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London 2012 Opening Ceremony - What did you think?

cormiermax

  

143 members have voted

  1. 1. What are your feelings on the Opening Ceremony?

    • It was fantastic, up there with the best if not the best!
      37
    • It was really good, maybe not one of the best but London did it's self proud!
      40
    • Was good, could have been better.
      34
    • Meh, did not like it.
      9
    • It was poor, was disappointed.
      14
    • Was really bad, one of the worst iv seen.
      9

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Citius Altius Fortius Torch Bearer 10000 Club

Citius Altius Fortius

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So glad to hear you enjoyed it so much Marts!

How's the movement out of the stadium going?

I am typing in the DLR - sorry for the typos - I am on the way back to our flat Rols - the exiting of the stadium works - there are some places where it is very slow, but I think that's good, because otherwise there are too many people on the platforms of the train stations

And the whole time they are playing little bells - I think that should 'appease' the people - by the way here are many Aussies!!

@ Rols - I bought something for you - I hope you will like it!!

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saireea Bronze

saireea

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The giant baby was a bit scary. I am glad I watched the live feed from London. It was commercial free and uninterrupted. NBC is showing it now in the States and there is a commercial every five minutes. Plus the commentary is an embarrassing.

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ike74ph Bronze

ike74ph

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I found it boring and unspectacular. There was no cohesive theme. It looked llike one big West End production. I could get the cultural references but found it shallow. The music was uninspiring. Choreography was bad. Not impressive at all. In short, I was disappointed because of the promise and expectations to do something different from Beijing. The cauldron was the best part, all countries having a part in making up one giant flame.

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Sir Rols Cauldron Lighter 20000 Club

Sir Rols

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@ Rols - I bought something for you - I hope you will like it!!

Oooooh! I can't wait. Actually the whole ceremony has brought it all home and made my anticipation metre shot up dramatically.

One of the criticisms I think I do agree with here is the cohesion one. It wasn't as flowing as some of the more recent. But it sure tickled and touched me overall.

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Uklympics Bronze

Uklympics

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Thought personally it was a great show but not an excellent one. Obviously didn't match the visual spectacle of Beijing, but then nothing will for a very long time. Favourite part was the Green and Pleasant Lands into Industrial Revolution, which was spine tingling at the end. Really well done, especially with the Underworld music, which I thought at the time was an inspired choice by Boyle to use them. The NHS kids segment was OK and I thought the Friday night house party segment became a bit too much like a music video. Bean was hilarious and a lovely touch and that's from someone who doesn't usually find him funny. The abide with me and dancing was haunting. Athletes parade was the Athletes parade. The cauldron was beautiful and I loved the lighting of it. Could have done without McCartney, but sadly it's become a must to have him at these sort of events in Britain. Indeed it wouldn't surprise me if he was booked because this would be his 2012th British ceremony of some sort or another.

Ultimately, the ceremony did what it was supposed to do which is speak to modern Britain. Without wishing to start a flame war here but if the Games Bids 'Ceremony Nerds' didn't like it, that's fine. It was meant in the words of Danny Boyle 'for the British Public'. And from what I've seen, many of them loved it. I frequent a forum which has nothing whatsoever to do with the games and the responses from my cynical British countrymen were overwhelmingly positive. That's good enough for me.

Just to add, I agree with what some others have said. I believe this ceremony will be a grower and after a 2nd and 3rd viewing, people will view it a lot more positively!

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baron-pierreIV Cauldron Lighter 20000 Club

baron-pierreIV

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My rankings 2002-2012.

1) Beijing

2) Vancouver

3) Athens

4) SLC

5) London

6) Turin

I'd give it an 7.75. My rankings (1992 - 2012)

Ceremonies I have really liked so far:

1. Beijing

2. Barcelona

3. Salt Lake

4. Melbourne 2006

5. (from what I have seen of Doha 2006)

6. Vancouver

7. Sydney - London

Reprint from the other thread:

Well, I was right about it coming out of the hole. Missed on the city/river burning.

Good job, United Britain!! Too bad Boyle messed up on most of the Artistic portion. But the Protocol parts seemed to have gone well.

No one could've guessed the whole pass-on-to-the-generation idea. Why 7?

OK; re the Artistic portion. Green & Pleasant was an OK idea to open with...but its spirit and energy barely got going into anything joyful...when it was immediately aborted and everyone started dismantling the set. And then, quickly turning it over to the Dark, Satanic Mills was laborious to watch. It was a mish-mash. There was too much activity going on. It was like being at Kings Cross or Victoria stations at rush hour. The TV cameras could not seem to do justice to the rushed change-over. Who was where? What was happening? And before the various sections were getting introduced, it was cut to another one. It was just too turbulent.

NHS section was cute; I liked the bedtime-story idea...but I still don't understand why the NHS was singled out? I mean Danny Boyle's quirky idea? yeah, it was nice to see the Childcatcher character there from CHITTY CHITTY, but where was Food Glorious Food? Why could it not have been a salute to the British nanny instead? The doctors and nurses doing the jitterbug on the side was...uhmmm...a little too wacky?? (My cousin's wife once worked at that Greater Ormond Hospital.)

The one moment that got me was the First one-minute of silence for ALL the fallen (I guess that would've included the victims of 1972). I quite choked up on that. But then they had to have a 2nd moment of silence?? Kinda too much.

Now, the Contemporary bit. Lousy; been there; done it. One has seen that in a dozen TV shows, rock concerts, etc.,etc. And seemed such a try-too-hard attempt to honor the internet. Yeah, I guess mod/rock/grunge Britain or whatever just isn't my scene. Hated the grunge-Quebec segment in Vancouver, too.

Did like that song & ballet just before the Parade of Nations. Who was that singer & what was the song?

When the O flag came in, there was no synchro of who was who and the cameras. And Ali's presence was completely unnecessary. What for???

Overall, it could've been grander, more glorious...and still quirky and funny under a more traditional creative mind's tutelege...not an edgy, flavor-of-the-moment movie director. So what if he was from the area??

It was OK. Let's see what the Russians and the Brazilians come up with.

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thatsnotmypuppy Flag Bearer Level 5

thatsnotmypuppy

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Firstly I’ll agree with CAF – seeing the show live in the stadium is a totally different experience. Many found the Vancouver ceremony quite cold however in the stadium it was all very moving. Did you get a program/audience kit? They usually show them before the show starts on the Aussie telecast but no mention of one tonight. Plus no-one has one on eBay yet J

I really enjoyed most of the show. The opening video and pastoral scenes were beautiful. The change to the industrial age was done very well – and the forging of the Olympic ring and resultant formation above the centre of the field with the fireworks... amazing.

I found the musical bit slightly cheesy – why almost ignore the entire musical era from 1990-2012? It pretty much ended with the Eurythmics and a quick grab of Blur’s ‘Song 2’ then we had Dizzie Rascal. No nod to the Spice Girls, Coldplay, Robbie Williams, Take That etc etc. I know some of those acts are involved with the closing however a slight nod would have made sense. The Arctic Monkeys were great though!

I enjoyed the NHS bit – it made sense to pay tribute to one of the great societal revolutions of our times. From the NHS we got Medicare in Australia, the Canadian health system and eventually Obamacare. It was as relevant as Beijing’s calligraphy segment.

As always the athletes parade went on for far too long – but there is no way to shorten it. The muted response for Syria was very telling. Caster Semanya leading South Africa in was a wonderful gesture.

Sir Paul sounded like sh!t but even a sh!t rendition of ‘Hey Jude’ is still worth the time. The choice of flag bearers for the Olympic Flag was inspired, as were the final torchbearers. There was just too much politics to single out a single British athlete.

The cauldron – wow. Breathtaking. A truly simple idea projected onto a vast canvas. Very, very moving.

I loved it. Was it perfect? No – but it had soul and a sense of humour. Humour is something missing since Sydney as far as Summer Games openings go. (That is not a dig at Athens or Beijing – both were spectacular but both seemed quite serious).

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