SummaryElizabeth: The Golden Age finds Queen Elizabeth facing bloodlust for her throne and familial betrayal. Growing keenly aware of the changing religious and political tides of late-16th-century Europe, Elizabeth finds her rule openly challenged by the Spanish King Philip II, who with his powerful army and sea-dominating armada is determined...
SummaryElizabeth: The Golden Age finds Queen Elizabeth facing bloodlust for her throne and familial betrayal. Growing keenly aware of the changing religious and political tides of late-16th-century Europe, Elizabeth finds her rule openly challenged by the Spanish King Philip II, who with his powerful army and sea-dominating armada is determined...
Elizabeth: The Golden Age lacks the intricate plotting that characterized its predecessor. The screenplay is more action-oriented but not as smart, and some of the dialogue is downright cheesy.
This is just as great as the first one. Cate Blanchett is superb, the costumes are stunning. (The story is just fine,I guess.) I don't understand why this film got much worse reviews compared to the first one.
It's a faux epic -- swell costumes, historically authentic settings, a certain amount of bustle and skulking, but very little dramatically gripping activity.
It’s intentionally playful and an inadvertent giggle, an overripe melodrama that’s by turns a bodice-ripper, a cloak-and-dagger thriller and a serious-minded historical drama with dubious contemporary overtones.
Despite good performances all around, particularly the ever-brilliant Blanchett, Elizabeth: The Golden Age is a gilded ornament, speculative and uninterested in much besides this queen's matters of heart.
8.5/10
I was coming to this movie with a very concerned feeling because i feel like it's unnecessary to make a sequel to the 1998 Elizabeth film, and i was even more concerned when i see the synopsis compare to the title, i don't want this film to have a story about Elizabeth Golden Age of romance instead of Golden Age of Elizabeth war lead supporter, and thank goodness they did not do that at least mostly, now i'm not gonna lie at the first 30 minutes i still have that strong concerned feeling, but as the time goes the movie became a little bit greater and better movie and story than the first one surprisingly, i also thoroughly enjoy the film from the beginning till the end, Cate Blanchett performance as Elizabeth is still as great if not better than the first one, there is still some mentionable nit picky here and there, and i believe my concerned feeling kinda impact my rating but it didn't really matter overall Elizabeth: The Golden Age is still an unnecessary sequel but like i said it's surprisingly a slightly greater and better movie and story than the first Elizabeth.
Elizabeth: The Golden Age is a great sequel to the excellent original film. It doesn't quite scale the heights of the first film, mostly because the theme isn't as stirring as the first's 'loss-of-innocence' motif. But the costumes are sumptuous, the performances are amazing, the pacing flows well and it never dips into tedium. One small annoyance; as a person with a passion for history, the historical inaccuracies were much more notable than the first film. Oh well. Still great, though.
Cate was a very convincing queen. It was kind of boring at times, but I don't think the critics got it right. She put on an amazing performance and that is worth watching it for.
This movie is the sequel to "Elizabeth - The Virgin Queen" (1998) and, like all sequels, suffers from an inferiority complex towards the original film. It is a regular historical film, which depicts a key moment of Elizabeth I's reign of England: the Invincible Armada and the English resistance to Spanish ambitions. And Cate Blanchett (who continues to give life to the English queen) is still brilliant in her role, almost being able to become the queen that herself. Unfortunately, as in the first film, this effort follows without the merit and appreciation of the critics and the Hollywood Academy (the Oscar nomination for Best Actress that year did not pass that same). Geoffrey Rush continues to give body to Sir Francis Walsingham and do it with great talent and ability, even though his character has not here the strength it had previously. Clive Owen is perfect in the role of Sir Walter Raleigh and reaches, with this film, one of the most interesting works of his career so far.
Historically, unlike the previous film, it didn't seem very able to be faithful to the truth. The script is too imaginative and too much focused on an unlikely and theatrical affair between the Queen and Walter Raleigh. The Spanish Armada is barely portrayed and the struggle between English and Spanish, the natural film climax, ends up being completely emptied of relevance, which makes no sense and puts in question the film edition, and the quality of the script. In fact, there was no ability to foresee the importance of this point for the film's outcome. If the director (Shekhar Kapur) and writers (William Nicholson and Michael Hirst) thought that Blanchett's great interpretation, a very good cast, scenery, clothes and some romantic suggestions would be enough to save the film, they're wrong. Do not make omelets without eggs, says the people, rightly so. This film had everything to be better, to match its predecessor, but a bad script and editing laid everything to lose.
Despite its a very still and boring movie (sometimes seems that people have forgotten that they're almost to be invaded), this film is quite reasonable and worth seeing, especially for the excellent work of the actors.