Historical? No. A nice fairy-tale.

Rating: 6/10 (15 March 2008)

As a fairy tale with the good queen who defeats the black hats, it's quite nice. Let's add that Blanchett is a wonderful actress, and one would like to see her in something more serious.
Not that you get bored while seeing the film. And if you're totally ignorant of English history, you won't be annoyed by the many inaccuracies and lies.
The film is obviously victim of political correctness. Since Elizabeth is a woman who managed to stay free in that age of male domination, she must be good. Well, historian says she was tough, she was ruthless, and she knew politics... but she was quite different from the protagonist of this fairy tale.
Then, the producers of the film are trying to sell British people the idea that the British empire was founded by a progressive and open-minded queen. Not at all. The real founder was one who is totally out of fashion today, a blood-thirsty white male protestant Anglo-Saxon bastard called Oliver Cromwell, who is totally politically incorrect, but actually did the job. And Elizabeth was not such a progressive woman.
However, as I have already said, it's a nice fairy tale, the costumes are very good, Blanchett is special... and the 1588 battle in the Channel is not bad, though it's mostly computer graphics and it shows--looks a bit like a video game.