Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

In 1998, director Shekhar Kapur released Elizabeth, a depiction of the early years of England's Queen Elizabeth I.  The film was a critical darling, was nominated for seven Oscars, and made a star out of Cate Blanchett.  With so much good historical material at their disposal, I'm not sure why it took so long to make a sequel, but finally in 2007, Elizabeth: The Golden Age was released. 

Unfortunately, this time around, it's a bit of a whiff.  Oh, the movie isn't all bad.  It looks terrific, with superb costume and set design.  And once again, Kapur assembles a stellar cast of pros, including returning stars Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush, and newcomers Clive Owen (The International), Abbie Cornish (Sucker Punch), Rhys Ifans (The Replacements), Eddie Redmayne (Les Miserables), and Samantha Morton (Minority Report).  But the biggest plus is that source material/storyline is even more compelling than in the first movie.  We're dealing with the increasingly deteriorating relations with Spain, which will lead to war and the battle with the Spanish Armada, one of the most famous sea battles in history.  Meawhile, Elizabeth, who should be preparing herself for war, is distracted by the weight of being a Queen and the loneliness that entails, and the temptation brought to court by dashing explorer, Sir Walter Raleigh (Owen). 

But the whole thing never really gels together.  The depiction of political intrigue is interesting enough, but nowhere near as cool as it could have been.  And they really missed the ball with Elizabeth's personal problems, despite Blanchett's best efforts.  Her mood swings are just crazy - and instead of acting as an example of a strong monarch buckling under the pressure of being Queen (as was intended), they make her seem like she is schizophrenic.  So that doesn't work so well. 

The much touted battle with the Spanish Armada is also a big disappointment, with much of the battle happening off screen.  I understand they had budget constraints, but you can't tell me that they couldn't have done more with their funds.  Just look at what Game of Thrones did with a limited budget in the Battle of Blackwater episode - definitely the HBO show's Spanish Armada moment that was way cooler and more epic than anything we get in Elizabeth: The Golden Age.  I was also disappointed by the historical revisions in the battle.  I don't need a movie to be 100% historically accurate.  I don't mind changes if they service the story (such as the relationship between Raleigh and Bess, which in real life happened much later).  But the changes to the battle irked me. The English are close to panic and keep referencing English ships being destroyed when in reality, they lost not one ship.  Not one.  The movie makes it seem as if luck or divine intervention alone destroyed the Spanish fleet (and yes, I recognize that the convenient arrival of the storm in real life was a huge stroke of good fortune), but this ignores the fact that the British ships were faster, more agile, and manned by professional crews with more experience in the choppy waters of the English Channel.  English skill did play a big part in the victory, but Elizabeth: the Golden Age mostly ignores that.  Maybe I shouldn't make a big deal of that, but it annoyed me.  And if I were English, I would probably be insulted.

Anyways, just to sum up, Elizabeth: The Golden Age isn't terrible.  With a movie this good looking and a cast this solid, it would be difficult for the film to be truly horrible.  But it is definitely a disappointment and represents a huge missed opportunity.

BEST LINE:

John Dee: The forces that shape the world are greater than all of us, Majesty.  How can I promise that they will conspire in your favor even though you're the Queen?  This much I know.  When the storm breaks, some are dumb with terror and some spread their wings like eagles and soar.

TRIVIA:

To save money, the crew only build one period ship.  One half of the ship was built to resemble a Spanish galleon, the other side was designed to resemble Sir Walter Raleigh's English vessel.  Whenever they needed a wider shot in the scene, the crew used smoke machines to obscure the other half of the ship.

MVP:
This one is easy.  I'm going with the composer Craig Armstrong.  The score was co-written by Armstrong and AR Rahman, who won the Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire.  Overall, the score is a terrific work of art, full of passion and beauty.  The one strike against the composers is their music for the climactic battle with the Spanish Armada.  They seem to have forgotten that fast music doesn't necessarily equal exciting music, and overall it just sounds uninspired and even a bit lazy.  But other than that one disappointing track, the score is the highlight of Elizabeth: The Golden Age.  A track I particularly like is the "Divinity Theme," written by AR Rahman.  This theme is supposed to represent Elizabeth as Queen, and it captures all the power, glory and loneliness that the royal role entails.  So why am I picking Armstrong and not Rahman as my MVP?  Because of "The Storm," the epic track that accompanies the burning of the Spanish Armada.  Armstrong doesn't break out the full power of the choir often, but when he does, such as in Plunkett and MacLeane or Romeo and Juliet, it truly is something special.  "The Storm" lives up to that reputation.  This is one massive, epic track - one that rises above the so so movie that it was written for, and a track that (to follow my line of the movie) truly spreads it winds and soars.  

But maybe its just me...I'm biased when it comes to big choral pieces...

Hey, I found the track on YouTube!  Here it is if you want to listen to it.  You might also recognize this from the official Man of Steel trailer...

John Carter

John Carter

John Carter is the type of movie that makes me just a little sad.  Though it has performed decently overseas, it was crushed at the box office domestically, and Disney is estimating they are are going to lose $200 million on the film.  The movie is going to be remembered as the big flop of 2012.

And it doesn't deserve it.

I'm not saying John Carter is great.  It's not.  The movie, directed by Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo), has some real problems and is even a little clumsy in places, especially in the film's opening scenes.  The script is a bit hokey in places, the acting is sometimes hit or miss, and I don't understand why Mars looks like Utah.  But you know what?  It is ten times better than most of these summer sci-fi blockbusters which end up making a bazillion dollars no matter how bad they are.  And that it just a shame.

Because John Carter is the granddaddy of all of them.  In 1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs, who also dreamed up Tarzan, created modern science fiction when he wrote a story about an Virginian cavalry officer who finds himself on Mars, where he has super strength because the gravity makes his human bones more dense.  He is a stranger in a strange land, finds himself siding with the locals against an evil empire and marries a princess.  Sound familiar?  It should, because we've been watching this story all our lives.  Burroughs' work has inspired writers, filmmakers, scientists - men like George Lucas, James Cameron, Ray Bradbury, Frank Frazetta, and Jerry Siegel.  Why wasn't that little fact in the marketing?!  The trailers for John Carter made it look like some lame Star Wars or Avatar clone, when really it is the other way around.

Despite its flaws, John Carter's heart is in the right place.  The film is genuinely exciting in a lot of places, and the comedy is for the most part natural and not forced.  Most importantly, you can tell that the filmmakers are involved not because they want to make a big blockbuster, but because they love the source material.  They are trying to do the classic story justice.   This enthusiasm crosses over to the cast, which includes Taylor Kitsch (Wolverine) as our title hero, Lynn Collins (also from Wolverine) as the Princess Dejah, and a solid supporting troupe that includes Ciaran Hinds (Rome), Polly Walker (Rome), James Purefoy (uh, also Rome), Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes), Dominic West (300), Thomas Haden Church (Easy A), Samantha Morton (Minority Report), Willem Dafoe (Spiderman) and Bryan Cranston (Drive).

TANGENT: Speaking the casting, I have to address some miscasting.  Dominic West was cast as the villainous ruler Sab Than, while James Purefoy was cast a roguish good guy captain Kantos Kan.  Both are fine actors and put in solid work, but it is clear to me that their roles should have been switched.  Dominic West keeps getting cast as villain because of his dark looks and mean glare, but he doesn't have the true menace needed here to be a worthy evil tyrant of Mars.  One look at Purefoy's Marc Antony in Rome and you will see a glimpse of the charismatic, magnificent asshole-ishness that Sab Than should have had.  Purefoy would have been spectacular.  Instead, he is stuck as the dependable and noble Kantos, who has an unfunny comedic scene late in the movie that borders on embarrassing.   Purefoy just looks out of place, but West could have pulled it off.  More than than, as you can see from his vibrant work in Centurion, West would have owned this scene.  It would have been funny without making the character any less badass.  West would have been superb.  I know this is a small detail, but that simple switch would have made a big difference.  TANGENT OVER.

Anyway, overall, John Carter is a mixed bag.  It has its flaws, but there is a lot to like in it, and I think it is a shame that it got destroyed at the box office when it really isn't that bad.  It deserves better.  I think everyone reading this review should go check it out.  They might be pleasantly surprised.


MVP:  
When he was hired to write the score, Michael Giacchino (Lost) was told to go big, to write "his Star Wars."  And he does.  With some nods to John Barry, John Williams, and Maurice Jarre, Giacchino goes into overdrive, writing a grandiose (if a tad over-used) main theme and a stunning love theme.  His work propels the movie forward and gives the dramatic scenes more emotion than the script sometimes deserves.  It's terrific work.  If the movie had done better, he would have been guaranteed an Oscar nomination.  Alas, I fear that this score will be lost to the mainstream.  But I will do my best to trumpet its cause.  And I will start by giving Giacchino my MVP award!


BEST LINE:
Tars Tarka: When I saw you, I believed it was a sign...that something new could come into this world.


TRIVIA: 
Possibly, this movie has the record for being in 'development hell' for the longest period of time.  The first attempt to make the film was all the way back in 1931.  No one succeeded until now.  That's...over 70 years!!!