The Two Elizabeth's

In Elizabeth, we saw a young girl become queen, find a sense of duty, and give up her life for her country by leaving her love and making her unwed status a piece in a chess game of monarchs. Its strengths were its historical accuracy, magnificent costumes, and an list of great actors (even Daniel Craig, the newest James Bond, had a small role as a spy and assassin). Elizabeth: The Golden Age shares the costumes and actors, but misses in historical accuracy. To its advantage, it is more entertaining, if you can ignore the history.
Golden Age is not necessarily a sequel, as it ignores most of what happened in the first movie, while the same actors fill the same roles for a different decade. The first film ended with Elizabeth before her court, accepting her role, announcing she has made herself "virgin" for her country. Protestant Queen Elizabeth is patient with England, divided between Catholics and Protestants. She refuses to imprison the Catholics at the risk of possible assassinations (something she has experience with in the first movie). Devout Catholic Spain, lead by a menancing King Philip intends to invade England with an armada, and put equally menancing Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots on the thrown of England after Elizabeth's assassination.
That's the political story. The personal story is Elizabeth desires the pirate Sir Walter Raleigh, who founded a colony for the Virgin Queen (hence Raleigh, Virginia). She envies his exploration and free spirit. Naturally, this doesn't fit with the diplomatic, respectable, royal role she must stay to, so she has one of her ladies-in-waiting, also named Elizabeth, socialize with him so the Queen may live becariously through her.
Elizabeth would have been 50 and Raleigh 32, making any pyshical romance -such as when the queen asks the pirate for a kiss- highly unlikely. Raleigh was ashore during the battle, yet in the film he is lighting fires, swinging from ropes and leaping to waters' safety as ships explode. Casting Clive Owen was enough to make him have swashbuckler appearance, they didn't have to over-do it, although I respect him for going from Shoot 'Em Up to Golden Age in just two months. That's a talented actor.
The film will, no doubt, win the Academy Award for best costume, just as the first Elizabeth did. The costumes are essential here. The movie is part soap opera, part chick flick. It has a very Shakespearian feel to it. Of course, Shakespeare never wrote of Queen Elizabeth because she lived during his time and would have been in the audience.
The costumes add to the atmosphere and drama. The various costumes, wigs, and dresses of the Queen symbolizes her various layers and the different lives of queen and woman she embodies. Her face is red and full of passion commanding in a smaller dress, while a large white gown and powdered face give her the "virgin queen" look of symbolic purity. Without the wig in a bath, we see a great change as she talks of her envy of the common woman.
Blanchett proves herself as an actress. She shows a variety of emotions in every scene. As the plot to overthrow her is revealed, she kicks the Spanish ambassador out of her country, so which he says a wind will blow her kingdom away. Blanchett hesitates her lines (who speaks to a queen like this!?!?), then screams "I too can command the wind. I have a hurricane in me that will strip Spain bare if you dare to try me!" She sounds so convincing we almost believe her, then she turns her back and her lips quiver at the threat Spain poses.
All moments in the film play out like this, highly dramatized to the point we feel tired by the seriousness of it all rather than a progression. Geoffrey Rush, who plays the Queen's most trusted advisor, carries his own weight around in the drama of it all as he cooly handles various potential assassins. I wanted to see more of him and what he thinks of a Queen he established power to in the first Elizabeth and guides to prosper a nation in Golden Age, but too much attention goes to the Queen.
Is it entertaining? Yes. The movie is, for the most part, uneventful, but by comparison, very eventful from the first Elizabeth. The events that unfold expose the plot to overthrow England step-by-step, which gives us a greater development and essential climax for the movie.
Is it for everyone? No. Far from it. Historians and those liking the soap operas would find it entertaining. Others should find another movie. It narrows its audience with its stunning work that we only care so much about.
Is it memorable? Yes. But I would suggest a glass of fine wine to calm me down so i don't get restless in my seat and put me in the mood for the elegant. Few moods fit its two hours.
My suggestions? Think carefully what it's about before you invest in it.