Shekhar Kapur returned to his favorite time period with this follow up to 1998's Elizabeth. While never quite matching the intrigue and historical drama of the first movie, this did deliver on Kapur's trademark visuals.
Back in 1998 Elizabeth lost out in the Oscar stakes to Shakespeare In Love. That romantic element that John Madden stirred up must have rubbed off on Kapur who injected a similar romantic overtone to Elizabeth's interaction with Clive Owen's Walter Raleigh. That for me along with some badly fictionalized historical events do detract from what is again a sumptuous looking movie full of wonderful shots and iconic imagery. From lofty overhead shots of Westminster Abbey to Blanchett's beautifully colorful costumes that include that armor…

55/100

Starkly contrasting the intense and dark themes surrounding 1998's Elizabeth, this sequel prefers to coat itself in grandiose set designs and splendid costumes, but ultimately forgets about the flat characters wearing them. The biggest issue with this sequel is that none of the actors (save Cate Blanchett and possibly Geoffrey Rush) seem truly convincing enough in their portrayals. They simply meander through the story, content with serving as mediocre supplements to our two well rounded main characters.

Perhaps the film suffered because it mainly consisted of entirely new characters with a couple repeat actors from the previous installment. Maybe the writers figured they already knew what to do with the other characters, and so they proceeded to fill Blanchett…

Katharine Hepburn won four Oscars. Ingrid Bergman won three, and Meryl Streep also has three. Cate Blanchett has two at the moment, not bad for a 47 year old actress, but how many should she have had? Three? Four? More than that? I'd hasten to suggest that she'll win more in due course, but her first and fourth Nominations for playing the same historical figure, that of Queen Elizabeth I, in Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth and it's sequel Elizabeth: The Golden Age should have surely bagged her at least one.
Elizabeth: The Golden Age gives us a fictional take on the tensions between Catholic Spain and Elizabeth's Protestant England that encompasses both the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots and the…

I'm not exactly sure whether Cate Blanchett was supposed to play a queen or a goddess in this movie, I tend to think it's the latter.

The Golden Age is radically different from its predecessor. It deals with power and what to do with it, once it's yours. Queen Elizabeth I faces many challenges in times of turmoil, deals with personal betrayal and finding her stability in the midst of uncertainty. The historical narrative is undoubtedly simplified, and facts have been altered, which would usually not bother me in a period drama, but in this case, it was almost absurd. I got the message that judgement should be guided by tolerance rather than religious fanaticism. Still, the portrayal of the…

As a film it is rather forgettable. Whereas the first film had a great mix of shakespearian drama and realpolitik intrigue, this bigger budget affair drowns in its own awkward CGI.

That said, Cate Blanchett is incredible here, it's an even greater performance than in Elizabeth. I was blown away in the scene where Clive Owen's Riley is talking of sighting land, and Elizabeth's face furrows at the mention of 'new life'. It's such an incredible moment of acting. That Blanchett can give a performance like this and be overlooked for an Oscar is a testament to her unanimous respect as an incredible actress. Almost any other actress would win the Oscar for delivering such a performance. Cate Blanchett is…