Since "Elizabeth" grabbed 7 Academy Award nominations, many reporters and film buffs were speculating that "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" would follow in its footsteps. However, when the sequel premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, the film was not greeted well by critics and audiences alike. Having now seen the film myself, it's not hard to see why.

The story of the sequel involves Elizabeth's romance with Sir Walter Raleigh and a war being waged against Philip King Of Spain. For those expecting an accurate, History Channel esque depiction of the events in Elizabeth's life, you should look elsewhere. "The Golden Age" is a watered down, simplistic tale of what really happened, and that's the problem. Viewing the film is like seeing a fast forwarded series of events. One keeps expecting to see more of what was going on, but instead we get a cliff notes version of both the historical events and characters. On top of that, writers Michael Hirst and William Nicholson carry over far too many themes that played out through the first film, namely the traitors, religious conflicts, Elizabeth looking for a husband, etc. When it comes to a sequel, no one wants to see a copy of what happened in the first film. They want a fresh tale that has something new to say. The saving grace of this sequel is the acting by Cate Blanchett and Clive Owen. Blanchett gives a tour de force performance that is completely deserving of the Oscar nomination she received. She clearly has no trouble stepping back into the role she took on 10 years ago. Clive Owen is equally memorable as Sir Walter Raleigh. As with "Elizabeth," the costumes and production values are both top notch. I am very glad to see the costume design got noticed for this year's Oscars.

The 1.85:1 hi-def widescreen picture quality was a bit disappointing. The colors were very light and not as sharp as they could have been. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and the Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 tracks were also a let down. The audio, especially during the ship battles, sounded rather flat. This is mostly due to the fact that the score tends to drown out the sound f/x and the dialogue in spots.

* 8 1/2 minutes of deleted/extended scenes involving Sir Walter Raleigh, the Queen Of Scots, and Elizabeth. Nothing special here. * "Towers, Courts, And Cathedrals" ( 10 1/2)- A self-explanatory featurette. * Commentary by director Shekhar Kapur. As with the commentary for "Elizabeth," he has a lot to say. He talks about an alternate opening, shooting locations, themes, and so on. * "Commanding The Winds: Creating The Armada" is a 12 minute featurette on the building of a full size Armada ship. * "Inside Elizabeth's World"- A 7 1/2 minute featurette on several shooting locations (namely the chapels and cathedrals). * Web-enabled features * "The Reign Continues: Making Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (11 1/2 minutes). This is your basic making of that compares the first film with the sequel and talks about the plot and script.

"Elizabeth: The Golden Age" is worth a rent for Cate Blanchett's performance, but this is not a film most people will ever see more than once.