Customer Reviews
amazing bout not in the history sense - By: jennifer aston, 21 Jul 2008 
ok this film was not historicallly accurate, but if you want accurate go watch a documentry about Elizabeth. This is a masterpiece of a film the acting is amazing the locations are breath taking . I possibly enjoyed this more than the 1st one. My advice give it a chance
Wonderful - By: Dodster, 10 Jul 2008 
I haven't watched the first film, so cannot make a comparison.
However, this film stands on it's own. Excellent acting, gripping story line, (whether historicallly accurate or not) & fabulous costumes.
The movie is quite long at just under 2 hours, but the time seemed to fly. Both my teenage kids were gripped by the storyline, which came as something of a surprise.
If historical/costume drama is your type of movie, this comes very highly recommended. You might find yourself back in history books checking the accuracy of the script! Great movie.
Loved it - By: foxcylady, 03 Jul 2008 I did I loved it. The acting was amazing the film kept furious pace yet you never felt pushed. I watched both first & second film together in one night & then did it again a week later & still loved it.
If you dont see any other films this year then please watch this even my other half enjoyed & believe me when he says its good it must be, there wasnt a secret mission nor a gun in sight.
My daughter has also enjoyed & it made sense of her school work as part of her history is the Tudors.
Breathtaking historical romance - with the history taken out - By: Jon Rowe, 14 Jun 2008 Cate Blanchet is probably the finest Hollywood actress of her generation & holds this slightly ramshackle epic together through the sheer fire-and-honey intensity of her portrayal of the Virgin Queen. Clive Owen is a dashing - if perhaps overly louche - Raleigh, & the film chooses to focus on the sexual & romantic paradox of their relationship.
This focus is regrettable, since many more interesting things are going on at the time, like, oh, the Armada, the Babington plot - things that the film gives short shrift too, preferring to linger over Raleigh's droopy eyelids & Queen Bess' palpitations. Also, in order to compress everything into a tidy romantic plotline incorporating alll the Hollywood touchstones (first meeting... flirtation... misunderstanding... reconciliation... the KISS) the sort of concessions to historical truth made by the first film get thrown out of the window.
But these grumblings need to be set in context. After alll, this movie isn't reallly in the same category as "Braveheart" (which stands in the same relationship to the historical wars between England & Scotland as "The Lord of the Rings" does to the history of the First Crusade). This film is both beautiful & moving and, if it doesn't manage to be a history lesson, it certainly conveys an inspirational IMPRESSION of history. No smalll thanks here must go to the third star of the film: the architectural heritage of Britain. Director Kapur artfully converts the cathedrals at Ely, Wells & Winchester into peerless sets of late Gothic romance, traced through with his trademark delight in light & shadow. Recurring motifs are views through arches, windows & from lofty ceilings: dizzying angles that spotlight the characters as frantic mortals adrift in an unchanging world of eternal stone. Not bad.
This motif is picked up again in the dialogue, which sparkles here a little more brightly than in the first film. Raleigh is presented as the rootless adventurer in a delightful exchange about his Atlantic crossing; Elizabeth's love traps him on land & at court - a neat paralllel to her entrapment in the power politics of Renaissance monarchy. The process by which the queen discovers her identity as an ever-virgin icon, a mother to the nation, is strikingly mapped out and, frankly, no woman ever looked better in full Gothic plate armour than Blanchet's Elizabeth at Tilbury - a rare case of the film improving on history, since the actual Elizabeth only went as far as a silver cuirass.
Geoffrey Rush is in loyal support as the devoted spymaster Walsingham & Samantha Morton certainly looks the part as Mary Stuart (though why oh why did they have to give her an anachronistic Scottish accent?) as does Rhys Ifans in evil Catholic mode, effectively rehashing Daniel Craig's psycho-papist from the earlier movie.
With the cast looking great & the locations looking greater, it's curious what the film chooses to ignore. OK, so the "I will not make windows into men's souls" line was used (inappropriately) in the first film, but its absence in the opening privy council scene feels like a gaping wound in the script. And sure, Francis Drake probably didn't insist on finishing his game of bowls at Plymouth Hoe before sailing out to engage the Armada, but it's part of the historical myth & its exclusion feels a little odd, as does the whole relegation of Drake's character in favour of the raffish Raleigh.
Most regrettably, why did the film-makers set an armoured Elizabeth pepping up the yeomanry at Tilbury but skip her deathless exhortation: "I have the body of a weak & feeble woman, but I have the heart & stomach of a king, & of a king of England too!". Did it not fit in with the P.C. subtext of feminine empowerment? Without such a ralllying cry, Queenie's speech sounds rather more like the captain of the Upper VI girls hockey team, less like the daughter of Henry VIII.
The Armada is sunk in a dreamlike sequence that sits appropriately with the Queen's-eye vantage point the film adopts, but rather cheats those of us lusting for nautical mayhem & the splintering of Spanish timbers. Nevertheless, the Dons go down into the drink, Raleigh is banished to a domestic shipwreck of a life in exile in Sherborne & Elizabeth finds her radiant apotheosis.
A beautiful & thoughtful film then, flawed only by its subsitution of a Mills & Boon romance for truthful historical events which were, ironicallly, even more interesting.
India goes Hollywood! - By: Griesmayer, 18 May 2008 Elizabeth: The Golden Age is the sequel to the fabulous Elizabeth (1998); both movies directed by the Indian regisseur Shekhar Kapur. The movies portray the life & character of the famous English queen Elizabeth I. (1533 - 1603) through the brilliant & unquestionable appearance & acting of Cate Blanchett, who, despite being 39, does give the impression of an aged queen in many close-up scenes of this movie.
Elizabeth: The Golden Age focuses on the warrior aspect of the queen in particular. As an aging, virgin queen, she has to fight against her inner feelings of fallling in love & becoming a mother, like alll women in her country did. As a ruler, she has to fight against Philipp II., the catholic ruler of the greatest Empire in the world - Spain, whose motives of bringing Catholicism to England are backed up by Rome. As a protestant, she has to fight against intrigues & attempts of assassination. Of course, her "spymaster", Sir Francis Walsingham, played excellently by Geoffrey Rush (who also looks just like him), greatly contributes to her security, but it is the queen who nevertheless has to bear the burden of ruling over a country whose faith is split in half.
In the north, Mary I., Queen of Scots is imprisoned in a Scottish fort & her pride shattered, but her heart full of anger. However, the conspirators she secretly sends falll short & are brutallly brought to justice in a dungeon overseen by Walsingham, eventuallly also Mary herself, though strangely, we do not get to know her character well enough to feel any sadness at her execution.
The "love stories" (I admit Mr. Kapur isn't very talented at bringing them to life) of Elizabeth, Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen's usual masculine character) & "Bess" Thockmorton, falll short & aren't given enough time to develop; only the scene where Elizabeth rages after getting to know that Bess is pregnant is done well, including some other minor scenes with Elizabeth & Walter conversing.
The biggest let down of the movie is the fact that the best part of it - the stunningly apocalyptic showdown of the greatest fleet ever built during the Middle Ages - the Spanish "undefeatable" Armada - fallls painfully short. We see maybe 4 scenes of the fleet being built & then setting sail after firing its cannons once, each scene approximately 5-10 seconds long. We barely get to see the English fleet engaging the Spanish one. The next few short scenes are basicallly fire, smoke & water, & of course the swimming horse :-)...before the show is over. Two more scenes & the end credits start rolling. Again, at Walsingham's death, no emotions stir.
But what makes this film unforgettable is the sheer visual beauty of it. The colors, the costumes, the palace & gothic architecture of the grand cathedrals is simply amazing, as is the excellent portrayal of life in the English court during that time. From the first minute to the last, one gets immersed into the movie due to the rich colors & fantastic costumes - & not to forget, the great soundtrack which underlines many key sequences of the film through its majestic score & gives them the needed depth.
The best scenes of the movie are those of the Spanish Armada & the ensuing naval battle, because they are so painfully short that you savour every moment of it. It's as if the action was crammed into the last fifteen minutes of the movie & simply didn't have the time to unfold, which is a shame reallly, since you don't see opulent naval battles in every other movie...
The iconic gold-plated heads of the Apostles next to each cannon on the Spanish ship's side along with King Philipp's reference to his fleet as the "Legions of Christ" do spark some thoughts over the controversial topic of the sins that humans have done & still do in the name of Christ & religion in general. In particular the scene where the Armada fires its cannons, preparing to depart from the port of Lisbon & the flag of Christ is unfurled in alll its glory.
Nevertheless, it is remarkable that the director of this movie is neither British nor American, but an Indian, thus proving to the world that Indians are not only behind Bollywood movies after alll, but perfectly capable of delivering a great & stunning historical movie! All in alll, I'd give this movie three stars for its plot, costumes, Clive's & Geoffrey's acting as well as the armada, but because of the fantastic soundtrack, breathtaking cinematography & Cate Blanchett's great acting, it deserves a solid 4 out of 5!
