* * * * *
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush, Abbie Cornish, Samantha Morton, Jordi Molla, Aimee King
Screenplay: William Nicholson and Michael Hirst
114 minutes / Color
Shekhar Kapur’s “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”, sequel to 1998’s “Elizabeth” (starring most of the same principal cast and under the same crew), is not as good as the original but as compelling and entertaining as ever. Kapur brings us another amazing spectacle with royal blood. Yes, the first one was way better, but “The Golden Age” lives up to MY expectations and makes a pretty decent sequel.
Queen Elizabeth I (Cate Blanchett) has gone through so many things in the early past, but now she faces an even bigger crisis that both builds on her rule of the country of England and the ruling of her personal life.
When a Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen) returns from “The New World” (America) after he has claimed Virginia as a colony of England, Elizabeth the Virgin Queen is rather thrilled and interested in this explorer. As her affection for the man rises, her favorite Lady In Waiting Elizabeth Throckmorton (Abbie Cornish) is also slowly falling in love with Raleigh. As their personal lives collide and the Queen discovers that the two are “with child”, another problem occurs for the Queen and her beloved country.
Spain, the strongest civilization in the world wants England to change from being Protestant and convert to Catholicism. However, Elizabeth won’t stand for her for this because she is Protestant and allows her people to practice any religion they wish. So King Phillip II of Spain begins his assignation attempts on the Queen so that Elizabeth’s cousin, Mary Stuart (Samantha Morton), second heir to the throne and is Catholic can be Queen of England. But when Mary is discovered and soon sentenced to death for treason, Spain uses her as an excuse to start a religious war.
Elizabeth’s army cannot compare to Spain’s (England only has 3,000 men while Spain has a huge 10,000), but hope has come inside of her that she can beat the people but first forgive herself. She frees Raleigh from the prison she sentenced him to for impregnating her Lady in Waiting and makes him one of the leaders of the war.
With all her Queenly powers and belief in England, the country wins with a great deal of help from Raleigh (whose war tactics saved them all). Queen Elizabeth forgives Raleigh, Elizabeth (Cornish) and her child and that keeps her promise that England will not fall as long as she’s the queen. This time was considered “The Golden Age”.
Pretty simple story actually, this story shows us the power of the Queen of England. It shows how wise this woman was, even though her personal life and mind was decaying from heartache and mistreat, and this is all done by another very great woman: Cate Blanchett.
2007 seems to be a much better year for Actresses and their performances other then Actors. Cate Blanchett delivers one of the best. Her reprised Oscar nominated role of Queen Elizabeth is once more Oscar Worthy. She delivers us elegance with a refine air and wisdom like no other. From begging to end we know Elizabeth wants to have fun, but is still very serious and very wise when the time calls for it. This is because of Blanchett.
Blanchett also shows us that the Queen is portrayed as one of the strongest people in the history of the world, but is also human. She shows us that Elizabeth is not made out of wood like she shows herself in public, but at the background has a soft woman’s heart and feelings. She shows us the Queen’s feelings by also remaining a rather disturbing mystery of what is REALLY going on in her mind. This takes a lot of skill, a lot of Kudos to Blanchett. It seems though that Cate has some really hard competition (Amy Adam’s for “Enchanted”, in terms of deserving off course), luckily she’s already an Oscar winner.
These past years, Cate Blanchett has given us a variety of brilliant performances. Her 2004 turn as the great Katharine Hepburn was magnificent, her 2006 role as a teacher having an affair with her student in “Notes on a Scandal” was utterly fabulous and Cate just keeps giving us more. Keep it up, Cate. You’ve proven you are one of the best actresses in Hollywood today.
Apart from the great role that outshined everyone else, “The Golden Age’s” technicals are to marvelous to miss. The cinematography was a perfect match to the extensively beautiful costumes and sets. Everything however is really beneath the greatness of the wonderful costume design. These costumes are like no other. They are so fine and detailed that it makes “Marie-Antoinette” (2006) look like a B-Movie. Cate’s body type complemented the costumes that should be considered a near lock to win the Oscar at the end of the year.
Kapur’s direction was better then the first. He seemed more concentrated and his direction not only gave us some really beautiful shots that helped the story, but it also enhanced the beauty and spectacle of the picture.
To finish up the review, “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” does not deserve all the panning it got from critics. Maybe they were just disappointed that it wasn’t as good as the first, which lead to the wrong conclusions. The film was really beautiful, historically significant but also widely entertaining. Cate Blanchett is singled out as one of this year’s best and film should remain in my 2007 Top 10. Hopefully.
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush, Abbie Cornish, Samantha Morton, Jordi Molla, Aimee King
Screenplay: William Nicholson and Michael Hirst
114 minutes / Color
Shekhar Kapur’s “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”, sequel to 1998’s “Elizabeth” (starring most of the same principal cast and under the same crew), is not as good as the original but as compelling and entertaining as ever. Kapur brings us another amazing spectacle with royal blood. Yes, the first one was way better, but “The Golden Age” lives up to MY expectations and makes a pretty decent sequel.
Queen Elizabeth I (Cate Blanchett) has gone through so many things in the early past, but now she faces an even bigger crisis that both builds on her rule of the country of England and the ruling of her personal life.
When a Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen) returns from “The New World” (America) after he has claimed Virginia as a colony of England, Elizabeth the Virgin Queen is rather thrilled and interested in this explorer. As her affection for the man rises, her favorite Lady In Waiting Elizabeth Throckmorton (Abbie Cornish) is also slowly falling in love with Raleigh. As their personal lives collide and the Queen discovers that the two are “with child”, another problem occurs for the Queen and her beloved country.
Spain, the strongest civilization in the world wants England to change from being Protestant and convert to Catholicism. However, Elizabeth won’t stand for her for this because she is Protestant and allows her people to practice any religion they wish. So King Phillip II of Spain begins his assignation attempts on the Queen so that Elizabeth’s cousin, Mary Stuart (Samantha Morton), second heir to the throne and is Catholic can be Queen of England. But when Mary is discovered and soon sentenced to death for treason, Spain uses her as an excuse to start a religious war.
Elizabeth’s army cannot compare to Spain’s (England only has 3,000 men while Spain has a huge 10,000), but hope has come inside of her that she can beat the people but first forgive herself. She frees Raleigh from the prison she sentenced him to for impregnating her Lady in Waiting and makes him one of the leaders of the war.
With all her Queenly powers and belief in England, the country wins with a great deal of help from Raleigh (whose war tactics saved them all). Queen Elizabeth forgives Raleigh, Elizabeth (Cornish) and her child and that keeps her promise that England will not fall as long as she’s the queen. This time was considered “The Golden Age”.
Pretty simple story actually, this story shows us the power of the Queen of England. It shows how wise this woman was, even though her personal life and mind was decaying from heartache and mistreat, and this is all done by another very great woman: Cate Blanchett.
2007 seems to be a much better year for Actresses and their performances other then Actors. Cate Blanchett delivers one of the best. Her reprised Oscar nominated role of Queen Elizabeth is once more Oscar Worthy. She delivers us elegance with a refine air and wisdom like no other. From begging to end we know Elizabeth wants to have fun, but is still very serious and very wise when the time calls for it. This is because of Blanchett.
Blanchett also shows us that the Queen is portrayed as one of the strongest people in the history of the world, but is also human. She shows us that Elizabeth is not made out of wood like she shows herself in public, but at the background has a soft woman’s heart and feelings. She shows us the Queen’s feelings by also remaining a rather disturbing mystery of what is REALLY going on in her mind. This takes a lot of skill, a lot of Kudos to Blanchett. It seems though that Cate has some really hard competition (Amy Adam’s for “Enchanted”, in terms of deserving off course), luckily she’s already an Oscar winner.
These past years, Cate Blanchett has given us a variety of brilliant performances. Her 2004 turn as the great Katharine Hepburn was magnificent, her 2006 role as a teacher having an affair with her student in “Notes on a Scandal” was utterly fabulous and Cate just keeps giving us more. Keep it up, Cate. You’ve proven you are one of the best actresses in Hollywood today.
Apart from the great role that outshined everyone else, “The Golden Age’s” technicals are to marvelous to miss. The cinematography was a perfect match to the extensively beautiful costumes and sets. Everything however is really beneath the greatness of the wonderful costume design. These costumes are like no other. They are so fine and detailed that it makes “Marie-Antoinette” (2006) look like a B-Movie. Cate’s body type complemented the costumes that should be considered a near lock to win the Oscar at the end of the year.
Kapur’s direction was better then the first. He seemed more concentrated and his direction not only gave us some really beautiful shots that helped the story, but it also enhanced the beauty and spectacle of the picture.
To finish up the review, “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” does not deserve all the panning it got from critics. Maybe they were just disappointed that it wasn’t as good as the first, which lead to the wrong conclusions. The film was really beautiful, historically significant but also widely entertaining. Cate Blanchett is singled out as one of this year’s best and film should remain in my 2007 Top 10. Hopefully.
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