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Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes
Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times: What compelled Kapur to film half the movie through scrims, curtains, screens and arches? How can you appreciate human drama when you're constantly being distracted by the 16th-century equivalent of Architectural Digest? Read more
Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Despite its lofty aspirations and late 16th century setting, this one belongs right up there with Showgirls in the high-camp section of your local video store. Read more
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: It is a silly film about serious matters, challenged by a multiple-personality disorder -- multiple multiple-personality disorders, in fact -- but more or less saved from pure nonsense by Blanchett. Read more
Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Elizabeth: The Golden Age is a kitsch extravaganza aquiver with trembling bosoms, booming guns and wild energy. Read more
David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Elizabeth: The Golden Age is an unholy mixture of the banal and the bombastic. Read more
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Cate Blanchett returns to the role that made her a star, and though this sequel to Elizabeth (1998) is less defensible as history, as florid costume drama it's just as entertaining. Read more
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: When you see Cate Blanchett in one fantastical gown after another, you understand why Elizabeth's reign was golden. Read more
Keith Phipps, AV Club: The events beg for Shakespearean gravity, but the only tragedy here is that so little could be made of so much. Read more
Kerry Lengel, Arizona Republic: Elizabeth achieved its power by focusing on the central idea of how a callow princess became a great queen. In trying to re-create the formula, the sequel merely grasps about for a reason to be, and that makes for dull watching, indeed. Read more
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Where's the political sophistication that made the first movie slightly more interesting? That was a decent game of chess. The Golden Age is checkers. Read more
Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: Elizabeth: The Golden Age gives new meaning to "costume drama" in that it is a drama primarily about costumes. But the drama is about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the temple. Read more
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: A distinct letdown from the 1998 predecessor that helped make Blanchett a star. Read more
Tom Long, Detroit News: Elizabeth: The Golden Age is a Rolls-Royce, car-crash of a movie -- classy, beautifully made and ultimately crushed beneath its own pretentiousness. Read more
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Too bad Kapur's new, glittering sequel shows up feeling prematurely old, square, and cautious. Read more
Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: This is romantic fantasy, not history, and much of the time you fully expect Kapur, here making his third post-Bollywood feature, to turn his cast loose in song and dance. Read more
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: What Elizabeth: The Golden Age finally lacks is something its subject never lacked: a sense of majesty. Read more
Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: The Golden Age feels like two movies: one a bodice-ripping romance, the other a study in statecraft and power. But these strands, one private, one public, come together in the title character and the balancing act she must master. Read more
Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: A pedigreed romance, an excuse for Blanchett to bind herself in satin and channel Kate Hepburn. Read more
Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News: Every time the camera finally settles on Blanchett's regal cheekbones, it's a relief. Read more
Jan Stuart, Newsday: Silence would be a blessing to Elizabeth: The Golden Age, which substitutes symphonic din in place of drama. Read more
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Even the chance to see Cate Blanchett strut and fret upon the stage, shooting haughty glances left and right, isn't enough reason to tour this rambling Tudor mansion, full of overstuffed bedrooms and empty suits of armor. Read more
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: From its extravagant costumes to its pompous score, The Golden Age is packed with distractions. But the biggest of all is the story itself, which works so mightily to tarnish the queen at its core. Read more
Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Expect a fast-paced, beautifully mounted and well-acted soap opera with overripe dialogue that plays fast and loose with history -- just like they did in the '30s, '40s and '50s -- and you won't come away disappointed. Read more
Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth: The Golden Age, from a screenplay by William Nicholson and Michael Hirst, turned out to be more rousingly entertaining than many of its less-than-lukewarm reviews had led me to anticipate. Read more
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: [Blanchett's] so perfect in the part that you almost don't mind the abrupt ending. Read more
Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Through it all, whether in muslin nightie, damask gown or silvery armor, Blanchett commands the screen as she commands the royal navy. Her unforced majesty makes a so-so film worth watching. Read more
James Berardinelli, ReelViews: With respect to costumes and set design, this is a sumptuous affair. The script is less even, as is the pacing. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: There are scenes where the costumes are so sumptuous, the sets so vast, the music so insistent, that we lose sight of the humans behind the dazzle of the production. Read more
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: The Golden Age is frustrating because Kapur does seem to have a taste for nutball pageantry -- he just won't let himself go all the way with it. Read more
Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: The danger in making a costume drama is that all of it will be as lifeless as wax figures. Kapur escapes this fate by relying on sex and a luminous star capable of being at once regal and alluring. Read more
Dana Stevens, Slate: Elizabeth: The Golden Age is less a chronicle of counter-Reformation hijinks than a 16th-century episode of The Hills. Read more
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Bogus history can make a crackling good adventure yarn, and Kapur piles on the treachery and romance. Read more
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: Through the miracle of modern technology, the film achieves alchemy in reverse, turning historical gold into contemporary lead. Read more
Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Elizabeth: The Golden Age places its gilded head upon the chopping block right from the opening salvo, replacing its predecessor's cunning with bombast. Read more
Ben Walters, Time Out: Making soap of statecraft, the film has plenty of juicy moments, but offers an inconsistent rather than complex view of Elizabeth. Read more
Claudia Puig, USA Today: The movie looks beautiful, enhanced by intriguing camerawork and sumptuous production design. But the music is overbearing, perhaps to compensate for the pedestrian script and dull history lesson. Read more
Todd McCarthy, Variety: Overall, pic takes a small-minded view of history and, in its rush to proceed from one tumultuous event to the next, lacks any sense of occasion relative to the significant pageant it attempts to depict. Read more
Robert Wilonsky, Village Voice: Highbrow camp masquerading as a history lesson soapier than any bottle of detergent. Read more
Desson Thomson, Washington Post: We are left choking in the billows and folds of Queen Elizabeth I's fabulous finery without a single insight into the woman among them, let alone the most celebrated period in English history. Read more