ViewGuide

Created Oct 29, 2007 12:54AM PST • Edited Apr 21, 2013 11:04AM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   A worthy sequel to Elizabeth, though perhaps suffering a bit by coming second. Nonetheless, it doesn’t get any better than this for fans of historical drama, while the performance of Cate Blanchett as the Virgin Queen remains the modern benchmark for acting royally.

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Cate Blanchett reprises her role as ‘The Virgin Queen,’ a role she fills inimitably, notwithstanding the other legendary performers who also played the part. Blanchett’s voice, a wonderful instrument, has the ability to drop a register when needed, making her sound very powerful indeed.

   Clive Owen, now a bona fide movie star, easily assumes the role of mature, intelligent and dashing privateer-explorer. His Sir Walter Raleigh conveys a brash sense of independence and individualism that marks him as a proto-American, in sharp contrast to the Old World deference to place and position that constrains everyone else in the Elizabethan court.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Perfect 5.0

7. Female Costars Very Good 3.5

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    A masterfully mounted costume drama. As is the case nowadays, not only are the costumes richer than ever, but the production design leaves little to the imagination, the combination of big budgets and digital FX delivering exteriors of Old Londontown, interiors of castles, and flotillas of Spanish Armadas that dazzle the eye.

11. Direction Great 4.0

12. Play Great 4.0

    It may be historical poppycock, but the scenes of Sir Walter Raleigh introducing tobacco and potatoes to England (and presumably from there to Ireland), are fascinating. Couple that with the Virginia-Conjugia joke from the Virgin Queen, and the movie delivers a delightfully smart script.

13. Music Good 3.0

14. Visuals Perfect 5.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.1

17. Sex Titillating 1.7

18. Violence Brutal 3.0

19. Rudeness Salty 1.7

21. Reality

    Glib 1.5

    While I don’t recall the movie using the classic Hollywood weasel words “Inspired by real events”, the Wikipedia Historical Inaccuracies entry makes clear that much circumstantial liberty was taken.

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.1

23. Biological Glib 1.3

24. Physical Natural 1.0