Trailer: The Golden AgeMovie Stills: (moviefone.com)
IGN Review: StaxSubtlety is hard to find in Elizabeth: The Golden Age. The film's bodice-ripping passion is the stuff of romance novels featuring Fabio on the cover, and the film's political subtext is far too on the nose for its own good. (Even the score is over-the-top at times.) It is not reading too much into the film to see Philip II as a substitute for George W. Bush, portrayed by Molla as an awkward zealot whose piety fuels his policy to wage war on whomever he perceives as a threat.
On the other hand, the Catholics of this film are almost a stand-in for Muslims -- but, unlike Philip II, Elizabeth refuses to trample the rights of her subjects whose religion happens to be the same as her enemies -- while the Jesuit assassins operate like a terrorist cell. The film goes out of its way to make its metaphors transparent, as if screaming, "This isn't some period movie! This is really about today!"
The Spaniards here are reminiscent of both the Klingons as portrayed in the original Star Trek series (swarthy war-mongering charlatans), as well as Mexican bandidos in any number of spaghetti westerns. There's one scene where the Spanish ambassador practically snarls, "We don't need no stinkin' badges!" With his mumbled speech and deformed legs, Molla's Phillip II is a monstrous caricature, a cross between John Leguizamo in Moulin Rouge! and a Chris Kattan sketch character.
And yet despite these shortcomings, the breathlessly-paced film yanks you into its soap opera narrative and the three leads keep you invested in their characters. The innuendo-laced comic repartee between Blanchett and Owen ignites more than a few sparks, while Cornish and Blanchett create a tender, sisterly bond between the two Elizabeths. Blanchett even gets to deliver a rousing St. Crispin's Day-style speech while garbed in shining armor. There is some truly gorgeous cinematography, production design and art direction to be found, along with the grandest CG-enhanced sea battle this side of a Pirates of the Caribbean movie. So if you like your history lessons loud and garish, bombastic and bloody, then Elizabeth: The Golden Age is for you.
, which I can't recall if it made it to the local screens. However the DVD of Elizabeth was recently released on DVD here, but you need not have watched that movie because the events that transpire here are after the fact of her ascension to the Throne of England, and you need not be a history buff in order to get up to speed on the events that led up to the opening of the movie. Of course it does help a bit, so if you're choosing not to approach this blind, then you can pop over to Wikipedia for a quick synopsis.