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Nearly a decade after her stunning, breakout turn in Elizabeth, Cate Blanchett reprises the role in Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Shekhar Kapur is also back as director, but it's Blanchett (once again...) who whips this unwieldy animal of a movie into shape, looking every bit the demigoddess astride her white horse. Even though the script plays fast and loose with historical facts, that indomitable bulldog spirit rings true and holds you captive for the duration.

Elizabeth's strength is born of vulnerability and, in this account, is teased out by her complex relationship with Sir Walter Raleigh. Clive Owen is suitably charismatic as the nobleman who comes bearing potatoes from The New World, and in their private moments together, allows 'The Virgin Queen' to reveal a hidden desire for normalcy - love, marriage and children. Of course that wishfulness is at odds with the royal ego, and when Raleigh's eye turns to her pretty lady-in-waiting Bess (Abbie Cornish), Elizabeth's childish petulance comes to the fore.

"SEDUCTIVE, GRANDIOSE, UNASHAMEDLY OPERATIC"

Wisdom and foolishness combine to make Elizabeth I one of the great romantic heroines. Meanwhile, scenes of the Spanish plotting her downfall reduce King Philip II (Jordi Moll脿) to a cartoonish villain and, as the scheming Mary Queen of Scots, Samantha Morton has little to do except purse her lips. The build-up to the attempted invasion by the Spanish Armada might feel like mere background noise while Elizabeth tussles with her own insecurities. However, the final battle scenes are breathtaking in their grandeur. It's a wonderfully seductive, grandiose, unashamedly operatic portrayal of Queen Elizabeth's finest hour, and it's even more rousing because of the chinks already exposed in her armour. Kapur plays up every high note with arresting imagery that wouldn't be out of place in a 16th century royal portrait. Throw away the history books and behold the majesty.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age is out in the UK on 2nd November 2007.