Rio 2016 Opening Ceremony Verdicts and Reviews

[LatinXTC]

10 hours ago, baron-pierreIV said:

I find Meredith a little stupid.  Hoda is ehhh.  Where are Tara and Johnnie??? 

You call Meredith a little stupid, yet you ask where Johnny Weir is???

[JMarkSnow2012]

8 hours ago, Olympian2004 said:

I

 finally was able to rewatch the entire ceremony tonight - and I must say that all in all, I really enjoyed it. Of course, there were some weaker parts - but they were not as weak to spoil the fun for me. And, as a matter of fact, I found this ceremony more enjoyable than London's opening ceremony.

Countdown: Well, that was a bit strange and tedious, I must say. That spooky atmosphere and those cheesy reflecting sheets were a complete contradiction to that joyous, beautiful and relaxed opening video. The one thing I liked was the inclusion of "Samba de verao"/"So Nice" (I'm a huge bossa nova fan). But hey, it was only the countdown.

Welcome of the dignity: That was probably the strangest part of the entire ceremony. If they had to resort to introduce only Thomas Bach in fear of boos against Michel Temer, they should rather have had no explicit introduction at all. I also didn't like it because it put a focus on Thomas Bach who has fallen from grace for me after his opportunistic behaviour in the Russian doping scandal.

Amazonas/Indios segment: Stunning visuals with those ropes and the projections. While the projections felt very much Vancouver-2010-like at the start (with the ocean waves - only Vancouver's whales were missing ;)), they got much better later on and conveyed a rain forest atmosphere very well. Another highlight for me.

Colonialisation/immigration segment: It was okay for me, the slightly abstract visuals were very much in line with the Amazonas segment, but it wasn't as stunning visually. I liked the nod to Brazil's big Japanese community, however, and it was maybe also a hommage to Tokyo 2020, right? I think that this is a nice idea, after London had some Brazilian kids included in its James Bond/Elizabeth II segment.

Urbanity segment: Those were probably the best projections of all during the ceremony.

Santos Dumont segment: Truly beautiful, even if the transition from the live shot within the stadium and the rendered computer image of the airplane flying out of Maracana was a bit too obvious.

Dubstep/rap segment: While it was nice that they wanted to show Brazil also from a non-Bossa-Nova and more youthful side, the dubstep felt a bit out of fashion and the whole segment felt also a bit too contrived and lengthy.

Intolerance/tolerance segment: A nice political message in truly rough times all over the world

Enviromental protection segment: The transition from the "País Tropical" party atmosphere to this very serious and political segment was very rough. But I must say that even if the execution was a bit strange, I liked that they addressed the subject and showed how climate change will affect different parts of the world. A powerful message - and the idea of planting one tree per athlete is a very nice one in terms of legacy.

Parade of nations: Quite conventional (maybe apart from the cute and innovative placards) and quite lengthy. London's parade felt a less tedious, even if it probably wasn't much shorter. But the appearance of the refugee and the Brazilian teams at the end were truly an emotional climax, and the choice of "Aquarela do Brasil" as entrance song for Team Brazil was very fitting and created a nice party atmosphere yet again.

Olympic Rings segment: Wonderful idea, nice visuals and very much in line with the ecological concept of the parade and the entire Games.

Speeches: Tooooo long! Nuzman went on and on and on with his motivational speech full of self-praise, Bach went on and on and on while cowardly leaving the most important issue (doping) out and then we had to bear one more speech by Kip Keino.

Opening adress by Michel Temer: Once more an embarrassing moment when Thomas Bach broke with the Olympic tradition of personally adressing the host country's president.

Carrying the Olympic Flag into the stadium and performing the Olympic Anthem: Both were a bit anti-climatic

Carnival segment: While many probably said, "Oh boy, that's so full of clichés!", I truly enjoyed it.

Cauldron lighting: A rather weak one, compared to previous lighting ceremonies in Olympic history.

Fireworks: Those were great, though. I was particularly impressed by the fireworks that created the illusions that the whole stadium was burning and had become one big cauldron. And the view of Cristo Redendor during that segment was not exactly new, but still impressive.

So my overall verdict is: Rio scored 8 out of 10 points.

 

I found O2004's review pretty close to my own feelings, but I've just quoted a few points above for comment.

Rio was right, I think, to abandon London's experiment in having multiple different activities occurring simultaneously- but they were also right to use the smaller Field of Play provided in a football stadium (and very clever to reduce the performing area still further with that wide black border round the projection "peninsula"). Concentrating the action like that made it much easier to film and to follow, and we may see increasing use of non-t&f arenas for future ceremonies.

Nacholympic suggests that the "pillows" countdown was reminiscent of Beijing. Yes, it was a sort of parody, with the pillows being almost the opposite of drums, yet still, with a little ingenuity, usable as percussion instruments.

Welcome of the dignitaries- it's a fairly unavoidable element of the OC, and on this occasion it was never going to go well.

Yes on the gorgeous ropes/vines- and interesting that they resisted the temptation to make five circular formations instead of just three.

I agree about the Tokyo 2020 nod: Brazil's Japanese-ethnic community is far smaller than its German-ethnic community, for example.

The roof top parkour projections- great, but how weird would they look from any viewpoint except right where they had the cameras?

Santos=Dumont orivided a great excuse to show film of the city. Following 2012's helicopter we may have a new tradition.

Urban music, yes, a bit too long. Outsiders couldn't even play the sort of "name that tune" games that were possible with London's overlong pop segment.

- and then it effectively continued in the tolerance segment. What's left in the way of boogie wonders for the Closing Ceremony?

I think the transition to the environmental message was supposed to be rough !

London's parade actually was much shorter, by about 25 minutes (can't be precise because the end of the Rio parade just drifted into the mirrors/rings bit). How Rio could produce one of the longest parades in Olympic history without the athletes making a full lap of a running track is a mystery!

That drift into the mirrors segment was one of a number of factors which, for me, made the Rings less impactful than they could have been; a good idea not very well executed.

Yes, the speeches were too long, and yes, Bach was a coward

However- Bach couldn't really address the country's president, because she wasn't there.

The flag-carriers were a very conventional bunch, given that they could have continued the environmental theme

Carnival segment- yet more Closing Ceremony stuff.

And yes, the process of lighting the Cauldron was very weak. Maybe it was intentional, like the Cauldron design- "Sorry, we really aren't keen on keeping a gas fire burning in mid-air for no reason other than to look symbolic, but the IOC insists, so whatever". Maybe Tokyo can use their Olympic Cauldron for cooking or something practical.

Anybody know if there were also fireworks at the main clusters?

 

I'm going to mark down to 7 out of 10 for the "meh" ceremonial bits and the over-reliance on dance for its own sake, partly counterbalanced by some pretty darned nifty stuff in the first part of the artistic presentation.

 

[Olympic USA]

I liked it personally and the cauldron is beautiful and different. The ceremony itself I thought wasn't too extravagant but still gave a nice representation from what I know about Brazil and Rio. 

[baron-pierreIV]

10 hours ago, LatinXTC said:

You call Meredith a little stupid, yet you ask where Johnny Weir is???

 

Ever heard of being "facetious"?  

[paul]

8 hours ago, JMarkSnow2012 said:

And yes, the process of lighting the Cauldron was very weak. Maybe it was intentional, like the Cauldron design- "Sorry, we really aren't keen on keeping a gas fire burning in mid-air for no reason other than to look symbolic, but the IOC insists, so whatever". Maybe Tokyo can use their Olympic Cauldron for cooking or something practical.

This is a genius idea.

The Rio model leveraged failure and random populist stuff to justify delivering a lackluster ceremony ("waaaaaaa we are broke but Olympics are too big so check out our no-frills 90s ceremony.........and.........waaaaaa global warming will flood all the big cites and you will die soon if we don't all start using a tiny fire-pot for Olympics cauldron.")

[Lord David]

Illuminati? Seriously? Can't a triangle simply be a triangle? Can't a diamond simply be a diamond? Where's that 666? All I saw was a "6" from a countdown, and two stages they designed (one for the flags and one for the music performances/speeches). If they add another stage for the closing, does that debunk the 666?

All I got out of the Opening Ceremonies was that it was clearly on a budget. They spent most of the 40 odd million budget (for the Opening) on those tricycles and the end stage, rather than on more elaborate projections, aerial acts and large scale carnival style floats/props. The fireworks budget must have been slashed too.

Oh they're doing an environmental theme and shoving climate change down our throats because it clearly is fake...

What does this have to do with sports? Do these people even watch these? Aside from Winter Olympic ceremonies, very few of recent times have actually touched on the subject in a ceremonies segment, only 2 come to mind, Atlanta 1996 (Temple of Zeus) and Athens (the end of the Greek history float parade and the introduction of Pierre de Coubertin). Aren't the references to past Olympians (Olympic flag bearers) and the final torchbearers good enough?

Why can't a ceremony just be a ceremony (even if it didn't fulfill your expectations) without it having some connection to Illuminati or Satanism?

Edited August 7, 2016 by Lord David

[Olympic USA]

Regarding NBC's coverage this article from Time sums up my thoughts:

NBC Missed the Point of the Olympics Opening Ceremony

In the end I'm just glad Bob Costas only appeared for two minutes - cannot stand him; Matt Lauer isn't much better but tolerable; Hoda was fine and Meredith was meh. 

[baron-pierreIV]

10 minutes ago, Olympic USA said:

Regarding NBC's coverage this article from Time sums up my thoughts:

NBC Missed the Point of the Olympics Opening Ceremony

 

Bitch, bitch, bitch.  What a snarky article -- sounds like it was written by someone who can't get laid.  He's lucky NBC didn't give Tara and Johnny Opening Ceremony chores!!

FGS, it's just an Opening Ceremony.  

[Lord David]

But what about the Illuminati references?

[JMarkSnow2012]

7 hours ago, Lord David said:

But what about the Illuminati references?

They were much appreciated down at the Lodge.

[LatinXTC]

John Oliver from Last Week Tonight gave a great and hilarious review of the opening ceremony, especially on how NBC reports it. Here's a bootleg upload of last night's episode, watch it while it's still up!

 

[Cauê]

My verdict:

CEREMONY WITH THE BEST DANCE-PARTY-MOMENT:
SYDNEY 2000, with 'Love is in the air' (very cool!)

BEST SCENE WITH THE OLYMPIC RINGS:
ATHENS 2004

MOST IMPRESSIVE CEREMONY:
BEIJING 2008

BEST FINAL MOMENT (Lighting of the Cauldron +  Creativity + Fireworks + Music):
RIO 2016

_________________________________
AND THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CEREMONY OF ALL TIME:
ATHENS 2004

PS. London was beautiful and the Olympic cauldron was the most interesting before the Rio 2016 cauldron.

[JMarkSnow2012]

3 hours ago, Cauê said:

My verdict:

CEREMONY WITH THE BEST DANCE-PARTY-MOMENT:
SYDNEY 2000, with 'Love is in the air' (very cool!)

BEST SCENE WITH THE OLYMPIC RINGS:
ATHENS 2004

MOST IMPRESSIVE CEREMONY:
BEIJING 2008

BEST FINAL MOMENT (Lighting of the Cauldron +  Creativity + Fireworks + Music):
RIO 2016

_________________________________
AND THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CEREMONY OF ALL TIME:
ATHENS 2004

PS. London was beautiful and the Olympic cauldron was the most interesting before the Rio 2016 cauldron.

Why do people give so much credit to the Athens rings, which were just a rehash of Sydney's cauldron lighting?

And where are you starting your "Best final moment"? I thought the run-up to the Rio cauldron lighting was really lame, and it only really got impressive when it was up in the air (and not being familiar with the music played over the fireworks, I started wondering how long they would go on for, after a while).

[baron-pierreIV]

1 hour ago, JMarkSnow2012 said:

Why do people give so much credit to the Athens rings, which were just a rehash of Sydney's cauldron lighting?

 

No.  The Athens rings of fire were basically the melted version of the rings on ice that closed out Salt Lake 2002.  

I mean ice would melt after 2 years of fire.  

[baron-pierreIV]

8 hours ago, MrkFC said:

I did thoroughly enjoy the ceremony. But to be frank, the program did not reach nowhere near the level of Beijing or London events. That is keeping in mind - Beijing was the greatest sporting spectacle in the modern era.

 

 

Absolutely, the Beijing opening was a Shock-and-Awe one.  But then again, remember that it was the most populous nation and the 2nd hottest economy on the planet in 2008.  And they probably have the longest continuing civilization, so you had that spectacular opening.  But collectively, for FOUR ceremonies, I think Sochi had the most beautiful, also culturally rich and pictorially stunning set of ceremonies as well.  The Russians made such great use of their art, their literature, their popular culture (cricus and ballet), their music, etc., in excellent balance.  The OC of Brazil was OK; not awful but not over-reaching either.   

Edited August 12, 2016 by baron-pierreIV

[Cauê]

People have different opinions. Can you accept different opinions? Thank you, friends
 

 

[Cauê]

Between the Final Moments of the last Opening Ceremonies (London, Rio), I think the view with the statue of Christ the Redeemer + the Maracanã Stadium + the final song is more interesting than the London's Olympic tower + Olympic Stadium + the final song. For me, the fireworks of London are better, but the amazing aerial scene of Rio beats the aerial scene of London.

LONDON

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei54TO1VBlM

RIO

 

[Sir Rols]

7 hours ago, Cauê said:

People have different opinions. Can you accept different opinions? Thank you, friends

 

And we do, Caue. That's what we like doing, comparing ceremonies and saying what we like best out of the different performances and arguing our cases for our favourites. I'd really like to hear a lot more about how Brazilians responded to the ceremony - I'm missing you guys letting us know of your sense of pride or excitement over these games.

[mr.bernham]

For me, Sydney takes the cake. Best ceremony all around, best games all around. When people talk about having a permanent home for the games...it should be Sydney.

[JMarkSnow2012]

8 hours ago, Cauê said:

Between the Final Moments of the last Opening Ceremonies (London, Rio), I think the view with the statue of Christ the Redeemer + the Maracanã Stadium + the final song is more interesting than the London's Olympic tower + Olympic Stadium + the final song. For me, the fireworks of London are better, but the amazing aerial scene of Rio beats the aerial scene of London.

 

Well, yes- any general views of Rio beat general views of any other city in the world!

(Although closer views of the square kilometre of Rio round the Maracanã wouldn't look half as good as the 1 sq km or so we saw of London).

[kevzz]

BEST FINAL MOMENT (Lighting of the Cauldron +  Creativity + Fireworks + Music):
RIO 2016

 

I really beg to differ on this one. Rio has the worst cauldron and finale ever. Hands down. And I for one could do away without the fireworks at all. 

[Rob.]

London is a city that looks best close up. Rio us a city that looks best in grand panoramic vistas.

And if you think of the iconic shots from 2012 and 2016 so far and that holds true. Cycling at Hampton Court, races finishing in The Mall, Rings on Tower Bridge, use of the Royal Parks, Wimbledon, Wembley etc. vs beach volleyball on the huge expanse of Copacabana, road cycling along the coast, rowing and sailing in the shadow of the city's hills and lakes.

[baron-pierreIV]

JMark, actually, the first Olympic rings that were set on fire happened in Los Angeles -- at about the 1:38 mark.  And I know the man who thought this up.  It was production designer Rene Lagler.  And of course, it was copied in Salt Lake 2002 and then Athens 2004.

 

Edited August 13, 2016 by baron-pierreIV

[JMarkSnow2012]

7 hours ago, kevzz said:

I for one could do away without the fireworks at all. 

Blasphemy !

[capetown2020]

Better than London. Some weak parts (cauldron) but London lacked resonance and a sense of occasion apart from the sparkling rings. Rio, in my opinion, was better, but that is not saying much.

 

Sydney, Athens and Beijing remain in a league of their own.