Elizabeth - The Golden Age on DVD (2007)

Majestic sequel

Meako [Highly rated reviewer] , 29/10/2007

The first Elizabeth film (well, not the 'first' but the one of which this is a sequel to) came out in 1998, and it focused on the early life of Elizabeth I, and her rise to power. The encompassing mood of the film was the struggle against fate, and the reluctance to be thrust into power. The film was nominated for many awards, scooping a few Baftas (for lead Cate Blanchett and support Geoffrey Rush amongst other technical awards) and one Oscar (for makeup), it was certainly recieved well by critics and audiences alike. It has taken a while to get a second film made, and that is probably for the better as the story now skips ahead in as many years as life itself has for those involved. The period of History, and Elizabeth's reign, is now the era of the most turmoil for the Queen. Spain's Catholic crusade is at a peak, with conflict between them and the Protestant England about to reach boiling point (and inevitable war). Another threat to the throne comes from within, with conspirators plotting to remove Elizabeth and placing Mary Stuart (Queen of Scots - played by Samantha Morton) on the throne. The feeling and mood this time is of struggle to hold onto identity whilst everything around you conspires to destroy you. Returning to the film are Blanchet, Rush, and the director Shekhar Kapur.

The film is lavishly costumed and lensed, with the story focusing on the political machinations going on around the Queen. A new face in the mix, and a welcome one, is Clive Owen as Walter Raleigh - played with rogueish charm as the only person (aside from Rush) who will be totally honest to the Queen. A few liberties are taken with regards to historical context and accuracy, with some sub stories taking place earlier in history than they should, but this doesn't affect the film's power and (forgive the pun) majesty.

Great cast, and a tight script which focuses on the Virgin Queen during the greatest turmoil in her reign. Blanchett effortlessly conveys the fear and worry, and desperate longing for a normal life that the script asks for. Fabulous, and sumptuous. I anticipate some more nominations and wins in the next awards season.

Read all reviews

Painfully long & slow

A customer from London , 04/11/2007

What can I say, the 1st Elizabeth was simply great, the kind of movie leaving you riveted to the edge of your seat!

Unfortunately this one is very much the complete opposite. So yes the costumes are great and the few CGI special effects (basically the couple of minutes of action featuring the ships of the spanish Great Armada) are well made.

But apart from that it's a 2 hours torture that could have easily been reduced to a half-hour. There's no rhythm, it's very very slow, with many supposedly 'key' scenes just dragging on & on & on (e.g. the execution, the baby, the kiss, etc etc...). The trailer pretty much shows what's worth watching out of the 2 hours movie, how sad is that?

Kate Blanchett's acting is possibly the only positive note overall & Clive Owen is pathetic as usual (though his worst performance is still Children of Men). As for Geoffrey Rush I really like him but he doesn't have much to do in this movie.

In the end, you feel the director made an attempt to depict some kind of intimate portrayal of Elizabeth: her fears, her doubts, her loneliness... Fine, but then stick to making some BBC TV documentary. Because for a full-length cinema feature it's definitely not good enough! Kapur should have stuck to the winning formula that worked so well for the 1st movie: the intrigues, the twisted plots, the action...

Sorry, just didn't do it for me.

Read all reviews

The Golden Age

SAI81 from Tonbridge [Highly rated reviewer] , 06/11/2007

1585. Elizabeth (Blanchett) has been Queen of England for nearly 30 years but there remain threats to her throne, mostly from King Philip of Spain (Molla) who is raising a fleet to attack England and remove its 'heretical' Queen. From within there is a threat in the guise of a plot involving Elizabeth's cousin Mary Stuart (Morton) and at court there is intrigue as explorer Walter Raleigh (Owen) returns from the new world and makes a big impression on both the Queen and Bess Throckmorton, her favourite lady-in-waiting (Cornish).

The original Elizabeth set a relatively high watermark for this sequel to meet but with most of the talent returning and some quality new recruits it shouldn't have been tough, there's even room for improvement on the first film. The Golden Age, sadly, is a decidedly less interesting film than its predecessor.

Much of the problem is structural. While Elizabeth had a traditional thriller structure, focused tightly in on a single plot, The Golden Age tries to do too much. The Mary Queen of Scots plot fills time before the Spanish Armada is ready, but little is achieved by its inclusion, mainly because Samantha Morton's Mary has barely 10 minutes of screen time and so her motives are unknowable and it's hard to connect. The Walter Raleigh story is dull and neither the relationship between Owen and Blanchett, nor that between Owen and Cornish generate much heat, it also leads to the film's nadir, in which Elizabeth throws what can only be described as a hissy fit on finding out that Raleigh and Bess are involved. The Armada arrives late in the game and the battle, which surely should have been the centrepiece of the last act of the film, is dealt with in very short order and little sense of the importance of the victory.

The cast are a distinctly mixed bag. Geoffrey Rush returns from the first film as Walsingham and while he's excellent his role is much less interesting and not so dark this time out. It's also hard to figure out why Walsingham is in the film, there's little he does here that has any great effect on events. Clive Owen gives his usual performance as Raleigh, which is to say that he seems just to have woken up to deliver his lines in an emotionless monotone (with, this time, a globetrotting accent which goes from England, to Ireland to America and back several times a sentence). This hurts the film massively because it's hard to see how this man captures the attention of Elizabeth or Bess. As Bess Abbie Cornish is defeated by her monumentally terrible British accent, which she seems to abandon midway through takes for her native Aussie sound. It sticks out like a sore thumb and makes whatever other work she does go unnoticed. There are good performances from Samantha Morton and from Rhys Ifans (essentially taking over Daniel Craig's role from the first film) but neither gets enough screen time to make a great impression. There is, however, a nice line in malevolence from Jordi Molla as Philip of Spain.

Once again Cate Blanchett towers over the movie , indeed this time out she single-handedly lifts it above mundanity. Right from the first time I saw the trailer I knew Blanchett would be electrifying, if only from the exchange between the Spanish ambassdor and Elizabeth wherein he threatens “There is a wind coming that will sweep away your pride” only to have Elizabeth bellow back “I too can command the winds Sir, I have a hurricane in me that will strip Spain bare if you dare toy try me”. It's a great line, one of the best of the year and brilliantly delivered in a moment to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand to attention. In another dead on performance only the aforementioned hissy fit comes off badly, but that's hardly Blanchett's fault as she's fighting there against some truly abysmal writing.

If there is a larger problem with Blanchett's turn as Elizabeth it is that at the time the film is set the monarch was 52 years old while the radiantly beautiful 37 year old Blanchett looks a good 2 decades more youthful.

On the plus side Shekhar Kapur still exhibits a fantastic visual sense and knows how to find shots and moments that will stay in the memory (a silhouetted Philip inspecting his fleet being built, Elizabeth alone in her chambers in full armour) and he's stopped leaning so heavily on his ceiling shots. It's a gorgeous film, one that will probably attract a deserved nomination for cinematography at next years Oscars. Kapur does, however, still use his soundtrack as a crutch, this is particularly irritating during the montage surrounding Mary Queen of Scots execution; I'd much rather have heard what she said to the executioner than the blaring music.

When The Golden Age works it is stunning but because of a rambling, unfocused screenplay and several poor performances it works only sporadically and it is left to the ever amazing Cate Blanchett to hold things together.

Read all reviews

Stunningly superb period piece...

PaulaWestwood from Ashton-Under-Lyne [Highly rated reviewer] , 12/11/2007

Far from accurate with some glaring 'for dramatic effect' slot ins (i.e. a Swashbuckling Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh battling the Armada when actually he was not even on a ship in the battle, and also if was far after the period the film portrays that he became romantically involved with Bess). This is nevertheless a superbly acted and filmed cinema blockbuster. before we saw it we heard it called a chick flick with costumes and a 'pretend' epic... do not let such nonesense put you off... this is a superb highly watchable, extremely well acted and darned interesting film, that definately does the business. Ok Might not be the truth the whole truth but nevertheless I would highly recommend it.

Read all reviews

Disappointing follow-up

mfdoc from Swansea , 03/06/2008

As sequels go I've seen worse but this just lacks something that the first film had. Cate Blanchett is as good as ever, and the supporting cast is excellent, but fans of Elizabeth may well feel a bit let down

Read all highest rated reviews

Quite stunning really

DirtyHarry from HARROGATE [Highly rated reviewer] , 23/03/2008

Visually faultless. Those so-called 'historians' who criticise this movie should bear in mind two important points; 1) it's a FILM, not a documentary, therefore cannot and should not be depended upon to give a factual account of events, and 2) they should be aware that history itself is open to interpretation, and is NOT an exact science by any means (even the most regarded historians can and do disagree about fundamentals).

Having dispensed with all of that (because they do annoy the hell out of me with their whining about the irrellevant) the movie itself is quite a good watch. Not only that, it makes me proud to be British, and even moreso English. I think we need reminding just how great a nation we are, to have defeated an immensly stronger fleet, and just how spirited a nation we still are. Trust me, you can watch this movie and enjoy its splendour.

Read all highest rated reviews