Olympic Opening Ceremony

Castiel said:
It seemed to focus on a very narrow perspective. Where was all the pomp and circumstance, Knights and Clans (instead of those floaty things on bikes, we could have had knights on horseback, bagpipes and the Scottish Clans...... something a little more epic!), Science, Literature, Exploration and the Sea, a relationship that defined Britain in many ways......
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Agreed - a bit of military history could have been seriously epic.
 
SheepBeast said:
lmao at this

reminds me just how bad the daily mail is.
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Man that sums the DM up doesn't it?!

If ever a paper should be out of circulation its that one. Who actually believes this rubbish? What a mean spirited and stupid article. I never read any article linked to there without wondering how on earth they get away with it. The Gods save us from people who read that who have the vote :)
 
EdGey said:
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
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A quote from my friend who is French, not sure if it's correct.

"They have to because it's the native language of the international Olympic committee and a required for us to hold the games, it has to be that way"
 
Edrof said:
Agreed - a bit of military history could have been seriously epic.
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Given everyone who was there you do have to be a tad careful with military history in the context, but I was expecting some sea or reference to us as an island nation, without them kicking the neck out of it and including us colonising lots of countries who were in attendance. I was surprised the only ship was the Windrush.
 
lol dailyfail.

On another note, there was one guy holding the flag with one hand and waving it. It was some what hilarious how he dwarfs the other athletes. Anyone know his name? I think he's a weight lifter?
 
Draeger said:
I thought it was a bit disjointed at some points but overall it was excellent to watch. I know Mr.Bean was fairly popular but I thought that part was absolutely cringeworthy. There has quite obviously been a huge amount of clever thought gone into it and Danny Boyle is incredibly talented but it seemed like segments such as the Mr.Bean part were just 'fillers' for when they had ran out of ideas.
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Really? I think you must have been about the only person (worldwide) that wasn't literally laughing out loud. I know a few of my friends were crying at one point and it seems they weren't the only ones!
 
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
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No, it's because the UK has so much worldwide history that there is no way you could fit it in to 2-3 hours. :p

Greece and China (obviously) have plenty of history but both are basically type cast as ancient civilisations (which both lived up to).
 
Thought it was amazing. It was so bonkers, you just had to let go and enjoy it.

LOL at the Tory MP complaining about it celebrating multiculturalism, because, you know, that's not what the Olympics is about at all.
 
Castiel said:
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. :)
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I assume I'm missing something here but

http://www.cnduk.org/

I don't remember anything about that in the ceremony?

I assume CND means something else?
 
maybe the Queen was so boring because what she was seeing was anything but what she sould have wanted to see?

The NHS idolisation came after a mildly moving rendition of Jerusalem (though this will move any patriot) and a play depicting the industrial revolution tearing up Blake’s ‘green and pleasant land’.
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The most classic part of the evening was Beckham going under Tower Bridge. Me and my gf thought it was happening in real time so we dashed out to the wharf to see if he would go past, only to see ten people running behind us who had thought the same thing.
 
I was surprised at the lack of military involvement.. considering they're an epic part of British history.

Maybe it would have been slightly too much on the political side.
 
trigger-happy said:
lol dailyfail.

On another note, there was one guy holding the flag with one hand and waving it. It was some what hilarious how he dwarfs the other athletes. Anyone know his name? I think he's a weight lifter?
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The UK one?

Chris Hoy, a cyclist.

It was funny seeing a lot of the others struggling with two hands and him holding it up with just one. He was welling up well and truly as well, same with the Queen at some points.
 
Collider said:
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).
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Pretty much how I feel about the opening ceremony, I just dont think they had the time to cover all of British history but more importantly to make it instantly identifiable for the foriegn audience. They hsould have added a few more things like the discovery of DNA, but they were always going to end up in a place where they couldnt please everybody...

The whole twitter/facebook thing was embarrassing and I felt sorry for TBL to be stuck with such a representation of the gift he gave us with the WWW.

Less said about the live music choices the better...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
Despite living in Stratford, I totally failed to take any decent photos.

Missed the Red Arrows...

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And almost missed the fireworks...

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