What exactly is a movie What exactly is a movie review?review?

Three elements:

•What’s it about?•How good is it?•What does it compare to?

What’s it about?What’s it about?Having ascended the throne at the close of 1998's "Elizabeth," Cate Blanchett's Virgin Queen is ensconced in leadership and wigs. The year is 1585, more than two decades after her coronation, and she's determined to protect from invasion both her English kingdom and her purity. But it won't be easy. Spain angles for a holy war. And Clive Owen wants, well, what any seafaring guy just back from discovering the New World wants: more undiscovered territory.

--Wesley Morris review of Elizabeth in Boston Globe

How good is the…

Acting

How good is the…

In "Elizabeth," Blanchett was an ingénue in a movie about a girl learning on the job. By the time of "The Golden Age," she's become the sort of star who's comfortable hamming it up and injecting a lot of supercilious humor into a part without sacrificing all the character's wisdom. (Her eyes roll like a bowling ball.)

How good is the…

Directing

How good is the…

Kapur is not a natural moviemaker, although some of the more random disco-y shots suggest a man who longs to make videos for Cher. Otherwise, the close-ups are too close, the aerial shots too high. Shadows still equal evil intrigue. And the big war is done mostly as a haphazardly assembled montage of incendiary chaos.

How good is the…

Costumes

How good is the…

[T]here is time to contemplate the beautiful intricacies of Alexandra Byrne's costumes - their outlandishness, too. (The queen's battle armor is nothing less than 16th-century C-3PO.) You might be inclined to think of names for Elizabeth's various wigs (I saw the Richard Simmons, the Streisand, and the Big Bang) and admire her triumphant combat stances.

Don’t Forget

• Cinematography• Script• Special Effects• Beginning/Ending• Pacing

What does it remind you of?

• Connect to the actors/directors earlier work

• Connect to current events

• Connect to other similar movies

This is all rather dull. 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