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Title: does not live up to my hopes
Review: I loved the first movie, Elizabeth. The Golden Age, however, does not live up to my hopes of a solid sequel. Though it shares the same general look as its predacessor and some continuity of the characters and their personal story lines, it is much less polished. Though the love Elizabeth had for Bess was evident, I did not feel any believable chemistry between Elizabeth and Walter. Cate Blanchett is a great actress but I felt the movie was cut in such a way that the queen appears to be a flurry of emotion shifting in every which direction and hardly having the time for it to soak-in between frames. The scenes needed to be longer or else more cleverly melded together to build the appropriate tension and further develop the characters. The gory scenes only appeared to add to the problem of time - taking precious minutes away from what would have drawn me more into the plot. It was frustrating to watch this movie after the masterpiece that came before it.
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