Technical difficulties, weak story make the Marvel Experience an underwhelming one

After delaying its debut by several days to deal with "technical enhancements," the Marvel Experience finally opened Wednesday at Lincoln Financial Field. Though, given the show-hampering glitches that still remain, perhaps they should have taken the whole week.

Billed as "the world's first Hyper Reality tour," Hero Venture's Marvel Experience puts you into the shoes of a new recruit for SHIELD, the shadowy government organization that permeates the Marvel universe. Tickets are $49.90 for adults, $39.90 for kids, and $79 for VIP passes, plus fees, and it'll be in town through July 5.

The experience revolves around training and working with Marvel heroes including Spider-Man, Wolverine, Iron Man, Black Widow, and others to defeat the Adaptoid army. These, of course, are not the Marvel Cinematic Universe characters that are so popular now, but rather animated versions that come from Hero Venture's licensing agreement with Marvel.

Still, it's a great idea in theory — one that, on its face, would appear to connect with Marvel fans of all stripes and ages. Execution is a bit of another story.

The attraction itself is organized into several "domes" that house games, props, and 3-D, 360-degree video screens, depending on where you are in the Marvel Experience's progression. But despite everything being physically and thematically connected, very little of the experience feels cohesive or even fun. Rather, the result is often somewhat slapdash.

For my Wednesday tour, perhaps that has to do with the number of technical difficulties. For example, the intro in the first room was nearly unwatchable because of how far apart the audio drifted from the video, thereby giving my group a bit of a confused start. Similarly, for the ultimate final battle that involves movable seating and 3-D projections, about a third of the screen didn't work, and so much of the action was cut out that a potentially great third act became a disappointing mess.

At various stages, video screens froze and restarted themselves entirely. At others, Halloween costume-quality props hung a cheap pall over the Marvel Experience's shot at being immersive. Not exactly what you'd expect for about $50 a person.

Even forgiving those errors, the Marvel Experience was somewhat underwhelming. While some of the provided games were fun (Captain America's blaster challenge and Black Widow's laser maze chief among them), there still was little to no point to tor relation between the activities. As a result, everything seemed more like standalone activities rather than components of a story.

Overall scores are not kept, plot is not advanced, and lessons are not learned. And while that may seem nit-picky, this is an experience that calls itself an immersive "hyper reality" tour, so some level of interconnectedness ought to be expected.

That said, though, from what I could see, the children present had a great time for the most part. While the video presentations appeared somewhat tedious for the kids in my group, they loved the games, props, and overall atmosphere present at the Marvel Experience. I mostly liked standing on the 50-yard line at the Linc, and the older folks in the group appeared to share my feelings on the matter, judging by how neutral the gaggle of adult attendees had been up to that point.

But despite the problems with the Marvel Experience, it does ultimately present several great concepts — ones that, if expanded (the 360-degree video screens, some of the games), could become themed live entertainment standards in the next five or 10 years. As it is now, Marvel Experience appears to be reserved strictly for die-hard Marvel fans and children, which leaves the casual comic fan wondering.

So, unless you (or your kids) just can't resist the Marvel Experience's charm, maybe satiate your Marvel universe needs with a movie night at home — or, better yet, get some comics. After all, it'll be cheaper that way.