Cate's praised for her Elizabeth pt II

Gallery: See more pictures from the premiere here

At the premiere in Leicester Square Blanchett spoke of her affection for the virgin queen. The sequel to the 1998 film is set in 1858, with 52-year-old Elizabeth facing threats at home from plotters at the court, and abroad, from the possibility of Spanish invasion.

Blanchett, 38, said of her character that "in an incredibly savage time, she showed remarkable religious tolerance".

Director Shekhar Kapur said of Blanchett: "She's absolutely incredible. It's a much more difficult part (than in the original film), a much tougher part. It's a stunning performance. She deserves an Oscar - she didn't get it the first time round and she deserved it then."

But the film has been savaged by critics, who are in agreement that Blanchett is the only redeeming quality.

In Variety, the trade journal of the American film industry, critic Todd McCarthy said the film took "a smallminded view of history".

He added: "The saving grace is Blanchett, who is always striking to watch even when her character is doing and saying things you don't believe. Her Elizabeth is so indisputably flesh-and-blood that no further point need be made of it."

In the Hollywood Reporter, Kirk Honeycutt said Blanchett showed the "brio" which won her the best actress nomination in 1998.

New York Times critic Manohla Dargis was scathing of the plot, describing it as a "kitsch extravaganza aquiver with trembling bosoms, booming guns and wild energy".

In the Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano said it was "Queen Elizabeth as a cross between Joan of Arc and Joan Crawford, Sir Walter Raleigh as a bodice-ripping pirate sprung from the cover of a supermarket romance novel, King Philip II of Spain as a mincing lulu with a bizarre politico-erotic fixation on the virgin queen, and the battle against the Spanish Armada as a series of chopped-together outtakes from Pirates of the Caribbean".

The Evening Standard's Nick Roddick said Blanchett's "bravura performance" could not make up for "heritage cinema for the North American market, replete with rolling English hills and soaring English cathedrals".

"History here is recast as ripping yarn: it is Sir Walter Raleigh, played dashingly by Clive Owen, who saves England by steering the fire ships in among the Spaniards, then swimming underwater to safety beneath a blazing sea."

The film also stars Samantha Morton as Mary Queen of Scots and Geoffrey Rush as Sir Francis Walshingham, Rhys Ifans and Eddie Redmayne.