what a disappointment

Rating: 4/10 (15 October 2007)

Let's see now - this is a movie about Queen Elizabeth I in confrontation with the Spanish circa 1585. So where are the important players? Where's Leicester? Where's Sir William Cecil? Where's Drake? Where's Essex? Oh, yeah, in the first movie they said that the Earl of Leicester turned traitor against Elizabeth and participated in a plot to assassinate her. Cecil was real old and retired/fired by Elizabeth early on. Essex did't exist and Drake just kept in the shadows and did nothing important. Hmmmm.... Some peculiar history that Kapur has going on there. Just how are we to regard the relationship of this made-up faux Elizabeth to the real one? There were serious historical problems with the first movie that have only been made worse in this one. (They couldn't even leave the Tilbury speech alone; they just had to mangle it, too.) And yes, facts matter. Or would you accept a film biography where Lincoln went to Ford's Theater but left at the intermission? The only thing this film has going for it is Cate Blanchett, and it's not very kind even to her. She is basically there just to bellow in a "regal" fashion, flash a little eroticism here and there, and wear extravagant (and in some cases wildly inappropriate) costumes. The rest of the cast throws it away. Clive Owen in particular should be embarrassed at trying to create a Raleigh that should more properly be propped up as set decor for the next "Pirates of the Caribbean" film. Geoffery Rush obviously just took the money and ran, giving nothing of the original performance as Walsingham in return. On the whole - don't bother. Wait 'till it's on cable.....