This is an excellent period movie that focused on the dynamic and troubled QUEEN ELIZABETH. It's a great movie to look at! the story is not as tight and moving as the last and there are some continuity issues with the script that make it tough to...
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This is an excellent period movie that focused on the dynamic and troubled QUEEN ELIZABETH. It's a great movie to look at! the story is not as tight and moving as the last and there are some continuity issues with the script that make it tough to watch without focus. You MUST be paying attention to this movie to follow it. This continuing story is amazing...but not THE BEST. It's worth watching and enjoying for the history. It's a great addition to the DVD library.

This time round there was something missing. No, scratch that, there was a lot missing.

I don't want to pan the film, as it had it's merits. Starting with the cast, whom, took the shoddy under produced dialog and managed to...
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This time round there was something missing. No, scratch that, there was a lot missing.

I don't want to pan the film, as it had it's merits. Starting with the cast, whom, took the shoddy under produced dialog and managed to salvage their own dignity from disgrace. All the leads were fantastic and as usual Geoffery Rush stole every scene he graced. For those of you whom have read my previous reviews, you know that no actor is an island, so in this case I must give the Direction some credit for its ability to capture the actors at the right times and correct manner to bring out their abilities.

The art was amazing. This movie is bordering on art-film, with it's lavish costumes and complex moving shots and panoramas. There were a few amazing moments created on film (captured no longer exists considering so much of film is done in a computer), from the turning end scene to that point where Elizabeth is standing on the cliffs overlooking her victory. Amazing.

But the rest was almost unbearable. As I noted the dialog was hardly the same caliber writing of even a Gwyneth Paltrow Elizabethan pix, let alone up to the standards set by the first Elizabeth movie. Of course it had it's moments of sincerity and brilliance, but those few scenes are the viewable in the trailer (i.e "I to can command the wind, sir!" - Evidience of Cate Blanchette unbelievable skill).

The story, although obvious, was cramped and felt like a bad meal I just wanted to digest and get through. To much was attempted. To much over done. To many tastes. They could have simply focused on sections of this very complex and overly done story and it would have been a much better movie. The movie could have started with the beheading of Mary Queen of Scotts and the writers could have taken some poetic license with the rest, instead of submitting us to every bit of minutia that the whole of Spain and England went through. I bet the whole building of the Spanish Armada didn't take as long as this convoluted story. (social note: maybe the writers felt like they had to because no one knows history anymore - but this is not completely accurate either!?)

Do I suggest it? Sure, but not for the story or the dialog. See it for the art and the clever survival skills of actors working with out a net.