Review of Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) by Monster . — 14 Mar 2009

1998's 'Elizabeth' put australian Cate Blanchett on the movie map for her (what many consider) *the* definitive portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I. Taking place in her teenage years as the bastard child of Henry VIII to her ascension to the throne amidst royal politics and betrayal, we see a story of an innocent girl wishing to live an ordinary life, forced to assume the position and burden of one of european history's most important figures.

'The Golden Age' is the 2007 sequel that reunites director Kapur with Blanchett and other stars such as Geoffrey Rush, whose performance as the ruthlessly effective Sir Walsingham stole the first film, while introducing new actors such as Clive Owen, playing Sir Walter Raleigh.

In this film an older but not necessarily wiser Elizabeth fights a war on two fronts; a potential holy war with King Phillip of Spain, the Inquisition and the Spanish Armada while on a more personal front, her budding romance with dashing english pirate Walter Raleigh, unable to be fulfilled because of duty to her crown and country.

This film is beautifully shot and I found it a crime not to see it released in HD format, and backed by a strong cast, great performances abound. Yet by the end of the film I started to feel Kapur was creating a beautiful film for beauty's sake, where scenes began to be pointlessly artistic, as if we were watching something from film class, not a hollywood blockbuster. The portrayed conflict between the english naval fleet and Spanish Armada was probably the biggest dissapointment, being far too short and contrived (possibly due to budget reasons, i'm not sure) but after a 2 hr buildup towards the big conflict, one cannot help but think 'that's it?'.

I was all set to buy this on home video but after viewing i'm content with it being a rental.