u/LemoLuke

The mustache twirling villains activate their doomsday weapon, unleashing chaos and death upon the world. But don't worry, the heroes save the day and thwart the evil scheme. Everyone celebrates as the world is saved...

... And no-one mentions the countless casualties that occured in the 15 minutes that the weapon was activated

1. G.I.Joe: Retaliation - Cobra has seized control of the White House and threatens the world with their orbital weapon. As a demonstration, they annihilate Central London. However the Joes save the world and everyone celebrates, completely ignoring the fact that a world superpower had its capital wiped off the face of the Earth in a terror act that was essentially 9/11 x1000, with an incomprehensible death toll, not to mention the global political and financial chaos that would inevitably ensue.

2. Kingsman: The Secret Service - The villain activates his weapon hidden inside almost every mobile phone on the planet, which activates a frequency that turns anyone who hears it into a raging homicidal maniac, in a plan to cull the population (excluding the rich and powerful who are hiding in bunkers) by making them wipe themselves out. The hero Eggsy saves the day and eventually shuts down the frequency, and goes off to 'celebrate' with the princess he rescued. However, the frequency was activated for long enough that millions would almost certainly be dead and the survivors would be plagued by PTSD and guilt. Also, many of the world's major politicians, CEOs, and celebrities all had their heads exploded while hiding in their bunkers.

A reboot or adaptation of a classic franchise brings in an iconic object or costume, much to the delight of fans, only for it to be unceremoniously destroyed or discarded for no other reason than to 'subvert expectations' or 'change things up'

1. The A-Team (2010): The iconic van is introduced in the movie's opening sequence. It is also destroyed in the movie's opening sequence by having an air-conditioning unit dropped on it.

2. RoboCop (2014): RoboCop is given his iconic silver body during his initial training, but has it replaced with 'tactical' all-black armor at the demand of an OmniCorp CEO when he is deployed to the streets.

I was lucky enough to visit this back in 2019, and my 9 year old son who has become possibly an even bigger WotW fan than me was desperate to go. We'd promised him that we would take him for his tenth birthday this summer (10 being the recommended minimum age because of the scary bits) and he has been looking forward to it since last year.

Well, this morning, we went to book the tickets, and was greeted with the message that the experience has been forced to close down a few weeks ago. We had to break the news to my son and he was absolutely devastated. I'm also gutted because I was really looking forward to seeing the improvements to the VR segments (they were cool, especially the Thunderchild segment, but VR/AR tech was still a little janky back in 2019)

For those who haven't heard, the company that was licensed to operate the experience (Ellipses Entertainment) ceased trading, and this has apparently come as a shock to everyone because the experience had just undergone a serious upgrade that was about to be announced. The Jeff Wayne Music Group stepped in and tried to keep the venue running, including paying all the staff, but apparently the venue informed them that, due to legal and insurance reasons, they couldn't operate anymore and the experience has been shut down.

I am absolutely gutted. The experience was awesome, and my son is heartbroken. Sorry, I just really needed a little rant.