Olympic Opening Ceremony

I thought the effects were fantastic, especially the industrial section, it got a bit messy with the different music and the NHS section went on a bit too long but it made me proud to be British.
 
Moses said:
They only had a limited amount of time.
Click to expand...

In the previous two olympiads in the same amount of time histories of both two civilizations were perfectly projected, go back and watch them you'll see 5000 years of greek and chinese civilization.


Anyway i believe and it is my personal opinion that it could have been better form the point of view that concerns the history of GB and its past achievements. A second or two in Brunel and Shakespear is ridiculous in front of 15 minutes of social networking using samsung mobiles.
 
I thought Danny Boyle directed an absolute blinder of an Opening Ceremony, think it reflected everything great about this country both past and present :)
 
iv got a feeling no matter what was done the vast majority of people having a moan in here would still be having a moan.
 
Iraklis F.C. said:
because athens was more artistic and beijing epic . I dont know why should i remember last nights ceremony, except maybe mr Bean. But then is this all there is to Britain? What happened to Darwin, Shakespear, Brunel, Victoria, Cook? Its like you people have a fight with your past, thats fine to me but allow me to have another picture of Britain in my mind...i didnt like it anyway.

It was pretty much incoherent too, in athens and beijing there was a starting and ending point. Yesterday?

And wtf was that with samsung phones, i mean seriously? and the better part was when athletes were coming in the stadium the vast majority of them had iphones :D
Click to expand...

2 of those you claim the ceremony lacked where there. So really, what happened is that you failed to notice them. As for Greece, the only thing that is to be remembered about that is that Greek inefficiency caused the infrastructure to be hardly ready in time and that it was all paid for with money the Greeks didn't have.
 
The Cauldron was absolutely genius though....as was James Bond and Mr Bean.....I don't think people realise just how recognisable those two disparate, but quintessentially British icons are around the world.

And we need to consider that it was all done on a shoestring budget. I just think there was too much emphasis on some aspects and not enough on others...also I think it could have done without reference to the CND as that is an overtly political statement not in keeping with what the Olympics is about.

I liked the way they used so many British Sporting Icons to carry the flame up the Thames and into the Stadium, and how they passed the honour to the younger generation to light the Olympic Flame.

Land of Hope and Glory and all that. :)
 
Stolly said:
As for Greece, the only thing that is to be remembered about that is that Greek inefficiency caused the infrastructure to be hardly ready in time and that it was all paid for with money the Greeks didn't have.
Click to expand...

So of all the athens olympics you remember the inefficiency and the debt? DO you know what you remind me, some rednecks who go on to visit Venice and the only thing they remember is that venice "stinks"...what can someone say. I will rest my case right here.

PS the infrastructure was ready on time, blows like the security scandal or anything like it didnt happen in Athens or beijing or sydney. SO you might want to revise a little bit
 
Prob the best opening ceremony ive seen, perhaps as it was very British lol, at least in this one we didnt have to hide the kid singing and get someone to mime as she wasnt pretty enough :p
 
Iraklis F.C. said:
because athens was more artistic and beijing epic . I dont know why should i remember last nights ceremony, except maybe mr Bean. But then is this all there is to Britain? What happened to Darwin, Shakespear, Brunel, Victoria, Cook? Its like you people have a fight with your past, thats fine to me but allow me to have another picture of Britain in my mind...i didnt like it anyway.

It was pretty much incoherent too, in athens and beijing there was a starting and ending point. Yesterday?

And wtf was that with samsung phones, i mean seriously? and the better part was when athletes were coming in the stadium the vast majority of them had iphones :D
Click to expand...

I agree in many ways but you are overstating the Beijing and Athens ceremonies. Beijing in particular was, essentially, a synchronized dance and light show whereas ours was more of a 360 degree family variety show - ive just watched the Beijing ceremony on you tube and whilst grand and pretty it lacked the character and fun of ours.

it was disjointed though and i strongly agree with your central point. I am a patriot with a very strong mind for what we have achieved on this very small island(s). Before the show and up until the bond sequence I expected a timeline of our stunning achievements mixed with a strong British sound track and whist there was some attempt at this so much was missed out.

computation, the jet engine, discovery of DNA - the list goes on and on - i felt a little like an opportunity was missed but then it may have been very difficult to incorporate this into a fun, family show.

i suppose i am a bit sick of reading and hearing this stuff about how we are a declining power really - i wanted to remind the world that we have done so much since the end of ww2 and rarely think about all these cliches.

on the whole though i was entertained. it was an eclectic mix and good British fun.
 
When selecting the periods to show from our history they had to think about how they would fit to the Olympic theme and I think picking the industrial revolution to allow the rings to be forged was a really good idea. There was no way to pull out all of our history (some of which people around the world wouldn't care about / know of, other of which refers to wars which its probably best to leave to a memorial not a celebration in context) and the clever bits to bring in the recognisable figures was good. I thought the whole thing came together well and judging by the comments from the international media it was quirky enough to reflect us as a country.

The only bit I thought was less well realised was all the stuff in the house with the boy and girl getting together..I thought that didn't really work as well at all and it looked like a big dance and a canter through some movies (including two Boyle ones, very self referencing).
 
Edrof said:
The Bond bit was great, but it ended a bit randomly with the Queen appearing from somewhere else entirely and Craig disappearing.
Click to expand...

I thought this too. They also jumped out the heli in daylight and parachuted into the stadium at night :p

One of the main things for me though is, what if it would have rained heavily during the ceremony? It would have ruined everything. I take it the stadium doesn't have a closable roof?
 
It was fantastic. These ceremonies aren't my thing at ll but it was genuinely brilliant and appealed to everyone.

Lot of hassle to go to in order to open my beloved West Ham's new stadium though :)
 
Loved it :)

Only bits I thought wrong were the texting bit was poorly done, cringeworthy. The Queen and Daniel Craig sequence should have started at dusk rather than broad daylight, and Arctic Monkeys/Paul McCartney embarassed themselves with shockingly poor performanced :(

But overall, brilliantly done, with something for everyone, and the number of references was astounding, like something out of Spaced!
 
Very impressive I thought.. specially the industrial revolution bit.

What the hell was with the French commentary going first all the time? oO

Mr Bean bit was good :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom