The Opening Ceremony: My Opinion

It sucked. Not all of it. Just most of it. If I had to give it an overall grade? D+ or C-. Let's start from the beginning.

I will say, I lov-...liked the beginning. Flying the Queen in with James Bond was a nice touch. Well done. I was very surprised that she agreed to something like that and it added a sense of fun to the show.

The way they showed how the farm period transitioned into the industrial revolution was neat. The characters, the buildings, the movements really fit perfectly together and that part came together well. There was a very smooth transition between the two time periods and it actually took on the look of the time periods.

The way they poured the "steel" to look and smell like the real thing was neat. Again, it added another dimension to the opening ceremony that we don't usually see: smells (wait, what?). An odor was released when the "steel" was poured that made the arena smell like a steel mill. Very neat.

Expressing the medical advances of Great Britain was a huge slap in the face of the Americans. We get it. Also, nice touch with the 50 foot Voldemort (oops!! I meant "He who shall not be named!!").

Then the wheels fell off the whole show....

They transitioned into that AWFUL 1960s-1980s period. I understand what they were trying to do. They were expressing how a British man created the world wide web. That would have been neat had they incorporated the world wide web into that segment other than just a few Facebook blurbs. Most of the time during that awful back and forth, the main characters were using cell phones.

I then got fed up with that and went to get some food. I came back, and thankfully the show part was over. It started great, and then went straight downhill following the Industrial Revolution time period.

The introducing of the countries...well...that always bores me. It takes too long. And for countries that only have single digit athletes, group them all together! That would seriously cut about two hours. If not that, then at least this: for countries that only have 2-9 athletes, don't just name the flag bearer. Name them all!

Then came possibly the most important...and worst...part of the opening ceremonies: the lighting of the torch.

Before we get to the actual lighting of the torch, let me address one MAJOR thing that really bugs me now-a-days...LET MOHAMMAD ALI BE!! He is quite possibly one of the GREATEST athletes of ALL TIME!! Now...he's been reduced to someone who can barely stand and that gets paraded around hopelessly on national television. Pay the man his respect and leave him alone.

Back to the torch...

There was a ton of excitement surrounding who it should be. Personally, I was pulling for the guy that broke four minutes in the mile. Maybe even Bradley Wiggins (Note to self...if you win the Tour De France during the Olympic year, you get to ring a big bell!!).

But no....a bunch of British teenagers lit the most iconic symbol in all of sports. I understand that they are "the future of British Sports" (which is probably not true) but come on...let's have an iconic British athlete - *cough* David Beckham *cough* - light the stupid thing.

They didn't even put the torch in its rightful place high above the stadium for all to see. Instead...they put it right in the middle of the floor so it can get hit by a discus, javelin, or throwing hammer. ("You may have won gold, but I broke the Olympic torch!")

One more thing...how can you have a cover band for a Beatles song when one of the most iconic members of the original band is standing backstage?! Better yet...why did you have to resort to a cover band? You could simply open the show with a different band all together! What? You weren't good enough for the Rolling Stones?

Another quick note...anybody else realize that these are the 30th Summer Olympic games? You know what that means...oh yeah...Summer Olympics XXX. (Sorry! Only 18+!)

Oh well. The ceremony has finally come to an end and the Queen has finally said those beautiful words:

Let's the games begin!

Go America.


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