Guys,
In my own viewpoint, Panzera's display was certainly enjoyable for nearly the entire display, though much of the firing occured predominantly at mid levels of the sky, which was much too redundant. The colors, in general, were well chosen and the beginning of the display had a very pleasing loud start. I also loved the extensive use of the screaming serpents and the mixing of the shells of swirls.
The ending was disappointing, although I found it better than last year's somewhat, but it was also not as impressive since, especially, our expectations were (as always) so high. I just couldn't concur with the real finish in which it was concocted. All those kamuros were irrelevant and took away the excitement of the show. The series of faux finales just before were excellent since there were loud crackling bombs that burst in the centre of each colorful shell. The final piece wasn't all that exciting considering that we were expecting a variety of colors. Instead, it was all white and no variations whatsoever. The good news was that the entire thing was lengthy and had good crescendo, but just lacked to getting to the knock out blow. In that sense, it wasn't the best way to finish off the 200th display!
And yes, canuck, I am in total acquiescence about a typical ending construction. It sure does require much more than just solely a pack of salutes. Personally, I don't care much for just the sole firing of salutes at the very end. Rather, I'd like them to be integrated with other things that happen in the sky to accompany them since this makes it far more fortifying. I want an ending with colors upon colors with sharp loudness mingled with good increasing pace. The salutes should also keep firing while other things are simultaneously happening continuously and consecutively. The ending should also be bright and have at least a 3+ minute duration as well as a powerful faux finale. The Panzera finale in 1997, as Enkil said, was a classic proof of that scenario. However, I suspect that, in the long run, I'm starting to get the impression and conclusion that those types of enamored finales are nothing but a myth and a chasm in time.
As for the winner choices, I personally thought that it was a fair selection given the circumstances. However, I also have that internal anguish that Australia was ranked so low, but we need to keep in mind that they had problems that were witnessed from La Ronde, as some of the members have acknowledged. In addition, perhaps the choice of music came into play since there was both a temptation of a reappearance of some soundtrack and therefore ended up being not as original. Then again, the same idea could be interpreted for Argentina in the sense that there was repetitive choices of music to a high extent, but the key variable is that the music had different beats and allowed for differing rhythmic flow in both displays, so, in this sense, they were still inevitably original.
USA had the best synchronization this season along with some very distinct attempts at transitions. However, they were not as original in the overall concept and the choice of colors were not in a huge variety, though had excellent variations of combination within colors. Australia, on the other hand, had a higher content of colors used along with a stronger conceptual premise and a well established thematic connection. The downfalls, as I said, related to technical problems and perhaps in the music sector, though I loved the music choice above all else.
Personally, regardless of the problems, Australia had a much more powerful and intense display than that of the American's performance from beginning to end, but the US show was still one of the most exciting and suffered minimal dilemmas, I think. Synchronization also gave them the advantage to gain possession of first place. This is why I said, in my review of the winners, that USA could win the gold, though my degree of confidence wasn't all that high to support it.
That being said, if Australia didn't experience those problems as was claimed, then I'm sure they would have gotten that gold. But alas, you cannot judge what could have been when the actual performance had already occured.
In any case, I am still content with the winners since all that I predicted showed up (unlike last year), but I just mixed up Australia and the US, though I had France in the right place in my personal choice! Given that France equally had no problems and an equally strong of a theme (and complex), colors and concept, it would seem reasonable that they were placed higher than Australia. It would also appear that the judges would possibly have understood the complexity of the French theme as well.
And, as a side note, is was more disappointing when they did not announce the winners exactly when they shot up the fireworks for the awards just after 9:30.
Regards,
Trav.
