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Superman Escape at Warner Bros. Movie World: Not Without its Faults
Warner Bros. Movie World’s Superman Escape roller coaster is an awesome experience. The coaster takes just two seconds to reach its top speed of 100km/h. However, theming and a general lack of planning meant that this roller coaster failed to reach its full potential.
Superman Escape was built by Intamin back in 2005. The roller coaster replaced the park’s aging Special Effects Tour. Positioned at the front of the park, it makes for an amazing sight; the park’s two tallest attractions (the Batwing Spaceshot [60m] and Superman Escape [40m]) towering over the entrance arch and Fountain of Fame. The roller coaster features two airtimes hills, a near-vertical drop, a headchopper effect (flying through the building) and, of course, the 0-100km/h launch. While that’s all well and good, the park failed to theme the ride up to standard with its other rides and attractions.
The park’s first mistake was with the theming on the outside of the attraction. While the “soundstage” look may suit a movie-themed attraction, a ride set inside of a busy subway system should have a corresponding exterior. Facades around the entrance to match a New York (or in this case, Metropolis) street would have made sense. Perhaps a grand station-style entrance to fit in with the queue line theme?
This brings up another major flaw; the queue line. While it’s not a bad queue, it is quite plain. For those who haven’t been on the ride, I’ll describe it to the best of my ability. Basically, you walk into a room (suddenly a soundstage becomes a train station?) and the queue is split up into large rows, which eventually lead up to a ramp and five doors (one door per carriage). The actual theming consists of a large “MRT” sign (Metropolis Rapid Transport), a few platform signs and three large painted-on billboards (a route map, cruise ship advertisement and a newspaper cover with two Superman-related articles), as well as five LCDs that display a safety video. Every now and then, an automatic announcement is made. While I struggle to recall exactly what is said, I do believe it goes something like this: “There has been a tremor in the main subway… we will keep you updated on the situation as we know more”.
However, the theming on the actual ride isn’t too bad. If it wasn’t for the see-through roof (yes, you can see the internal soundstage roofing) and no sound effects to match the “moving” wall panels, I would be content.
While most of this post points out the negatives, I must stress that Superman Escape is a good ride. In fact, if you leave 
out the theming downfalls, you could say that it’s a great ride. I have even been told that it is better than Knott’s Berry Farm’s Xcelerator roller coaster. With the theming defects in mind, I still believe that Superman Escape is the best roller coaster in Australia. Also, in an attempt to be witty, I would like to remind readers that the wording chosen for this title was intentional. After all, the ride is themed around an earthquake… Final Rating – 8.0 (Great)
Superman Escape is rated ‘IN’ for Intense. It’s a 4 out of 5 on my Thrill Scale for of its launch and height.
What’s Your Take?
Have you ridden Superman Escape? Leave a comment below.
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May 21, 2010 at 13:58
There are too many DC themed coasters. Thank you Six Flags. Although most are B&M and have superb theming, this is one or those rare exceptions whose crap theming drops a building on the designer's heads. The ride seems like another Superman Ride in a long line of never-ending tracks. Anyone else think that we need a Lex Luthor coaster?
May 21, 2010 at 19:13
A very honest review Ashley, thank you. I'd still like to ride the thing!
May 29, 2010 at 06:32
sounds fun, and yet another intense to add to the list.
May 30, 2010 at 02:48
Superman in its entirety is a good ride. The high powered motors are only at half capacity, with the ride initially supposed to be built 100 meters higher then its current stance. Warner made the cost cutting descision to keep it at its current height as they beleived it provided enough of a trill as is. The ability though in the future to re-theme the ride and increase its speed and height would be a blast to say the least. Then you would leave the ride thinking themeing what? where did all my hair go?
June 2, 2010 at 04:16
Best ride on the gold coast, beats the tower of terror.. at the start when u come out of the subway super man sais there is only one way out of this. the fast way and then every thing freezes for like 10-20 seconds and ure heart starts pounding in ure chest and then BOOOOM its like u weigh NOTHING at all it is very fast.. to proove it when i got off this ride i noticed there was no point in straitening my hair that morning
P.S i went on it 10 times 
!! 10/10 well done movie world! i suggesst this ride to any body going to movie world. infact i reccommend movie world to any one going to the gold coast QLD australia! thanks for reading guys
June 3, 2010 at 16:27
while 10/10 is probably a bit too much, i don`t question the fact that it beats tower of terror. either way, nice review.
May 4, 2012 at 22:31
Definitely the best coaster in Australia. Sure it's not perfect, however, I think this review is a bit unfair. The entire review is focused around criticizing the queue line theming, instead of the actual ride experience. If we were to base a ride's rating around its queue line, I'm sure most of the world's top coasters would have quite a low rating.