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Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)
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Reviews Counted:162
Fresh:55
Rotten:107
Average Rating:5.1/10
Consensus: This sequel is full of lavish costumes and elaborate sets, but lacks the heart and creativity of the original Elizabeth
Runtime: 1 hr 55 mins
Genre: Dramas
US Box Office: $16,264,475
Synopsis: Reprising the roles they originated in seven-time Academy Award®-nominated Elizabeth, Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush return for a gripping historical thriller laced with treachery and... Reprising the roles they originated in seven-time Academy Award®-nominated Elizabeth, Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush return for a gripping historical thriller laced with treachery and romance--The Golden Age. Joining them in the epic is Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh, a dashing seafarer and newfound temptation for Elizabeth. Elizabeth: The Golden Age finds Queen Elizabeth I (Oscar®-winner Cate Blanchett) facing bloodlust for her throne and familial betrayal. Growing keenly aware of the changing religious and political tides of late 16th century Europe, Elizabeth finds her rule openly challenged by the Spanish King Philip II (Jordi Molla)--with his powerful army and sea-dominating armada--determined to restore England to Catholicism. Preparing to go to war to defend her empire, Elizabeth struggles to balance ancient royal duties with an unexpected vulnerability in her love for Raleigh. But he remains forbidden for a queen who has sworn body and soul to her country. Unable and unwilling to pursue her love, Elizabeth encourages her favorite lady-in-waiting, Bess (Abbie Cornish), to befriend Raleigh to keep him near. But this strategy forces Elizabeth to observe their growing intimacy. As she charts her course abroad, her trusted advisor, Sir Francis Walsingham (Academy Award® winner Geoffrey Rush), continues his masterful puppetry of Elizabeth's court at home--and her campaign to solidify absolute power. Through an intricate spy network, Walsingham uncovers an assassination plot that could topple the throne. But as he unmasks traitors that may include Elizabeth's own cousin Mary Stuart (Samantha Morton), he unknowingly sets England up for destruction. Elizabeth: The Golden Age tells the thrilling tale of an era...the story of one woman's crusade to control love, crush enemies and secure her position as a beloved icon of the western world. --© Universal Pictures [More]
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Clive Owen, Rhys Ifans
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Clive Owen, Rhys Ifans, Samantha Morton, Abbie Cornish, Jordi Molla
Director: Shekhar Kapur
Director: Shekhar Kapur
Screenwriter: William Nicholson, Michael Hirst
Producer: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Jonathan Cavendish
Composer: Craig Armstrong, A.R. Rahman
Studio: Universal Pictures
Reviews for Elizabeth: The Golden Age
It may have been a gamble for director Shekhar Kapur to pick up the threads of his acclaimed film Elizabeth from nine years earlier but the result is overtly satisfying
The way Elizabeth: The Golden Age tells it, the Spanish Armada's defeat by the British Empire was the orgasm The Virgin Queen never had.
Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth: The Golden Age, from a screenplay by William Nicholson and Michael Hirst, turned out to be more rousingly entertaining than many of its less-than-lukewarm reviews had led me to anticipate.
The Golden Age feels like two movies: one a bodice-ripping romance, the other a study in statecraft and power. But these strands, one private, one public, come together in the title character and the balancing act she must master.
It's a full-scale star performance in every sense...and I wouldn't be surprised if, like Helen Mirren last year, Blanchett walks away with an Elizabethan Oscar.
We are left choking in the billows and folds of Queen Elizabeth I's fabulous finery without a single insight into the woman among them, let alone the most celebrated period in English history.
Unreliable as history and misguided as a contemporary allegory, Golden Age finally fails because it is a half-hearted spectacle, not even filmed in a widescreen format.
Period films, even sequels, are limited by budget, and Kapur does a marvellous job with the money he has.
Rich in colour, sumptuous costumes, political intrigues and the personal relationships which dominate Elizabeth once more.
But saddled with this dopey script, [Blanchett] is stuck pulling a series of poses and wearing one ornate gown after another.
A pedigreed romance, an excuse for Blanchett to bind herself in satin and channel Kate Hepburn.
a muddle that subsumes [its] premise in a mighty attempt to be several things all at once, with an uneven delivery
See it anyway for Blanchett's soulful modulation between queenly command and womanly anguish.
Making soap of statecraft, the film has plenty of juicy moments, but offers an inconsistent rather than complex view of Elizabeth.
Golden Age starts well, and with sharp wit and crisp dialogue. But as the story moves toward the tentative romance with Raleigh, the film drifts into melodrama...
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