Monday, August 25, 2008

2008 Olympics Closing Ceremony Review

Note to the London Olympics organizers: you HAVE to come better than this!

The 2008 Beijing Olympics ended Sunday with the Closing Ceremony, which includes the extinguishing of the flame and the handover to the next Olympic host. After the spectacular display put on during the Opening Ceremony, everyone was expecting a real show.

The Chinese delivered on their end, with another visual masterpiece, directed by the same man behing the opening show. Once again, the entire stadium was used to deliver a truly 3-dimensional experience. It was colorful, precise, and absolutely perfect. It may not have been of the same scale of the Opening Ceremony, but it was still amazing.

If only London held up the quality. To be honest, the London set was a true mess. First off, the double decker bus thing was pretty lame, even when it evolved into the stage. I also didn't really get all of the dancers and the two little girls passing off the soccer ball. The best part of the sequence was Leona Lewis and Jimmy Page performing "Whole Lotta Love", and even that was screwed up a bit. Leona looked GORGEOUS in both the super-long dress connected to the stand and the mini-dress when she came out of it. She also sounded amazing, of what we could hear of it. Unfortunately, we could barely hear her, thanks to a crappy sound system. They can make up for it by releasing the song on iTunes.

Finally, David Beckham came up from the double-decker bus with a bunch of kids and taking the aforementioned soccer ball, he kicks it into the crowd. That was it? They hyped up the appearance of David Beckham so much and all he did was kick a ball? Seriously?

Kudos to China for a spectacular Olympics experience that won't soon be forgotten. London, you've got four years to match that. If the handover ceremony was indication, you've got A LOT to work on!

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