London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Isles of Wonder

The organisers of the London 2012 had a problem and it has been over 30 years in the making.

Ever since Moscow 1980 when you had all the choreographed banner changing and then LA 1984 when it went all space age. The opening ceremonies have become grander and wildly more expensive culminating in Beijing 2008 with the money no object even though part of the country is backwards and underdeveloped with people starving.

London 2012 had an Oscar winning director leading a creative team and a wildly cut down budget and a seismic creative shift from the past.

What we had was a history of Britain moving from its agrarian past into the Industrial Revolution to the rise of social welfare including the NHS, celebration of arts and culture and leading into the computer age.

We had Kenneth Branagh reciting Shakespeare, Music for a host of performers and James Bond meeting The Queen.

It was very untypical, rather surreal, edgy and smart. In fact it was nice to see the end of the synchronised banner switching.

Just as Los Angeles in 1984 invented the Olympic Opening Ceremony, then Danny Boyle's London 2012 reinvented it in so many ways. The first to have an all-star cast (Kenneth Branagh, Daniel Craig, Mike Oldfield, JK Rowling, Rowan Atkinson, Dizzy Rascal, Tim Berners Lee, the Arctic Monkeys, David Beckham, Paul MaCartney). The first to have filmed sequences (the thrilling opening journey up the Thames, James Bond meets the Queen at Buckingham Palace, Mr Bean dreams he's in Chariots of Fire, David Beckham delivers the Olympic torch by speedboat). The first to tell a story (the industrial revolution, the founding of the NHS, the digital revolution).

Like the Coronation in 1953, the World Cup Final in 1966, Live Aid in 1985 and Diana's funeral in 1997, it is one of those iconic British national moments that's likely to be remembered for decades to come.

I just rewatched the opening ceremony 10 years later in 3D (a TV capture from BBC back when they still broadcast in 3D) and it was even better than I remembered, and also better in 3D. A beautiful colorful production full of surprises and happy emotion, it just put a smile on my face. It also made me nostalgic for a few reasons. First is the sad demise of 3D broadcasting. Even in the era of UHD 4K HDR, the 3D broadcast from ten years ago looks absolutely fantastic on the right screen. Second is that in hindsight 2012 feels like the happy pinnacle of modern times. No hint of Brexit, or bitter partisan politics, or populist leaders, or fake news and misinformation, or Covid, or war in Ukraine. Just looking at the opening ceremony makes me want to teleport back in time into that happy place, where everybody and every nation celebrates together as one. Since there's no actual way to do it, rewatching the London Olympic games opening ceremony in 3D is probably the next best thing.

It was one amazing show both for the audience in the stadium (believe I was there) and audience at home watching it on TV. I think this ceremony had great/key moments that will be talked for years to come in the TV/Olympics history. Such as the Industrial Revolution, the power of the visual of it and the Olympic rings being forged was amazing. The Queen and Mr Bean scenes were brilliantly funny and greatly filmed, memorable TV moments. And the torch what an amazing idea putting it all together. The soundtrack of the ceremony was amazing and powerful as well.

For people who don't understand it... stop being lazy and pay the deserved attention to the ceremony, watch it again if you need and everything makes sense.

It was Britain at his best. In my opinion the best Olympics Opening Ceremony so far. Beijing was good but London was brilliant!

I almost fell asleep watching this ceremony, and I loved every single opening before this one. I guess the Chinese set a new standard with Beijing's opening ceremony that will not be easy to surpass. London's ceremony lacked intensity and was mostly focused on promoting social issues and in being 'cool'. I don't even want to comment about all the fuzz about the queen, because it was really lame and the rest of the world don't give a damn about her. It's amazing the amount of money they spent on this show and how little they accomplished. That's it, if you are looking for a great Olympic ceremony, look the one from Beijing or maybe Athens, because this one is pretty boring.