February 7, 2008

Golden Globe/Oscar nominee review #2: Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Elizabeth: The Golden Age - Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush ELIZABETH: The Golden Age

Directed by
: Shekhar Kapur

Released by: Universal Pictures, Working Title

Noms: Oscar Best Actress, Costume Design; Globes Best Actress

Wins: N/A

Tomatometer: 34% (Loser.)

In a nutshell: Spell it with me! B-O-R-I-N-G. BORING! But what saves the history lesson from disaster is its lead star Cate Blanchett who gives a great performance, as usual.

Actually, even within the facade of the English-Spanish war, there is a romance story going on, and not only any ordinary affair. This Spanish pirate named Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen) goes to our dear queen Elizabeth I (Cate Blanchett) when she tries to look for suitors so that she can produce an heir. The pressure of being queen sets in and because Raleigh is a Spaniard, she cannot love nor marry him. Of course, there is also the aforementioned war King Philip has waged against her for being Protestant that she has to take care of. So yeah, that's quite a lot of work.

Though the same director from the first movie (yeah, this one's a sequel) which got leading star Blanchett her first (of many) Best Actress Oscar, this one just doesn't match up. Why? Because for one, it's pretty boring and disappointing probably for those expecting more from this. But hey, the film's quite goodly shot, but Blanchett just looks like... a female drag queen. Yeah, there are the triangular love twists and such, but... they're not just very effectively presented as I would have wanted to expect... especially on a Cate Blanchett film!

Still, the fact that Cate reprises her role here (and still does it with fiery passion!) is the film's very saving grace as she effectively knows how to carry a sinking history movie such as this. Heck, it's no surprise that she's being nominated again!

But as for the movie itself... well, maybe you can stick to watching the first one (and I'm just saying sheerly for the fact that the first movie's 79% on RT). It's a pretty boring history lesson (as I have said for like, what? 3 or 4 times already?) and something I almost slept in! That is, if it weren't for Cate!

Rating: 6/10 (Zzzzz...., this one was supposed to be a 5! I like Cate's performance, though, so what the hell.)

PHOTO CREDIT: Rotten Tomatoes
Next in the series: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (tomorrow)

No comments:

Post a Comment

 
Elegant de BlogMundi