The actual battle scenes at sea had a brevity and dreamlike quality about them that might give one pause to question their believability . . . the seas looked real, the sails all billowed properly, the cannon fire was appropriately devastating, and none of this looked like digital incompetence . . . but the sum total of all this effect added up to fiery anti-climactic ho-hum, but maybe that's not important, because the queen's Joan of Arc-like rally-the-troops speech at Tilbury shore was as good as the one Shakespeare wrote for his Henry V at Agincourt on Saint Crispin's Day in 1415.lizabeth herself . . . ruler of England at the pivotal moment when Philip of Spain launched the Spanish Armada, threatening to bring Elizabeth down and Catholicize her nation.
Enter Cate Blanchett, who may not have been the most convincing as Kathryn Hepburn in The Aviator, but definitely rules as queen in Elizabeth the Golden Age, reprising the role she first gave in Elizabeth (1998), commanding both her country and all of her co-stars in this opulent production that, in this sequel, presents Elizabeth like some regal showgirl, seen "backstage" constantly changing gowns and wigs to make the most formidable appearances, as she tells the oily Spanish ambassador to "go back to his rathole" after his rather undiplomatic remarks about her reputation, or as she arrests the two people closest to her for romantic treason, her lady in waiting, Bess (Abbie Cornish) and the rogueish Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen), whom the queen loves.
And none of these comments are to be seen as criticism, for I loved this movie from the first minute, because of the grand scale authenticity, both in performances from all concerned, set in the convincing halls of power . . . an engrossing look at the Tudor court on the brink of becoming an empire.
The actual battle scenes at sea had a brevity and dreamlike quality about them that might give one pause to question their believability . . . the seas looked real, the sails all billowed properly, the cannon fire was appropriately devastating, and none of this looked like digital incompetence . . . but the sum total of all this effect added up to fiery anti-climactic ho-hum, but maybe that's not important, because the queen's Joan of Arc-like rally-the-troops speech at Tilbury shore was as good as the one Shakespeare wrote for his Henry V at Agincourt on Saint Crispin's Day in 1415.