ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE

The ambitions were obviously high for the talent behind Elizabeth: The Golden Age but despite Cate Blanchett's extraordinary work as a now older and more troubled Queen Elizabeth I, the film is weighed down my such lofty goals and the need to tell three Elizabeth stories in one that it ends up being one of the most disjointed and terrible films of the year. We have the story of Mary Queen of Scots (Samantha Morton), which ya know was quite a big deal in the Queen's reign but it's barely touched upon here, though the few scenes about this topic that the film delt with I did like. Then there's the completely fabricated love triangle between Sir Walter Raleigh (a Cocky and laughable Clive Owen) and her female advisor (Abbie Cornish) which remarkably takes up the whole mid part of the film and is seemingly the movie the writer's astonishingly wanted to tell. And then, we get to what should have been the main and only big plot focus of the film and that's England's fight against Phillip II of Spain (Jordi Molla) and the legion of Spanish ships which we all know as The Spanish Armada. Quite another big deal and not the sort of thing that should ever be used as a 20 minute finale, just to try and inject some action into this dire affair. All these stores are at best simplified and at worst, shamefully fabricated and made up for the type of tale that must get history academics frustrated and mystified all at the same time. And really, I should know because my girlfriend is one of them! A feature length movie about Mary and her attempt to win the throne, or the Spanish Armada would have made great features if they were allowed the full length script to touch upon all the juicy aspects of the story. They should have never been used as bookmarks for the writers to weave a love triangle together, which was never the story that should have been told here. Elizabeth: The Golden Age feels like an over priced and camp adaptation of Monty Python or Blackadder, just without the humor. We have historical inaccuracies, over the top performances, some of the best costume and set designs for an historical epic in quite some time but with the movie's overblown and constantly thunderous score and director Shekhar Kapur's decision to frame each scene as dramatically as possible, it's hard to ever get close to this film on anything more than a visceral level. Yeah, Kapur's background as an Indian film-maker has now doubt influenced his beautiful colour schemes and the fantastic visuals of his films but ya know, you can stare at a pretty girl all day but if every word she speaks out of her mouth is garbage, then your going to move on and find someone else and that's the feeling you get half way through this movie. It looks nice, but I wish I had picked something else to see. By the time Clive Owen swings the ropes of his ship, windswept and acting like Errol Flynn as he takes on the Spanish, I was too busy worrying over what beverage I would drink once I got home than worry over the fact that Raleigh never left shore during the battle. I enjoyed the first Elizabeth ten years ago but this one is just a dud on nearly every level except the lead performance. Cate Blanchett (who won an Oscar the first time around) has to be hands down one of the greatest actresses' of her generation and there aren't too many out there at her age that you could instantly believe was The Queen of England. She commands every scene she is in and with all the camp direction going on around here, she still manages to shine and hopefully the Academy won't overlook her on the basis of this being a shit movie.

rating: 1.5

Elizabeth: The Golden Age looks spectacular and is carried remarkably well by Cate Blanchett but with the writer's ambition to tell three tales of the Queen's life in one go, the effect is a disjointed and complete mess of film. Honestly for that reason, this is one of the worst of the year for me as it's fabricated stories weren't interesting enough to warrant their inclusion over historical fact.