Movie Review of Elizabeth: The Golden Age

The first Elizabeth film was a dark, moody drama with forbidden romance and political betrayals all running amok. The second film Elizabeth: The Golden Age, sounds like it might be a brighter, more golden affair. Nope, it takes what made the first one good and actually improves on it.

Directed by Shekhar Kapur, who also helmed the first film, the cast brings back Cate Blanchette as the Queen of England and Geoffrey Rush as her bodyguard. Clive Owen also joins the cast this time as Walter Raleigh, Samantha Morton is Mary Stuart, and Jordi Molla is the negatively portrayed King Phillip II of Spain. The plot is once again loaded with suspenseful intrigue as Spain plots to have Elizabeth assassinated and her country taken over in a holy war.

The acting and directing are all top notch, with the surroundings of castles and such adding immensely to the overall atmosphere. The first film was a very serious and dark drama at times and this one follows with the same vibe, however, in the first half there seems to be more humorous dialog and scenarios added in for the benefit of the audience. This movie also contains a lot more action than the first film did and looks as though they had a much, much larger budget. There are grand shots of the ship battles between England and the Spanish fleet near the end.

This is an epic sort of film, a period piece, and there are a few times when the speeches seem to have the dramatics layered on just a tad bit too thick, but some people enjoy thick syrup and getting all gooey with a good movie. There really isn't much else to say except that the film is outstandingly entertaining.

The plot in the first Elizabeth film was a little hard to follow and no matter how many times I have seen the movie I can never remember much about it aside from the darker aspects of Geoffrey Rush's character. On Elizabeth: The Golden Age there is one again a twisting conspiracy plot, however, the mechanics of it are much easier to follow and the film works much better. The Golden Age feels more audience friendly this time.