The Dark Knight Roller Coaster, New at Six Flags

Six flags said that the new "The Dark Knight" roller caster will open in 2008 at Six Flags Great America in Illinois, Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey and Six Flags New England in Massachusetts. This was a good idea on Six Flags and DC Comics part, but the gamble is will the riders enjoy the ride? The ride is an indoor coaster. The promo commercials for the ride suggest that this ride will appeal to your fears; and if will appeal to your fears if you are about five years old. The commercials say things like you will experience pitch black and that if you are afraid of the dark, you will be more scared than ever.

My Experience

I was at Six Fags Great America with people in their late twenties and we wanted to go on the "The Dark Knight" ride ever since we saw the vague yet attractive commercials for the ride. We decided to save the ride for last so we had something good to talk about; well we did a lot of talking, or trashing anyway, about the ride on the way home. Here is my encounter with "The Dark Knight".

When first walking in to the queue line you are immersed with amazing scenery. The ride is themed as a train station in Gotham City; the entrance is labeled GCR, an acronym for Gotham City Railway. On the walls are maps of Gotham city. I zoned out and held up the line more than once studying these detailed maps. You really get the feeling that this could be a train station and that you are a citizen of Gotham city. The sceneries for both of the Batman rides at Six Flags Great America are some of the best in the park.

The rides waiting areas are split up into three sections; three long and painful sections. We waited about two hours to get on this childish ride. The first one, with the maps, will last you about half an hour. The second waiting area is an open and dark room with about ten LCD TVs placed so you will not be too upset and/or tired. The TVs are pointless; half of the times they are playing those Six Flags commercials with the guy that says "Six Flags, More Flags More Fun!", when you hear that around twenty time you will be even more upset than before. Other times the TVs were displaying clips for the 1998 Emmys; does Six Flags have access to content from this millennium? This second section takes you about an hour.

When you get to the end of it you expect the ride, but of course it is another waiting room. This is a smaller waiting room connect by another door to a hallway which will lead to the ride. The first part of the third waiting stage is a bright room with a 100" LCD screen displaying the latest news in Gotham city. The news report is interrupted by a special press conference from the newly elected mayor. He talks about the recent crime wave in Gotham city, but the press conferences' air waves are hijacked by the Joker. All of a sudden the lights go out and "graffiti" (special lights) saying "Joker" appears all over the walls; an emergency evacuation is called and you now are rushed into a hallway to your "escape train". In this last hallway there is a cool TV and video camera; you will appear on the TV screen, but your head will turn into the jokers head. This I have to say was the coolest part of the ride experience. This last section will last about half an hour (a speedy evacuation).

Two hours down and it is finally time for the ride. The rides cars are similar to a traditional four person (two in front, two in back) roller coaster car. The sides of the car are meant to look like broken glass, a nice touch. The ride first starts with a climb about fifty feet up; as you go up there are dim flickering lights around you, also nice. At the top you start making fast 180^o turns and doing bunny hops in a pretty dark environment. You will not know where you are going and you will be going at a decent speed. Do not blink because the ride will be over before you open your eyes. The ride lasts, or feels like it lasts only, only forty-five seconds. At the end of the ride we expected that there was just a pause and we were going into a nice fall or just anything; sadly it was not so. The ride ended and we were rushed off to let other people on. From then on we were talking about how the ride was horrible.

We expected that the car would hurtle us into multiple statues of the Joker or of Batman; it is funny I do not think Batman, Mr. Dark Knight, was ever mentioned in any part of the ride. How can you have a ride themed after Bat man but not have him featured in it? All the ride consisted of was plain sharp turns; nothing to scare you. The only things that they did to offer fear were a few walls with the light based graffiti and one easily miss able wall with a picture of Joker. There was nothing else. The bunny hops were not more that thirty feet and descending, thirty feet is much less when you are on a ride.

This ride had a lot of potential, but it did not deliver. The ride seemed more like a side attraction than a main focus ride. The ride would have been O.K. but the horrible two hour wait killed any hope for this ride. All throughout the wait we were kidding ourselves that the ride will be great; do not let that happen to you! This ride would be a fun ride to go on with your children, but not good if you are in you twenties. I really hope that the movie is significantly better then this ride; I guess it can not be much worse.

Long story short, this ride delivers only mild thrills for anyone between 12 and 30. This ride will be enjoyable if you are younger or you are with your children; otherwise, the ride is not worth the wait.

¹http://www.movieweb.com/news/99/23099.php