by Kenneth Andrews

Created on: September 16, 2008   Last Updated: June 17, 2009

As the attention span of cinema audiences weakens ever further, the pressure increases to open big films with a real bang. A strong opening can carry your viewers through the inevitable next twenty minutes of setting up characters and conflicts. You can never really come back from a weak first scene.

Without further preamble, here are some of my favourites, in no particular order:

1) Star Wars, Episode IV: It's impossible to underplay the impact of the first scene in the original Star Wars film. The infamous scrolling yellow introduction melts away into space against John Williams greatest piece of film music, and a huge spacecraft races across the screen and into distant space.

But it's under fire, and slowly, inexorably, the hugest spaceship you have ever seen moves into shot, and keeps on coming until it fills the entire screen. Absolutely unforgettable. Especially on the big screen with the rumbling bass of the star destroyer's engines shaking you from your seat. Space has never been more real, in spite of the haircuts. This is the opening scene so effective that Lucas and friends reprised it for each of the two original Star Wars sequels. It just isn't a Star Wars film without a huge spaceship filling the screen in the opening couple of minutes...

2) The Matrix. It's tragic that the Matrix was gradually derailed into such a shambles with its two sequels. Its first 20 minutes sets it up as almost an arty action film, as Cypher and Trinity talk in disjointed non-sequiturs about Neo over a blank screen. And then it all explodes into science-fiction kung-fu action, so keeping film purists and the popcorn crowd simultaneously happy. A neat trick, if you can pull it off.

3) Citizen Kane. A meticulous sequence of camera work opens the critics' choice for Best Film Ever. A succession of static shots of a dark house, each cut moving the viewer closer and closer to the sole occupant, Kane. Then we get the man's death, the snow globe, 'Rosebud', a riot of iconic shots that have lost none of their power to impress. This opening, familiar as it is, sets up huge suspense about what has happened to bring Kane to the position of dying alone in an empty house, what his last words mean, all of these important questions.

4) Batman. Although we all have to pretend that Christian Bale and Christopher Nolan are the best thing ever to happen to the Batman franchise these days, I still prefer the two Tim Burton films. The opening scene sets the tone. Two thugs debate the

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