illicit romance and piracy have never been so dull

[tempestsarekind]

Why did no one tell me that Elizabeth: The Golden Age was actually really boring? No one seemed to have a personality, which is unexpected with so many larger-than-life characters on screen. Occasionally Raleigh would utter some pirate koan like "Why fear tomorrow when today is all we have?" or something, but that was about it. And the filmmakers

Comments

[tempestsarekind]

Hee--no worries! It's just that I was expecting it to be, at least, ridiculously bad in a funny way, and instead it was just...well, dull.

[saestina]

I still haven't seen it, not entirely recovered from the first film. Aside from the TRAVESTY of that ending (I mean, it's not as though I was expecting historical accuracy or even particularly care about deviations from fact, but that ending was just ridiculous) I remember thinking how stupid it was that they'd concocted this papal murder plot that was far less interesting than most of the real plots against Elizabeth's life. I couldn't really get excited about the idea of the same people taking on the story of the Armada and Elizabeth and Raleigh's ooh epic love.

[tempestsarekind]

Yeah. Only it was more ooh tepid interest more than anything else. :) The first film at least gave us lots of Cate Blanchett; this one didn't even really get that right.

I'm still not 100% sure what *happened* at the end of the first film, and I've seen it more than once with friends. They're just as confused as I am, so at least it's not just me?

[lareinenoire]

I watched it on a plane, mostly because there was nothing else to do. It was pretty, and the soundtrack was beautiful. Other than that, I had to switch off my brain and even then I had problems.

As for Babington, I vaguely remember someone at least mentioned him, and I think he was one of the numerous random people Walsingham had killed. Actually...I think the only reason I noticed him was that he was one of the company members in the RSC histories and I remembered seeing that in his bio.

[tempestsarekind]

Exactly--I know Babington was *in* the film, because Eddie Redmayne was playing him. (Though I know him from the Middle Temple Twelfth Night that I never got to see *sob*.) But I can't recall anyone ever actually calling him by name. Not that I was paying all that much attention, but you'd think it's the kind of thing they'd want to be overly clear about!

It was a pretty movie, true. I just didn't think it really held together *as* a movie, even setting aside the historical issues.

[lareinenoire]

I would agree -- it was very disjointed, plotwise, and a lot of things simply didn't make any sense. Did you ever read angevin2's recap from about a year ago? It's absolutely hilarious and very accurate.

[tempestsarekind]

Yes--it was! And, as a side benefit, it meant that I was prepared for the woeful lack of actual Tilbury speech. :)