Cate Blanchet makes a return as the first female and virgin Queen of England in this sequel to the 1998 film Elizabeth.  This sequel, Elizabeth the Golden Age can be considered a mixed bag when it comes to historical accuracy, performances by the actors and lavish sets. 

The film opens with some historical context regarding the Spanish holy wars and how England was the only country to stand against the Catholic laws of Spain due to their protestant Queen.

The whole film is building up to the grand conflict with the Spanish Armada and the English fleet while also trying to address Queen Elizabeths own problems being a female Queen in a male dominated world.

It is fair to say that the film does take some creative liberties with the historical aspects of the story, it’s also fair to say that the 16^th century probably wasn’t as exciting as the film attempts to make out.  Accusations of piracy and treachery are thrown about like Frisbee and this is used to build the tension leading to the final conflict between the nations of Spain and England.

Of course the story does try to retain as much as possible that relates to the time period so the mention of the “new world” and the imprisonment of Mary, Queen of Scots, were inevitable.  But this is where some of my problems begin with the film.

This is one of my biggest peeves but it felt like there wasn’t any clear definition that Mary was actually a traitor until right at the very end and even then you felt like she wasn’t really a bad person.  The primary antagonist of the film was Phillip of Spain, the Spanish king at the time, but the secondary antagonist role was assigned to Mary, after all it was her ambition to seize the throne from her cousin.

Even towards the end of the film Mary’s role as an antagonist is thrown into question and it really made me confused as to whether I should be glad at her fate or be screaming for justice to be served.  Perhaps it was meant to be that way but it left a bad mark on the film for me.

As I said before though the acting and sets are superb, Blanchet does an amazing performance as Elizabeth and really portrays a regal air about her while at the same time acting as a mature and sensible ruler throughout the film, for the most part.

The sets used are lavish and are incredibly detailed, it really does feel like a 16^th Century England. This remains consistent throughout the film until the final battle; admitedly it’s hard to perform a battle at sea on ships which have been out of service for well over a century and a half and still make it look convincing.  Most of the Spanish Armada is created through green screen effects which I don’t have a problem with, but the actual sets they use for the ships just feel a fake.

Overall Blanchet’s performance brings this film up in terms of my ratings as do the set pieces, excluding the final battle.  However the historical liberties taken and the lack of definition when it comes to Marys role in this film brings the film down for me.