Paul W. S. Anderson’s adaptation of “The Three Musketeers” plays fast and loose with the facts and details, neglects the intelligence of the Musketeers, but at least has some really cool action sequences.
Young D’Artagnan (Logan Lerman) is what every young future Musketeer should be. He has a short fuse. He gets into a fight over an insult to his horse. He has a love interest (Gabriella Wilde). He gets into a fight for a girl. And he has a sword. He wins all the fights he gets into.
With these assets and skills he teams up with the recently disbanded, heart-broken, and underfunded Musketeers (Matthew Macfadyen, Luke Evans and Ray Stevenson) to get the girl and save Europe from an impending war.
“The Three Musketeers,” the first film in a new franchise makes an attempt to be in the same veign as the new Sherlock Holmes, but lacks the wit and dedication to its potentially quirky style.
Even if you ignore the conflicting accents, disregard for historical accuracy (Versaille was a hunting lodge during Louis XIII’s reign) and the army of bad guys, you’re still left with a weak plot and practically no motivation for our supposed heroes.
However, action fans can drown their sorrows in some beautifully choreographed sword fights. At least in this regard, the film stays faithful to its namesake.
Speaking of which, what would a Musketeers film be without its Musketeers?
Matthew Macfadyen as Athos; Luke Evans as Aramis and Ray Stevenson as Porthos could have each shone in this film. Aside from the sword fighting (which can also be attributed to them) they were the best part. However, they get lost in all the gun powder, cliches and more gun powder.
Logan Lerman as D’Artagnan is likable enough. But his lack of accent combined with the cockiness of his charcter can be a little annoying at times.
And of course, there’s the small militia of maniacal masterminds (sort of).
Mads Mikkelsen as Rochefort; Milla Jovovich as Milady de Winter; Orlando Bloom as Buckingham and Christoph Waltz as Richelieu are all playing one dimensional characters. If a few of them had been cut, it would not have hurt the story.
If you’re a fan of French history and history in general, you might want to skip this one.
However, if you are fan of sword fights and explosions, then you might want to check this one out on DVD.
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…just for fun:
