Swashbuckling adventure adaptation of the classic Alexandre Dumas novel starring Milla Jovovich (Resident Evil), Matthew Macfadyen (Robin Hood), Orlando Bloom (Pirates of the Caribbean) and Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds).
Follows hot-headed young D'Artagnan (Logan Lerman, Percy Jackson) who is taken under the wing of France's legendary but now down on their luck Musketeers - Porthos (Ray Stevenson, Punisher: War Zone), Athos (Macfayden) and Aramis (Luke Evans, Clash of the Titans). The four are bought together to defeat a beautiful double agent and her villainous employer from seizing the French throne and engulfing Europe in war.
Dumas' 1844 novel of chivalry and camaraderie has long inspired filmmakers (there have been over 20 screen adaptations). This version from director Paul W.S. Anderson, shot in Germany, has a steampunk influence with airships, machine guns and flame throwers mixed with 18th century sword-play.
This latest take on Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers desperately, and very expensively, wants to be fun. All the elements are there for it to be a jaunty romp of an adventure. But while the filmmakers clearly hoped that ritzy bombast would substitute for excitement, the film is charmless, obvious and predictable.
Much of the film’s lack of charm is do with main character D’Artagnan, played here by Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson). He starts off arrogant, annoying and smug and remains so throughout. The movie’s saving grace is the easy camaraderie Ray Stevenson, Matthew Macfadyen and Luke Evans bring to the titular heroes. With a humourous and likeable rapport, all three flesh out the individual identity of their respective musketeer while still adhering to the fabled group dynamic of the characters. They’re so good that you can’t help but think that a movie all about them would really be a winner. Here, they’re relegated to D’Artagnan’s support crew and the movie suffers for it.
There’s plenty of proficient action, though it cribs unashamedly (notably from The Matrix, 300 and, er, Entrapment), the acting’s appropriately hammy for this type of picture, and the newly added steampunk elements are pretty cool. But despite almighty levels of trying, The Three Musketeers just isn’t as much fun as it thinks it is or anywhere near as much fun as it wants to be. It’s hard to decide which disappoints more.
By Karl Puschmann, Flicks.co.nz
a bit of silly fluff that got a bit boring towards the end. the boys liked it but i thought it was a bit far fetched and more for kids. good actors though
Unlike my fellow critics I took the time to also watch the making of this movie. It had everything a musketeer fan could want. Adventure, cunning plots, wonderfully captivating fight scenes, flickers of romance and plenty of deception. Naturally some adaptions were a stretch of the imagination but, that's what movies are all about. This version certainly lived up to the Musketeers reputation and scored a well earnt five stars.
The film was fun, but it is hard to imagine a version of classic Musketeers story that strays further from the original. This film follows the style of films like the recent "Sherlock Holmes" in that it shows technology that may have existed at the time the movie is set in, but only just existed and was hardly likely to be in common use. So the movie features airship battles and flamethrowers etc. If it had been any more far fetched, it might have featured submarines, tanks or Nazis riding dinosaurs. As often happens in 3D films, there are too many 3D moments of spinning blast fragments or other items which can get annoying. The film is fun, I did enjoy it as an action flick. However, it isn't the Three Musketeers in anything but name and a loose following of the plot. If this sort of retelling of historical stories continues, expect to see World War 2 movies featuring fleets of jet fighters dropping dozens of nuclear bombs someday. That would also be showing technology that technically had been invented at the time and would be about as accurate as the events in this film.
ignore all the stupid reports this movie is a winner,havnt seen a movie that i can watch more than once and still enjoy it, the reviews sound like typical miserable pom comments using word like blunt sword and perenniel..
To put it bluntly, there's very little here which will appease lovers of the novel or the action/adventure genre. Poor special effects only add to the mediocre performances from many of the leading roles. Whilst it is easy to watch without thinking, there wasn't one moment where I genuinely cared for young D'Artagnan. I can see why this would have seemed a good idea in development but the plot and script is so flawed and clunky that it is impossible to love. There may be an audience for the film with young boys under 12, but for everyone else it fails to satisfy. Orlando Bloom should have begged to stick with Pirates.
Stupid, with three o's. But also fun, never boring, and never insulting (to anyone other than Dumas) - unlike certain of the summer's A-pics…
3D swashbuckler wields a disappointingly blunt sword.
All for one maybe, but one for all? Not quite. Although starry, lavish and superficially spectacular, this version of the perennial old favourite isn’t likely to endure.
A very 2011 take on Alexandre Dumas' classic that feels weirdly dated already. Although adequately entertaining thanks to lavish production values and game supporting perfs, this anodyne adaptation lacks a killer hook that would help it cross over to a demographic beyond action buffs and fanboys.
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Thursday, 13th Oct 2011.
Release date: October 13th 2011.
We haven't received times for this movie in this location yet. However these are updated as cinemas announce them, so check back soon. Hopefully the lovely cinemas in your location will choose to play it shortly. ~Ed.
