Mistake - When one of Mary Stuart's correspondents writes her a note, he uses a quill and ink. Immediately following, he folds it up without sanding the wet ink. The writing would have been smeared so badly that it would be unreadable.

The movie is more concerned about Elizabeth love affairs than about what she was really for the history of England and whole Europe.

Cate Blanchett is good in this role as she always is in anglo specific period pieces but the romance is hackneyed and lame. Entertaining because the actors chew scenery but little to remember.

Can't really explain why, but I found this film repulsive and tiring. It is made to look like a trailer, only dramatic voice over is missing, that would go something like: "She is a queen. But also she is a woman. " (random scene of how she puts on a dress) "He is a pirate." (random scene of him bringing in some indian slaves). And it goes on and on.

Clive Owen blows up the entire Spanish Armada with his raw sexual power.

Poor Cate and Clive. Why would anybody want to watch this when they could see essentially the same story performed by Helen Mirren and Jeremy Irons (Elizabeth I)? No contest.

A lush - if somewhat campy if compared to its darker predecessor - visual spectacle. That's all.

Blanchett is excellent, but the rest of the film is a mess. Poorly written, with a support cast that looks good on paper, but who don't deliver. Clive Owen in particular is awful. Sadly this film misses a wonderful opportunity to tell us of a fascinating time in Elizabeth's life. It feels unbalanced and poorly put together, and the Armarda sections of the film are far too brief for a film that is clearly trying to be an epic. Pretty in places, but too low key and bland. A disappointment.

There I was, enjoying what I thought was a sumptuous and eye-pleasing historical drama with a smidgeon of political intruige when, suddenly WALLOP! I'm watching Die Hard, but with Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh on a one-man suicide mission to sail a fleet of fire vessels and destroy the Spanish Armada. Luckily for our hero, he manages to swing off on a rope just before the big bang and swim back to his lover! UTTER BOLLOCKS. An insult to what little intelligence I do have.

It's somewhat infuriating that a film about Elizabeth spends an hour and forty five minutes on her love life, and roughly 3 minutes on how she led England to defeat the Spanish Armada forever changing the course of European history. If you believe this film, England was doomed but then Elizabeth got a bit of action and then there was a storm and then the far superior Spanish fleet just kind of sank due to 1 too many attractive pirates swinging from a rope. o_O

"The way Elizabeth: The Golden Age tells it, the Spanish Armada's defeat by the British Empire was the orgasm The Virgin Queen never had." - Ed Gonzalez