It's a preposterous, stylized action-comedy adventure flick with as much in common with 'Hellboy' or 'The league of extraordinary gentlemen' as 'Pirates of the Caribbean.' The dialogue is as ham-handed as most characterizations and action sequences are outlandish. If you're looking for a faithful, period-accurate adaptation of the novel, you've come to the wrong place.
'The Three Musketeers' is mindless entertainment, a popcorn movie perhaps inspired by Dumas, but hardly attentive to his works. Not even the slightest effort is made to affect a French accent; the few clever lines are far outnumbered by the exchanges in the script that are altogether hackneyed. Characters and their motivations, like story beats, mostly bear depth roughly about as great as the puddles formed on uneven concrete from a heavy rainstorm. Plot advancement owes far more to direct, unsubtle screenwriting than to convincing narrative flow.
Have I sold you on this movie yet?
This is about style over substance, emphasized by the editing that utilizes slow-motion and ramping; camerawork that lingers lovingly on director Paul W. S. Anderson's action-star wife Milla Jovovich; and a cast that includes world-class performers like Christoph Waltz and Mads Mikkelsen, yet which is denied an opportunity to truly demonstrate their skill. Highfalutin heist schemes clearly derive their forced sophistication from comedies of recent years revolving around numerical Oceans, while devices shown off during action sequences yield technological advancement far exceeding the setting. The would-be magnificence of some eye-catching shots is counterbalanced by the artificiality of their flair and the over-produced look of the picture generally, while Paul Haslinger's bombastic score echoes the music of any action flick I've mentioned above.
With all this having been said, 'The three musketeers' IS fun, as long as you don't mind mostly senseless self-indulgence. As blunt and unbelievable as the movie is, it's all by intent, geared toward a young summer blockbuster audience. Pierre-Yves Gayraud's costume design is marvelous, and set pieces no less grand. Heavy-handed as the picture may be in its tone and appearance, the production design is entrancing, from a standpoint of pure amusement. While the greatest capabilities of the cast are squandered, it's nonetheless a joy to watch them lean into over the top roles with performances that are just as exaggerated.
No one is going to mistake this for a cinematic classic, and even among action-adventure films, the sheer aggressiveness of its devotion to flash is overbearing. But sometimes it's okay to just turn your brain off to enjoy the merriment of a ridiculous yarn. 'The three musketeers' is a good time - and every now and again, that's all a movie really needs to be.
Recommended for fans of summer blockbusters, and especially for viewers who enjoy fantastical pseudo-period fare like 'Pirates of the Caribbean.'
'The Three Musketeers' is mindless entertainment, a popcorn movie perhaps inspired by Dumas, but hardly attentive to his works. Not even the slightest effort is made to affect a French accent; the few clever lines are far outnumbered by the exchanges in the script that are altogether hackneyed. Characters and their motivations, like story beats, mostly bear depth roughly about as great as the puddles formed on uneven concrete from a heavy rainstorm. Plot advancement owes far more to direct, unsubtle screenwriting than to convincing narrative flow.
Have I sold you on this movie yet?
This is about style over substance, emphasized by the editing that utilizes slow-motion and ramping; camerawork that lingers lovingly on director Paul W. S. Anderson's action-star wife Milla Jovovich; and a cast that includes world-class performers like Christoph Waltz and Mads Mikkelsen, yet which is denied an opportunity to truly demonstrate their skill. Highfalutin heist schemes clearly derive their forced sophistication from comedies of recent years revolving around numerical Oceans, while devices shown off during action sequences yield technological advancement far exceeding the setting. The would-be magnificence of some eye-catching shots is counterbalanced by the artificiality of their flair and the over-produced look of the picture generally, while Paul Haslinger's bombastic score echoes the music of any action flick I've mentioned above.
With all this having been said, 'The three musketeers' IS fun, as long as you don't mind mostly senseless self-indulgence. As blunt and unbelievable as the movie is, it's all by intent, geared toward a young summer blockbuster audience. Pierre-Yves Gayraud's costume design is marvelous, and set pieces no less grand. Heavy-handed as the picture may be in its tone and appearance, the production design is entrancing, from a standpoint of pure amusement. While the greatest capabilities of the cast are squandered, it's nonetheless a joy to watch them lean into over the top roles with performances that are just as exaggerated.
No one is going to mistake this for a cinematic classic, and even among action-adventure films, the sheer aggressiveness of its devotion to flash is overbearing. But sometimes it's okay to just turn your brain off to enjoy the merriment of a ridiculous yarn. 'The three musketeers' is a good time - and every now and again, that's all a movie really needs to be.
Recommended for fans of summer blockbusters, and especially for viewers who enjoy fantastical pseudo-period fare like 'Pirates of the Caribbean.'