There aren't any spoilers in this thread
Not that you should need to worry about a spoiler warning for a movie about historical events...we kinda should all know how it ends, but hey, just in case.
Anyways, just watched the movie tonight. Basically as should be expected, if you -don't- know anything about British history, this movie is absolutely fantastic. The sets are amazing, the costumes are amazing, Cate Blanchett is a ridiculously good Queen Elizabeth.
The story is interesting enough to keep your attention through the slow bits, if history isn't otherwise your forte, the few parts that might be a little hard to follow have handy-dandy clue-by-fours for the less discerning of audiences.
The movie has gotten a lot of flack for portraying England as super fun time good guys, and Spain as some shadowy evil nemesis, so it really comes across in a few spots as Catholic bashing pretty hard, but if you read up on the Spanish Armada from English historians, that's pretty well how England chose to portray it. I mean, Mary Queen of Scots was still alive at this point, Bloody Mary hadn't been gone for too long, so there was an awful lot of anti-catholic sentiment.
For people who -are- a little more well-versed in English history, the movie actually didn't invent too many things completely, but they did engage in an awful lot of "Average viewers know this name, so we'll include it even though they weren't there at the time"
People turn up and do things that are historically accurate, just 5 or 10 years too early or too late.
The Armada battle itself has, sadly, very little to do with the movie. After stuff like Master and Commander, I was really hoping they'd take advantage of how well they can do ship battles these days, and spend a good 30 minutes on it, but alas it is almost an epilogue to the rest of the movie.
Overall it is a great movie, even if you aren't into history. If you liked the first one, you'll love this one. If you liked any historical movie in this style (Braveheart, Rob Roy, etc) where the setting, characters, costumes and music are given the due respect such a movie warrants, you won't be disappointed. If you want 300/Troy's rampant "Oh man, this action sequence is so awesome!" then you will probably be disappointed.
Not that you should need to worry about a spoiler warning for a movie about historical events...we kinda should all know how it ends, but hey, just in case.
Anyways, just watched the movie tonight. Basically as should be expected, if you -don't- know anything about British history, this movie is absolutely fantastic. The sets are amazing, the costumes are amazing, Cate Blanchett is a ridiculously good Queen Elizabeth.
The story is interesting enough to keep your attention through the slow bits, if history isn't otherwise your forte, the few parts that might be a little hard to follow have handy-dandy clue-by-fours for the less discerning of audiences.
The movie has gotten a lot of flack for portraying England as super fun time good guys, and Spain as some shadowy evil nemesis, so it really comes across in a few spots as Catholic bashing pretty hard, but if you read up on the Spanish Armada from English historians, that's pretty well how England chose to portray it. I mean, Mary Queen of Scots was still alive at this point, Bloody Mary hadn't been gone for too long, so there was an awful lot of anti-catholic sentiment.
For people who -are- a little more well-versed in English history, the movie actually didn't invent too many things completely, but they did engage in an awful lot of "Average viewers know this name, so we'll include it even though they weren't there at the time"
People turn up and do things that are historically accurate, just 5 or 10 years too early or too late.
The Armada battle itself has, sadly, very little to do with the movie. After stuff like Master and Commander, I was really hoping they'd take advantage of how well they can do ship battles these days, and spend a good 30 minutes on it, but alas it is almost an epilogue to the rest of the movie.
Overall it is a great movie, even if you aren't into history. If you liked the first one, you'll love this one. If you liked any historical movie in this style (Braveheart, Rob Roy, etc) where the setting, characters, costumes and music are given the due respect such a movie warrants, you won't be disappointed. If you want 300/Troy's rampant "Oh man, this action sequence is so awesome!" then you will probably be disappointed.