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 Elizabeth: The Golden Age 

What grade would you give this film?
A 8%  8%  [ 1 ]
B 33%  33%  [ 4 ]
C 50%  50%  [ 6 ]
D 8%  8%  [ 1 ]
F 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
Total votes : 12

 Elizabeth: The Golden Age 
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Post Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Elizabeth: The Golden Age

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Elizabeth: The Golden Age is a 2007 sequel to the 1998 film Elizabeth, directed by Shekhar Kapur and produced by Universal Pictures and Working Title Films. It stars Cate Blanchett in the title role and is loosely based on events during the latter part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England. The screenplay was written by William Nicholson and Michael Hirst. The music score was composed by A. R. Rahman and Craig Armstrong.

It was filmed at Shepperton Studios and various locations around the United Kingdom with an estimated production budget of 50 to 60 million USD. Guy Hendrix Dyas was the film's production designer and co-visual effects supervisor and the costumes were created by Alexandra Byrne.

The film premiered on 9 September 2007 at the Toronto International Film Festival. It opened in wide release in the United States and Canada on October 12, 2007. It premiered in London on 23 October 2007 and is on general release from 2 November 2007 throughout the rest of the UK and Republic of Ireland. It opened in Australia and New Zealand on 15 November 2007.

The film won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design and Blanchett received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

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Wed Oct 10, 2007 1:07 pm
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Post Re: Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Starts off very promising with a lot of light humor and an entertaining pace. But the second half, when it tries to develop a serious plot, starts becoming worse an worse by the minute until it became almost a humiliating embarrassment to watch (think Wicker Man). Charismatic performances by Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen and Samantha Morton are completely wasted under the cheesy dialogue, melodramatic direction, and unconvincng editing. First half = B+, second half=D, overall=C.


Fri Oct 12, 2007 4:30 am
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Post Re: Elizabeth: The Golden Age
It feels pretty amateurish. Which makes me disappointed because there really was a lot to dig into here, with the that historical period, the new world being discovered, and Elizabeth herselfs character and the way the position binds her. Unfortunatley, it trys to touch on all those things but misses the mark completley... its just a sloppy mess of a film.

Theres no emotional connection, even though thats exactly what they tried to do with this movie, create Elizabeth and co. as humans. It was ambitious project, but they just missed the mark and were in over their heads. For example, theres a scene early on where Bess turns in her cousin and dear friend and leads him to his hanging. It really should be a big emotional moment for that character, but you leave it feeling absolutely nothing.

The character of Bess doesnt really work at all. Part of it is Mortons bad performance(felt like a 20th century girl playing dress-up, didnt fit in with the times at all), most of it is the screenplay and directors fault. The whole relationship with her and Raleigh, the baby, and Elizabeths reaction to it, is butchered. Again, with so much to work with here historically and etc. here, did they have to spend the majority of the plot on a love triangle. Bleh.

As for Elizabeth herself, they try so hard to make her human and deep, but trying does not equal succeeding... what we get is 2 hours of her crying and bitching and the director thinking thatll make her seem deep as a human being. In the end she comes off as more a spoiled crying brat than anything.

The screenplay is bad. Its pretty much historical drama for dummies. You know how films have lines at the end of dramatic scenes that touch on something metaphorically or philosophically or something, and are usually loud big moments that usually get used for trailers, including lots in this films... This film not only had loads of that, but every line was one. Thats how they talked! These lines in regular context might seem good in the middle of a film to give it a jump, but when used every line, it just ends up sounding cliche and hammy. And speaking of hammy, the spanish were treated hilariously here. I kept thinking theyd pull out a moustache to start twirling.

Some positives. Blanchett, Owen, and Rush are all very good here. The costume design is solid. I liked the battle scene. The assasination storyline and the executed almost queen storyline worked well, they probably shouldve gaven more time to that. And finally, despite all things, the film is far from boring.

I think the filmmakers had a right idea here trying to humanize Elizabeth, but they went way over their heads. They didnt know how to create the atmosphere of that time frame, they didnt know how to deal with their characters, and what we get instead is 2 hours of as the above review said, unconvincing and painful characters.

All I can say is... YUCK.

C-

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Fri Oct 12, 2007 7:13 pm
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Post Re: Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Your well-written review is 98% spot on, but I'd have to disagree with you on Samantha Morton and Geoffery Rush. Rush was immensely disappointing, especially compared to his complex, masterful turn in the first movie. And Morton gave the most consistently best perfomance here as the chilling Mary Stuart in spite of the flawed direction. I think you meant that Abbie Cornish was bad (which she definitely was).


Sat Oct 13, 2007 9:08 am
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Post Re: Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Yes you're right, got it mixed up/didn't know my facts. :oops:

Marie Stewart and the assasination was by far my favorite part of the movie actually.

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Sun Oct 14, 2007 8:41 pm
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Post Re: Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Disappointing. It's well-acted (Blanchett is perfect for this role, and Rush and Owen are solid as well) and gorgeously shot, but very flawed in most other respects. For example, the climactic battle sequence was rather 'meh,' what with the barely-convincing special effects and the annoying choice to concentrate solely on the heroics of Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen) and render almost every other British warrior a nameless piece of meat for the grinder.

C+

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Mon Oct 15, 2007 12:02 am
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Post Re: Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Well, ya gotta be in the mood for some freakin' bombastic, melodramatic, historical (and/or histrionic) pageantry - - but if y'all are - - do I gotta movie for you!!!

Elizabeth: The Golden Age was really special. A movie not afraid to amp-out on costumes and sets and cgi backdrops and bigtime actors and pleasantly skewed direction. This movie goes for it.

I'm not buying all the naysaying for this film - - it's gonna hold up to repeated viewings over the long run, and in the end will make a noble centerpiece for the ultimate Elizabeth trilogy...

GREAT.


Fri Oct 19, 2007 2:44 am
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Post Re: Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Well i went in with pretty ow expectations after reading the reviews, but what can i say.... i enjoyed it!

Yes the script is awful, yes i hate clive owen in anything, yes the direction was pretty poor, but it entertained me! I love blanchett and boy was she having fun here, Cornish was excellent as well. Fantastic costumes and art direction, 2 hours of campy fun, B.

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Mon Nov 12, 2007 10:22 am
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Post Re: Elizabeth: The Golden Age
miserable miserable miserable film. For some reason they are sending out DVD screener's and I just do not know why. The film is bad. Owen gives such an awful performance I was embarrased for him. Blanchett wasn't anything special either. Plus the film was just fuckin boring

D-


Sat Dec 22, 2007 4:57 pm
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Post Re: Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Derails half way thru which is kinda disappointing. Still very watchable though.

B-


Sun Dec 23, 2007 10:41 am
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B-


I went in with low expectations and got pretty much that. It's certainly a worse movie than the first Elizabeth film, but it still has some of the strengths of that movie. First of all, Cate Blanchett is still brilliant here and I can fully understand why she was nominated for the Oscar once again (she should have won for the first one). While her character lacks the insecurities and some fears that she had in the first film, I still found her to be quite complex in a different way this time around and Blanchett's multi-layered performances was pitch-perfect for the character. Geoffrey Rush lends splendid support once again here, especially in his final scenes with his brother. I simply love Rush's character.

Of course the movie also was convincing on a technical level. The costume design was rightfully awarded. Yeah, it was a surprise, but it seems like the Academy has stopped awarding movies because they've scored many noms and are running for BP, but much rather started awarding deserving winners for a change! The art direction was nice too and same goes for some wonderfuly cinematography.

But for all the good acting and the prettiness of the film comes the confused screenplay which isn't very sure what story it actually wants to tell. The love triangle between Beth, Elizabeth and Raleigh is terribly handled. I never actually realized who Raleigh loved in the end: Beth or Elizabeth. The Mary Stuart scenes were waaayyy too short, especially since Mortom seemed great in those short scenes she has had. Clive Owen seemed rather misplaced here and what could have been a cool battle on sea with the Spanish armada was shown too quickly, too fast-edited and ended up being a disappointment.

Once again, a movie with potential, but the screenplay and some inept direction kills it mostly. Most of the actors are to be lauded, though, for standing out in this film that would otherwise have been a terrible mess.

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Tue Mar 04, 2008 7:12 pm
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Post Re: Elizabeth: The Golden Age
This is one of those movies where almost everything comes together except for two of the most critical aspects of a successful film - the screenplay and direction. I enjoyed all of the performances (except for Abbie Cornish, who was horrible). Cate Blanchett was fantastic - and while her performance is not as good as it was in the first film I can see why she got acclaim for it. It really makes the movie. The costumes and sets are fantastic, the score was great and some of the cinematography was gorgeous. But the screenplay is so cheesy and over-the-top, and the love triangle storyline just doesn't work at all. In addition, the direction seems lazy and the finale of the film feels so anti-climactic. I also wished that there was more of a focus on Mary Stuart's storyline, since it was one of the film's strong points. Anyways, this is worth seeing and nowhere near as bad as reviews would indicate. It's also quite entertaining, much like the first film was. I'd recommend it. B/B-

By comparison:

Elizabeth - A-


Wed Mar 05, 2008 7:12 pm
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Post Re: Elizabeth: The Golden Age
I too can command the wind, Sir!

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Thu Mar 06, 2008 11:54 am
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Post Re: Elizabeth: The Golden Age
I was lucky enough to catch this on an international flight. What a folly! A real piece of shit.

But it was entertaining in that capacity. I was unlucky enough to follow it up with Becoming Jane, one of the most misguided and boring movies I've ever seen. BJ was the perfect movie to watch if one really wanted to appreciate the foolishness and decadence and bad taste of this flop.

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Sun Mar 09, 2008 12:17 pm
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Post Re: Elizabeth: The Golden Age
C

Pretty bad. Poor editting, zero intensity, no sense of the characters. The only good thing about this movie was that everyone looked really good. So, props to the costume designers. Kudos to Samantha Morton for creating a good sense of drama, romance, and even sensuality in her beheading scene. It was the highlight of the movie, and was ruined only by the randomly inserted scenes of Elizabeth having a slipshod cliche breakdown.

I watched this movie last night, and I did watch it through to its end. It wasn't particularly offensive, it was just bland and poorly synthesized. I swear to God Vivian Westwood designed the outfits though. They were great and salvaged the experience of watching this movie. They were 100% responsible for holding what little attention I could muster, and they were the sole reason I even gave this film a barely-passing mark.


Tue Mar 18, 2008 3:49 pm
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