Be a Superhero

Marvel Experience offers tons of superhero fun despite iffy technology

Although Marvel Comics have been around in one form or another for 75 years, it wasn't until 2000, when the first X-Men movie was released, that they began their ascent toward dominating pop cultural consciousness. That seemingly unstoppable growth continues with the Marvel Experience, an interactive event taking place at Fair Park through January 31.

Dubbed "The World's First Hyper-Reality Tour," it consists of seven separate areas — eight if you count the overpriced gift shop — in which visitors find themselves thrust into the world of S.H.I.E.L.D. as new recruits, ready to help out superheroes like Spider-Man, Wolverine, Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk and Black Widow.

The optimal age for peak enjoyment of the Marvel Experience is 8-18, but there are parts to appreciate even if you don't fall into that age range.

After being fitted with a wristband and registering, new recruits go through a multistage training process in a series of domes, starting with intro videos featuring Iron Man, Nick Fury and others.

The fourth stop on the tour is the most intensive. Told that there's a new threat called the Super Adaptoid that can take on the powers of any superhero it encounters, recruits can go from station to station in the huge training center to learn how to fight back. This includes finding out how to fight like Hulk, fly like Iron Man, climb like Spider-Man, use agility like Black Widow and more.

The two most popular training areas will likely be the Avengers Encounter, in which you can virtually summon a variety of heroes, and the Holo-Blaster Training Simulator, in which 24 people can practice their shooting and web-slinging skills at the same time with special sensor guns.

Once you've had your fill of training — which, depending on the number of people at the event, could take a long time — you're free to move on to the final three areas, which include a 360-degree 3D movie and a motion ride that simulates a climactic battle aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier as you help fight the Super Adaptoid and other villains.

People whose Marvel knowledge only extends to what they see in the movies will enjoy the experience, but much of the event seems aimed at the hardcore Marvel fans who devour each and every comic book. The inclusion of The Vision, She-Hulk and Iron Fist speak to this goal, as they are characters that have yet to be included in the Marvel films — although at least one will soon make that leap.

The wristbands are outfitted with RFID tabs that, in theory, allow visitors to track their progress through the event to make it more personal. However, the wristbands did not work as expected at the tour's preview spot in Phoenix, so that aspect has been disabled for the time being. The wristbands still allow for interaction with various activities, but there is no personalization; organizers hope to have that part up and running for the second week in Dallas.

Some may miss that aspect of the event, but there is a lot of fun to be had without it. The activities in the Recruit Training Center involve people using their bodies to some degree, so you may work up a sweat while you train. The interactive nature is hit-and-miss, with noticeable lags in movement at the Hulk and Holo-Blaster stations, but the enthusiasm of the workers makes up for the glitches.

The finale of the tour, the motion ride, is an exciting ending, with rows of seats bucking and tilting in relation to the movement on screen. Although the story set up throughout is relatively simplistic to appeal to all ages, the top-notch animation allows you to fully give yourself over to the experience.

The optimal age for peak enjoyment of the Marvel Experience is 8-18, but there are parts to appreciate even if you don't fall into that age range. Anyone bringing younger kids should know that no one under 40 inches is allowed on the motion ride.

Information on the event's exact location has been spotty at best. Initially thought to take place inside Cotton Bowl Stadium — which is where Ticketmaster still says it is — the location is actually in the parking lot of the Fair Park Coliseum at the very south end of Fair Park. Parking is available just outside that area; visitors arriving via DART can use a free shuttle service to get to the event.

The Marvel Experience, taking place at Fair Park through February 1, lets visitors join forces with a variety of Marvel superheroes.

Photo courtesy of Marvel Experience

The Marvel Experience, taking place at Fair Park through February 1, lets visitors join forces with a variety of Marvel superheroes.

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Movie Review

Comedy all-stars Jack Black and Paul Rudd can't save Anaconda sequel

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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