Revisiting a famous historical personage and completely ignoring their relevance to the present day is a waste of time. But taking too much poetic license when trying to make a figure appear contemporary also has its pitfalls. In Elizabeth: The Golden Age -- a sequel to 1998's Elizabeth -- the monarch is portrayed as an ultra-modern warrior in a battle between reason and religious fanaticism waged in the political realm, both domestic and international. The result is gaudy, anachronistic cheese -- over-ripe Stilton that's hard to swallow even as camp fun, let alone as serious history gussied up as entertainment.

Cate Blanchett burst onto the scene in the first movie, getting an Academy-Award nomination for joining a noble line of actresses who've limned Elizabeth I, including Sarah Bernhardt, Bette Davis, Glenda Jackson and Judi Dench, who won a Best Supporting Oscar that same year for her brief turn in Shakespeare in Love. It's hard to gainsay Blanchett's performance here, especially during the more intimate scenes in the first half, which is why it's a shame she's eclipsed by the fevered production.

No actress could fail to be upstaged by the stunningly fanciful costumes (with matching tresses), the blaring choir music (so distracting it could make a fundamentalist swear-off religion), and production design by a craftsmen who worked on the cartoon-inspired flicks X 2 and Superman Returns. These elements aren't necessarily historically inaccurate; there's just a disconnect with the movie's overall message. On the other hand, howlers in the dialogue penned by William Nicholson (Gladiator) and Michael Hirst (Elizabeth) can be attributed to the urge to contemporize.

The political intrigue gets muddled because the filmmakers see a foaming-at-the-mouth Papist spy in every corner of the castle, ready to pounce on the enlightened heroine. Geoffrey Rush returns as Sir Francis Walsingham, the second sanest counterbalance to the mostly Spanish Catholics, drooling caricatures left over from The Da Vinci Code who sweat under layers of red velvet, incense swirling around their empty heads. Elizabeth is not only the smartest person in every room, she's a paragon of live-and-let-live tolerance where religion and politics are concerned, provided her subjects pledge allegiance to her and foreigners don't meddle.

The action takes place over a three-year period (1585 to 1588) during which time Spain's apparently insane Catholic King, Philip II (Jordi Molla) threatens her person and the sovereignty of her dominions. He's behind a plot to assassinate her and install her Catholic cousin Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (Samantha Morton). Liz must also quell her ardor for the explorer Sir Walter Raleigh (Clive Owen).

Although the melodramatic tussles between her and Raleigh trigger some of the sillier lines in the movie, you'd rather spend more time with them. Instead, as the Spanish Armada bears down, the flick goes into martial mode along with Elizabeth. Counter to the movie's major point, she morphs into a Joan of Arc figure, complete with S&M battle regalia. But her faith is in England, along with her own intellect and regal temperament. She's a secular saint. The Virgin queen supplants the Virgin Mary.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age could be accused of Jesuitical contortions if it showed any interest in exposing the intellectual pitfalls of fanaticism and didn't revel in it's own zealotry by, for example, showing a rosary and a cross sinking to the bottom of the English Channel. Director Shekhar Kapur must have sprinkled his anti-religious screed with holy oil before igniting it. It can't be considered a reverential act by any measure.

(Released by Universal and rated "PG-13" for violence, some sexuality and nudity.)