Stephen Farber of The Hollywood Reporter said that the opening established the premise well, but that the film came undone when it began to alternate between comedy and tragedy, and introduced a backstory for Hancock that did not make sense.
When I talk about my life in anthropology and the people I have come to know and love over the years, I find people in the audience moved--not because what I had to say was particularly brilliant, but because I opened my experience--my joy and pain and that of my Nigerian friends--to them and such an opening established a connection.
An opening montage establishes the surrounding desert, its stark beauty enhanced by abandoned copper mines.
That powerful opening line establishes an ominous beat, like two sets of three taps on the funeral drum.
Metrically, the opening stanza establishes a consistent pattern of phrasing, where two syllables in each line receive prominent accents.
But the opening shot establishes a sense of malaise as a careless driver sideswipes a parked car and nearly hits a cyclist.
The game's opening, which establishes the premise with snippets of dialogue, charting the decline of mind and marriage, is both tender and devastating.
This first passage, the book's opening paragraph, establishes one of the great strengths of "Random Family": how close and persistent observation yields telling details.
The somber opening sequence establishes a mood of gloomy disorientation that settles like a woozy pall over the film, whose dialogue feels semi-improvised by actors who seem slightly dazed.
Full of vivid scenes and arresting vignettes, it begins with four-year-old Richard ("angry, fretful and impatient") setting fire to the family home, a brilliant opening that establishes young Wright as a fiery protagonist.
