Museum of Illusions is a disappointing trip
A rare reprieve from the hustle and bustle of Hollywood, the Museum of Illusions on Hollywood Boulevard is a small pop-up where visitors can unleash their imagination and photography skills all at once. Replete with more than 30 murals designed to trick the eye, the museum offers plenty of opportunities for fun photographs but ultimately lacks substance.
The museum mostly comprises murals painted on the walls and floors that play with perspective and angle. The tricks easily fool a camera lens but the human eye is not taken in so easily. Catherine Yang | Daily Trojan
While promotional websites enticed patrons with the promise of immersion in various optical illusion settings, the actual museum falls short. In reality, it is a disappointing downgrade from its online marketing ploys and successful European predecessor locations.
The museum opens with its most worthwhile exhibit, leaving the rest of the installations to pale in comparison. Just around the corner from the entrance is a box-like room with an upward slanted floor and distorted depictions of windows on the ground and walls overlooking paintings of outer space. Only by taking a photo through a designated hole in the wall is the illusion evident — people inside the room appear to be boxed in a floating vessel wide open to the cosmos.
Past this, however, the museum is little more than a winding collection of murals on the walls and floors that are not so much illusions for the eye as they are tricks for the camera lens. The artwork is impressively detailed and exceptionally imaginative, portraying situations for visitors to place themselves in — from scaling a rock wall to surfing next to a great white shark. While many are creative and dynamic, others — such as the one of two blinged-out dogs smoking at a bartop — are more static, lack illusory appeal and are hardly worth photographing.
Photos on the walls adjacent to the murals portray examples of how visitors should pose and at what angle to take pictures in order to replicate the intended illusion. One mural portraying President Donald Trump being knocked out during a boxing match comes with a set of boxing gloves as a prop so visitors can pretend to throw a punch at him. Another mural is accompanied with an umbrella identical to the one the man depicted is carrying, so museum-goers can pose beside him as part of the picture.
While the museum made full use of the limited space in the small venue, the walls were still rather crowded, rendering it impossible at times to back up far enough to frame certain photos. At its peak hours, crowds within the museum make it difficult to navigate and take photos. Additionally, the visibility of piping, lights and fixtures in the ceiling detract from the realism of some murals.
Granted, the museum staff was friendly and efficient, and the premises were extremely pristine and well-kept, considering many exhibits require patrons to heavily touch and interact with the paintings.
Ultimately, the Museum of Illusions is overpriced; advance tickets were sold for $15 with a normal ticket priced at $25 and suggested museum parking starting at $20. Given that the entire museum can be seen in under 30 minutes and is rather lackluster, the overall experience is not worth the high cost.