Re: Alton Towers | SW7 | Unknown Gerstlauer World's 1st
Things I like:
The creepy video - It walks the fine line between obscurity and having enough clues to let you know what it is, and does it well. Also, I never did The Sanctuary, but this fits excellently with how I imagine it was.
http://www.altontowers.com/thesmiler - It flashes up with the logo which then disappears and doesn't come back again even if you re-load the page. It just shows a standard 404 type page in the background. I don't know why, but this really appeals to my sense of geekyness. It also really heightens the sense of curiosity and intrigue.
The construction pics. It looks fab. Unfortunately, I then remember its a Gerstlauer and that it'll want my head on a platter every time I ride it.
Things I'm not so keen on:
Slapping the logo everywhere. I get what they're trying to achieve but I just don't think it'll work very well. Whilst I also kinda see the link to the theme, (trying to subliminally control the masses?) I think its too vague. It just comes across as a really crap, poorly thought-out publicity stunt.
The logo video. It comes across as saying "Look at us, aren't we clever! We've spent loads on this too!" rather than portraying the theme.
The sheep. Again, I suspect this is supposed to be some clever (and themed) comment on how the masses are all sheep. The trouble is, with all the crap that Thorpe churn out, I'm really dead against this sort of thing where they "use" the print media. It comes across as tacky and cheapening.
It's a Gerstlauer. See above.
Things I can't quite make my mind up about:
The Sheep video. I HATE the voiceover at the beginning, its vile, annoying, TERRIBLY worded, dull and un-themed. However, the talking sheep did make me giggle - why couldn't they have dropped the voiceover (or at least re-worded it) and just had the sheep?
The name. Its growing on me, but I'm still not sure. If The Inoculator turns out to be the name of the secret element, than that's kinda cool, I can live with that. I don't think I'll really be able to make my mind up until I see how well it fits with the theme and how they use it. Let's wait and see...
