be nice to make it a tad longer. Even if they didn't do much to anything else, pulling off the drones as a practical and improving the graphics would've brought it up to a "great" for me. I think this will end up getting mixed reviews from the GP though, if not more negative. There's no denying that the script and acting did need more time to improve. The few who realize this is a tram animation will end up liking it, but the majority who think that this is a full-blown ride, as they're marketing it, will probably hate on this. I'll post my initial thoughts when I finally go on the ride.
So....here are my suggestions to improve the experience. Although I didn't think it was awful, I still think it would GREATLY benefit from a re-shoot/redo....kinda similar to what Jaws went through at USH in the early 90's.
In the garage room, have a musion effect of Roman. IDK how it would work with the light coming in from the doors, but something has to "happen" in the two build-up to make things more interesting. Have the FBI agent come in to interact with him while he's there. Maybe the agent or pierce can accidentally fire a missile into the room to make it interesting.
In the second room, the party aspect has to go. Absolutely pointless and WAY too risque for a family audience. It's bound to get complaints. The experience can start off when the two walk into the "rooms" and then have the three others "rise in". Before the animation, maybe one of Luke Evan's henchmen can crash in or something and report that they spotted the tram with the witness. A struggle can break out and the heroes would win out. Now we have some excitement before going into the main room.
For the finale, I would say the whole sequence needs to be re-shot at night. Put in the practical Kukas for the drones in the theater. The night setting would help with that so it wont look out-of-place if it were during the day. Don't have so much water spraying at us. Improve the graphics and the script. Maybe add some music to add drama. That's all I really have for that.
Overall, it would also be nice to add thirty seconds to each of the segments so the ride an be a bit longer and that it would feel more like such. Do all that I suggested, improve the script, acting, graphics, and natural light setting, and I think it would be much better.