With all the other news happening this week, I got behind on a few movie reviews that have been waiting on the sidelines. We know that the absolute end is coming, but there are titles due over the next several weeks, and the release slate contains many titles of interest to HD DVD owners.

I’m writing this on the day of the Academy Awards and two recent HD DVD releases are among the numerous movies nominated for an Oscar. In this first piece, I want to talk about a disc that was released a couple of weeks ago.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age
In 1998, the first Elizabeth movie garnered 7 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Cate Blanchett. In 2007, much of the same team reunited for the sequel, Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Cate Blanchett has again been nominated for Best Actress for reprising her role as Queen Elizabeth I.

I like history, but I realize that most movies based on historic events or figures are usually going to bend the truth here and there in order to make the movie more interesting. Just as the first Elizabeth was chided for taking some liberties with historic details, so too has this sequel. If you can get past that, as I’m sure many North American viewers are likely to since we don’t spend a lot of time focussed on British history, then you can better appreciate the simplified themes highlighted from Queen Elizabeth’s life.

The tagline for the movie is “Woman, Warrior, Queen.” The story depicts the British empire during the time when King Phillip II of Spain is expanding his reign, fueled by his success in the Crusades. A devout Catholic, Phillip is convinced that Elizabeth’s rule is immoral (Elizabeth is a Protestant), and he would rather see Elizabeth’s imprisoned Catholic cousin Mary Stuart sitting at the throne. After Phillip and Mary Stuart fail in their assasination plans, Spain eventually goes to war against England. That’s the basis for the Warrior and Queen part, and one of the things that bugs history buffs is that there was a lot more going on between England and Spain than just this assassination.

The “Woman” part of the story revolves around the fact that Queen Elizabeth is known as “The Virgin Queen.” She never married, but is purported to have been interested in at least a couple of suitors that came her way. In this movie, Elizabeth should be in her 50s, but ends up looking at least 10-15 years younger, and the movie focuses on a romantic interest in the famous explorer, Sir Walter Raleigh. The historic record may not support what’s depicted about the relationship in the movie, but the story does a good job of showing how Elizabeth was married only to her country, both by choice and obligation, and probably had to make numerous compromises in affairs of the heart.

There’s one aspect of this movie that makes it really shine on HD, and that’s the remarkable attention to detail in the costumes and sets. Elizabeth: The Golden Age has been nominated for an Academy Award for “Best Achievement in Costume Design,” and you’ll easily see how all of these costumes come alive on your HDTV. The intricate details of Elizabeth’s various dresses are vibrant in high-def, as are the opulent settings around the palaces and cathedrals. The movie is VC-1 encoded and features a 1.85:1 aspect ratio (meaning black bars for you black bar haters). UPDATE: The movie won its Costume Design Oscar.

The Dolby True HD audio works well for all the chatter and sounds that echo around in a palatial types of settings in the movie, and especially in the naval battle with the Spanish Armada. A movie that’s more about dialogue usually doesn’t have to come through on audio, but this one does well. There were at least a couple of spots where I couldn’t make out a line of dialogue, but I’m not sure if that’s because of the British accents or the audio quality itself. Since I’ve had this problem on other British movies, I’m likely to think it’s the former.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age comes on a combo disc, meaning the flip side has the standard DVD edition. The disc has the usual “making of” kinds of bonus materials, but does not have any of Universal’s “U-Control” interactive features. This means no picture-in-picture commentary, but only the standard director’s voice-over while the film plays. If you’ve read my other reviews, you’ll know that I’m a sucker for bonus features, especially HDi, so I’m a little disappointed at not having those on this title.

Everybody has their own taste in movies and I don’t rate movies on whether they’re good or bad, but just like to present information about what’s in them and what the disc was like. Of course that will probably change once I get a real stinker in my hands, but I can say that Elizabeth: The Golden Age is not that stinker. In the past, one could say that “good enough” meant rental-worthy, but it’s difficult now to think much about that route because Netflix is moving to stop HD DVD support, and Hollywood Video stores are already clearing out their discs. If you liked the first Elizabeth, and you had any iota of interest in the sequel, then I’m sure you’ll be happy with the HD experience of Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

• Elizabeth: The Golden Age at Amazon.com
• Elizabeth (the first movie) at Amazon.com