And so I ended my review of the movie “Elizabeth” as “My expectations are to see the Elizabeth with unanimated and convincing character trapped in the midst of religion, people and country”. Little did the sequel “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” convince us with the character of lonely authoritative queen left dangling aimlessly to continue here too. The budget is increased and anchors it again. With that director Shekar Kapur laboriously strain us into this responsibility tying the feelings of the lonely queen and her ridiculous tantrums of her in unbelievable situations uninterestingly.
We see a confident and controlling Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett) who in all means while enjoying the power tries to govern something (now and then she says “people” to remind us of her concern over her country) and apart from that her youth and loss of love and lust is dissected as they try. A charismatic sailor Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen) strikes and interests her to bring back those days when she was a woman than a queen. And one more trusty (and we know she is going to fall for Raleigh too) Beth (Abbie Cornish) who provides little to no support in the solacing Elizabeth’s deprivation of true love. Well, shall we not see the same trust and betrayal in the previous venture too? It is not new and still not interesting.
In the first film, I was able to at least corner some ant sized empathy for the character Blanchett gives but in this, she is grown and controlling child than a responsible adult. The title suggested and made me to expect that her reform or the religious beliefs are show on how she managed to equip and season the people to survive but it is of no significance other than the plans of Philip of Spain (Jordi Mollà) to dethrone her. To this directionless script is couple of other talents wasted. The only impressive part in the first movie Geoffrey Rush as Francis Walsingham is denied some presence of wisdom and dark cunningness. Samantha Morton as Mary Stuart is another entry into the hall of wasted talents.
Including Elizabeth, rest of the characters has no sense of their goal, instinct or outcomes. We see Mary Stuart shred some lifeless bitterness towards the queen. She tells she prays for her cousin while no reason is explored in depth. While Elizabeth suffers from the conscience haunting her way on the execution, why does not she stop it? The law should be imposed but lawful killing is not right in her beliefs too. As the history speaks there might have been more enough reason for those actions but we do not see it a bit.
It’s quite evident that director Shekar Kapur got more funds to make this movie. More than dialogues there are scenes of posture and circling of camera in a frustrating lethargic manner to play for the back ground score. The composition of Craig Armstrong and A.R. Rahman is rich and skillful but they forgot the music is for the movie and not an individual album of theirs. I believe the grandeur humming, chimes and orchestration for a historical movie has long past gone. But these two are caught up with the old tradition and while you enjoy the music, it takes the screen and not the film.
Elizabeth’s frustrations and the chains of responsibility keeping her in leash are true. Her quest to explore the once lively sexuality and being loved for her true personality rather than her throne is understandable. And when she explodes on Beth for winning her love for Raleigh, we feel sorry for her. But these were dealt in some per se in the first film to death. With due respect to the lady, the movie gives us her exploring these instead of ruling the country. She comes up armoured to give a speech which in history is supposed to be inspirational and in the movie I was hoping to end before it started.
Many might suspect my judgment over the movie since the dislike of mine for the previous. True, I did have some kind of low inclination when I entered the theatre. But I was able to manage to overcome it and start afresh on a clean slate. Unfortunately the film filled it with emotionless and clueless characters like the first only to add more wasteful sketches to it.
We see a confident and controlling Elizabeth (Cate Blanchett) who in all means while enjoying the power tries to govern something (now and then she says “people” to remind us of her concern over her country) and apart from that her youth and loss of love and lust is dissected as they try. A charismatic sailor Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen) strikes and interests her to bring back those days when she was a woman than a queen. And one more trusty (and we know she is going to fall for Raleigh too) Beth (Abbie Cornish) who provides little to no support in the solacing Elizabeth’s deprivation of true love. Well, shall we not see the same trust and betrayal in the previous venture too? It is not new and still not interesting.
In the first film, I was able to at least corner some ant sized empathy for the character Blanchett gives but in this, she is grown and controlling child than a responsible adult. The title suggested and made me to expect that her reform or the religious beliefs are show on how she managed to equip and season the people to survive but it is of no significance other than the plans of Philip of Spain (Jordi Mollà) to dethrone her. To this directionless script is couple of other talents wasted. The only impressive part in the first movie Geoffrey Rush as Francis Walsingham is denied some presence of wisdom and dark cunningness. Samantha Morton as Mary Stuart is another entry into the hall of wasted talents.
Including Elizabeth, rest of the characters has no sense of their goal, instinct or outcomes. We see Mary Stuart shred some lifeless bitterness towards the queen. She tells she prays for her cousin while no reason is explored in depth. While Elizabeth suffers from the conscience haunting her way on the execution, why does not she stop it? The law should be imposed but lawful killing is not right in her beliefs too. As the history speaks there might have been more enough reason for those actions but we do not see it a bit.
It’s quite evident that director Shekar Kapur got more funds to make this movie. More than dialogues there are scenes of posture and circling of camera in a frustrating lethargic manner to play for the back ground score. The composition of Craig Armstrong and A.R. Rahman is rich and skillful but they forgot the music is for the movie and not an individual album of theirs. I believe the grandeur humming, chimes and orchestration for a historical movie has long past gone. But these two are caught up with the old tradition and while you enjoy the music, it takes the screen and not the film.
Elizabeth’s frustrations and the chains of responsibility keeping her in leash are true. Her quest to explore the once lively sexuality and being loved for her true personality rather than her throne is understandable. And when she explodes on Beth for winning her love for Raleigh, we feel sorry for her. But these were dealt in some per se in the first film to death. With due respect to the lady, the movie gives us her exploring these instead of ruling the country. She comes up armoured to give a speech which in history is supposed to be inspirational and in the movie I was hoping to end before it started.
Many might suspect my judgment over the movie since the dislike of mine for the previous. True, I did have some kind of low inclination when I entered the theatre. But I was able to manage to overcome it and start afresh on a clean slate. Unfortunately the film filled it with emotionless and clueless characters like the first only to add more wasteful sketches to it.
2 comments:
pity it wasn't better.
Yeah, I did not like the first one either.
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