ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE
RYAN: This movie has been 9 years in the making, and I’ve been waiting exactly that long to see it. It’s the sequel to “Elizabeth,” one of my favorite films ever – “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” starring Cate Blanchett.
CAROLINE: I, on the other hand, just saw “Elizabeth” on DVD for the first time the morning that we saw the sequel.
RYAN: And aren’t you glad you did?
CAROLINE: Yes, it definitely helped with my enjoyment of the second film.
RYAN: So which did you like better?
CAROLINE: Well, I don’t know if can answer that objectively since my boyfriend Clive Owen is in the sequel, so for me that made the movie incredibly worthwhile. He looked so breathtakingly gorgeous that I gasped aloud when he first showed up onscreen.
RYAN: He’s always attractive, but for some reason he looks better in this film than I’ve seen him look in I don’t know how long. It’s a little unsettling.
CAROLINE: The period piece agrees with him.
RYAN: I will say, however, that I liked the first “Elizabeth” better because it was less political and much more romantic and more about the trials and tribulations of her personal life. And I missed Joseph Fiennes a lot.
CAROLINE: Generally speaking, I’m not a huge fan of the historical drama so while I appreciated the beauty and artistry and fantastic acting of this movie and it’s prequel, I am never going to love them the way you do.
RYAN: Cate Blanchett was nominated for Best Actress when the first one came out but she lost to Gwyneth Paltrow in a pink dress, as we all remember. I can see Cate reprising an Oscar nom with this film; she’s that good.
CAROLINE: She’s phenomenal in pretty much everything she does, LBH. And certainly the costumes will get nominated, and maybe the music or the make-up. There is one scene where all of her wigs are on display and it’s so cool.
RYAN: The one thing I didn’t like about this movie was the music. It made me dislike certain scenes. It just didn’t seem to fit, or it was inappropriate for what was going on in the scene.
CAROLINE: Sometimes it seemed a little over-the-top. It got very sweeping and dramatic and I was like, “OK, we get it! It’s an important scene!”
RYAN: Geoffrey Rush also reprises his role, but this time it’s thankless. He doesn’t have the edge that he had in the first one, and it really disappointed me because he was so juicy in “Elizabeth.”
CAROLINE: I’d also like to point out that the woman who allegedly broke up the marriage of one Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe, Abbie Cornish, has a featured role in this movie as a seductress and she gets to make out with my boyfriend Clive. Uncool.
RYAN: I liked the special effects too, though we’re a little spoiled after all the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies. The Spanish Armada in this movie didn’t look that great in comparison, but it was still well done. This film has the same emotional arc that the first one has, and it leaves you with same good kind of chills at the end. Bottom line?
CAROLINE: I liked this movie, but I didn’t love it. Cate B is amazing, the costumes are great and it’s a beautiful film, but I started to get bored about three-quarters of the way through.
RYAN: I loved the first “Elizabeth” and I own it on DVD, but I only liked this one. It just didn’t have the same emotional impact for me, but it’s still a good movie and worthy of nominations. I’d recommend it to anyone who liked the first film.