User Reviews

I can't say that I enjoyed this as much as the first outing for this new breed of musketeers, but it's still an enjoyable and authentic looking adaptation of these timeless and honourable Dumas characters. We know that "Constance" (Lyna Khoudri) has been kidnapped and that the enamoured "D'Artagnan" (François Civil) is determined to get her back - but how? Well the almost fatal attack on the king (Louis Garrel) has galvanised everyone - friend and foe, and the musketeers determine that they must get to the ringleader of that plot before it is eventually accomplished and the kingdom is plunged into chaotic warfare. Now everyone suspects the malevolent Cardinal Richelieu (Eric Ruf) but surely it's not in his interests to kill Louis XIII? The Queen (Vicky Krieps) and her not-so-secret English lover Buckingham (Jacob Fortune-Lloyd) might be in the mix, or maybe just a disgruntled nobleman? "D'Artagnan" is first with a clue after he inadvertently rescues "Milady" (Eva Green) from a prison (after she fell off a cliff!) armed with a secret, coded letter. What does it mean? Can it help find his love and save the kingdom? Meantime, we start to learn a little more about this enigmatic "MIlady" and of her relationship with "Athos" (Vincent Cassel) whilst his two pals "Aramis" (Romain Duris) and the affable "Porthos" (Pio Marmaï) do their bit for the story and the country too. It looks great - the settings, the costumes, the combat scenes all smack of effort having been spent on making the scenarios ring true. I'm still no great fan of Eva Green, but here she starts to exude just the tiniest hint of menace as the story builds to the conclusion of this search for love and traitors. It's a wee bit more earnest, this time around - there's less humour and I missed that. I don't mean laugh out loud stuff, but here we rarely see all the musketeers together; their camaraderie isn't so obvious. This is essentially Civil v Green and that doesn't always work so well. Still, it's a solid and quickly paced adventure story that I found passed two hours effortlessly.

It's good to return to the big screen, connect again with the magic of the dark room and much better to do it with a film that captivates you from beginning to end.

The second part of the great project led by Martin Bourboulon is much more vibrant, fast-paced and entertaining, with a narrative rhythm that does not falter at any time, but does not leave plot gaps either. The dramatic arc of the characters is much more solid and clear, Vincent Cassel as always does not need many minutes to demonstrate his stage presence, François Civil finishes shaping a rising D'Artagnan, but who steals the screen every time he appears is Eva Green, who from start to finish makes a truly impeccable hero-villain game.

A real pleasure to enjoy an epic film project far from the great arms of Hollywood.

Part 2 of the current film adaptation is by no means a bad film, thanks to the actors, budget and, of course, the literary source material. Nevertheless, it falls well short of its predecessor, not least because of the high expectations following the first film. What's missing this time? A certain freshness, the haunting presence of the protagonists, their actually indispensable interaction, memorable climaxes. Content now rules here, almost too much for the running time, instead of fun.

Eva Green gives an outstanding performance in her parade role as the femme fatale, this time making the important and correct decision that less is often more.

"The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas comes to life in the cinematic adaptation, which, while deviating in some details from the book, manages to preserve the original work's essence. The story follows D'Artagnan and his loyal friends, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, in a captivating 17th-century setting. Political intrigues, thrilling duels, and secret romances intertwine as they battle against the cunning Cardinal Richelieu and the enigmatic Milady de Winter. Although poetic licenses result in more battles than in the book, the film successfully captures the spirit of adventure, action, and romance that has made this classic swashbuckling tale endure.

I love a good knights movie and I was really pleased with the first part of this trilogy, (which I saw a year ago), however this sequel was a bit underwhelming compared to the first part.

The bad: many new characters were introduced in this second part and these new characters took away much of the screentime from the 3 musketeers. Besides that disappointing fact, the build up of the story was less tightknit and less riveting and fun compared to the first part. I blame the writer...

Beware: better watch the first part closely before watching this sequel, because I had some troubles remembering who was who and what had happened beforehand.

The good: it's still worth a watch though, because of the great actors, the great photography and the passionate story, however disjointed in some moments.

Just a solid knights movie, recommended for the fans of this genre.

Once again a tremendous spectacle, served with a bunch of very fine actors ("la fine fleur" of French actors) in all their glory, who make most of the scenes of the movie a tasty delight to savour... In particular the highly charismatic Eva Green and François Civil, who both have this magnetic presence that makes you wanna follow each of their adventures (each of the moments they share is captivating)...

The staging and overall design of the movie is as majestic pleasing as in the First Part (both movies were shot at the same time) with very gorgeous framings and lightings (wonderfully mastered)... The action and stunts do the job (in spite of this recurring shaky camera), with a few cool bits (hats off to the final confrontation).

Of course the stakes -even if already pretty high at some point in the First Part- are even higher here... Numerous events in this Second Part mirror events recounted in the First Part ; the situation is pretty tight for the main players, and the whole -mysterious- intrigue gets thicker and tastier as it evolves... With Milady playing a pivotal role in everything ; even when she is not here, her shadow never is very far... But things, during the entire movie, don't really go as expected, twists after twists...

In the end, this two-parter story definitely is a pretty gem in the long history of French Cinema, because it shows the nice will to produce a pleasing cinematic piece, à la française ; but in a fashion that uses some of the welcome contempory/modern tools.

A fine and tasty adventure to watch, and potentially a Third Part to come (?)

1. Eva Green shines as the most ambiguous and spellbinding Milady to ever grace the big screen. She is also one of the most realistically physical and battle-hardened. This alone makes this movie worth viewing and ideally on a big screen. It's a tour de force by an actress born for this role.

2. The stakes are higher than ever thanks to the incoming climax of the 8 civil wars of religions which has been plaguing the Kingdom of France for 55 years in the final Huguenot Rebellions whose leaders are now entrenched in their bastion of La Rochelle and awaiting reinforcements from the wannabe-invading English ships lead by the Duke of Buckingham...War is afoot!

3. If Athos was not tortured enough as it is, his brother Benjamin De La Fere is inside La Rochelle fighting for the opposite protestant camp... PS: This departure from the book is actually historically accurate except it was Aramis and Porthos who were of Protestant descent like many a minor noble in Bearn and Gascony at this strifeful time. We can thank Jeanne d'Albret, Queen of Navarre for that!...

4. Meanwhile the true plotters and traitors who conspired to kill the King are still unknown. Is Richelieu the man we think he is (PS: we can thank Dumas for that myth-making)? Can Chalais the scheming leader of the Catholic League be trusted? Is Gaston, the King's brother, just an over-eager warhawk or a sandbox plotter?

5. D'Artagnan's sweetheart Constance Bonacieux and himself are both, separately, captured whilst all the finest swords in the kingdom are converging towards the unassailable Atlantic port city well protected in her strait to put down this republican rebellion once and for all. The siege of La Rochelle lasted a year but an infamous turning point in the Rochelais cause was when a nearby Ile de Ré citadel was taken and its cannons turned towards the incoming British navy and we will see how...

6. Despite the pathos and warring everywhere, expect some of the now internationally known Musketeer joviality to pop up thanks to some key characters we've known to love: the stutter-beater king Louis XIII, mountain of a man Porthos sidekicking by his brother in arm Aramis embroiled in his family affairs taking a dishonourable turn... What does a young nobleman do when his family honour is at stake, despite having already joined the front during a civil war? What does his notoriously rapacious and title-hungry friend do when he sees an opportunity to gain status and funds whilst giving a helping hand?

7. Athos and Milady's secret is revealed and it changes everything. The book fans and purists' jaws will drop to the floor. This is a Dumasian twist and a half!

8. The rapier fights are even bigger and better than in Part 1. But it's now war time my dears and thus MUSKETS and pistols finally make a grandiose appearance! We also get to see some nice glimpses of Renaissance-style coded letters and ciphers being passed around!

9. In terms of sexual manipulation, the tables are turned between D'Artagnan and Milady compared to the books. Make of that what you will. This also means she now has no particular hatred towards him and his beloved in this version (maybe it would not hurt to needle her nemesis Athos by proxy through our dear D'Arty but she seems to prefer minutely prepared revenge served cold). Yet she needs to go forward at all costs and they are in the way...Maybe even worse for the doomed lovebirds?...

10. Bonacieux is not your typical ingenue easily fooled and beguiled anymore but a goodie two shoes trying to keep her guilty conscience virtuous. Will she listen to her head or her heart?... You will not see two women catfight in this movie like in the Dick Lester one.

11. The ending is very Miladian. It will pierce your heart without remorse and run away after her deed is done. The only way for it to not be sadistic like her is if we get a part 3...

Enjoy the rollercoaster ride! ;-)

Plenty of positives including an exceptional cast (with the exception of Constance), the cinematography was mostly good (a few scenes a little too dark) , most of the scenes were well paced and costumes looked authentic.

However, the story seemed a lot more disjointed than the first movie and it didnt seem like there was enough time for character building (maybe we get spoilt with the amount of time series have but with 3 movies it felt like more could have been achieved). The worst part however, was the sudden revelation of super female fighters able to compete if not better the supposed best male sword fighters in the country....

The story was frustrating enough that i feel the need to re read the book after 20 plus years as im sure i remember it being a lot more coherent than this movie !

Script-wise it's a mise en abyme within other mises en abyme, a narratological cat-and-mouse game by Dumas and history fans for other fans! If only it was longer than 1h55 which imposes the action to go at breakneck speed with way too many ellipses and shortcuts undermining the deployment of emotions aroused by the great pieces of bravery this script went for. It also probably makes a lot of less Dumas-obsessed viewers miss the inventiveness and playfulness of this beautifully crafted story which seems a bit rushed or messy without the 30 extra minutes this movie would have needed to land all its zingers properly with more pauses and contextualization... Even if we still have a great time and admire the effort, it makes the whole final part (about 20 minutes) of the movie feel a bit too much like a telefilm instead of an adventure epic because it goes forward in all directions like a headless chicken final flourish where they basically throw the kitchen sink at us without any pauses and hope we can take it. With less great actors it would have definitely crossed the line but because they're all awesome, we still play along with the preposterous film editing and silly pacing. There better be a director's cut. Bourboulon you owe us one.

Nonetheless the pleasure is fourfold - read till the end because the last one is the clincher. Basically Eva Green's impersonation is absolute box office and warrants the ticket alone.

First, they mischievously mix all the stories of several key characters together and into new characters who are Dumas universe "mutants" gathering several books or historical characters into one (fictitious Huguenot rebel Saint Blancard mixed with La Rochelle mayor Jean Guiton saying his famous tirade about "piercing his heart if he cannot defend the city", here enters black musketeer Aniaba the Assinian prince, absent Felton now rubs off on Bonacieux...). In addition to being an ingenious way of both honouring the overly dense source material subtly and simplifying it to make it fit in a high-octane 2 parter film, it's a super enjoyable "aha moment" when the knowing spectator finally clocks what they have done and the new implications for the storylines. This way, they found the most beautiful motivation to justify Milady's rage for survival and revenge in a little J. And it's a new character who is left in a convent and not Miss Bonacieux amongst other twists and turns... but I won't say more.

Secondly, they recontextualise the story in true historical events that Dumas skimmed over which gives the adventures much more life-and-death and changing-the-course-of-History weight and the opportunity for great action sequences i.e the siege of La Rochelle and marshal Schomberg and Toiras's taking of the citadel on the islet of Ré (Saint-Martin-en-Ré) to boot Buckingham and his fleet away from the Huguenot bastion and the French coasts...They are now impersonated by Treville and Chalais and their troops in an impressive 17th century Assault on Alcatraz-type special forces nightly commando mission sequence where double and triple crossing agents will appear in quick successions!

Thirdly, it inventively takes a historically accurate counterpoint to Dumas' version which may confuse or delight international audiences in rehabilitating Richelieu and Louis XIII and highlighting the true historical traitors and plotters..It also plays on that Dumas-created myth of the corrupt power-hungry Richelieu to hold our attention until the end because he's no angel nonetheless... It also uses Porthos and Aramis and Louis Garrel's still impressive portrayal of the king as subtle comic reliefs which is a delight!

Finally, as the title suggests, it really does a narrative semi-reversal on Milady and even if we don't see the action fully from her point of view as one may have expected, her presence and dazzlingly incandescent portrayal by Eva Green makes her character and her spell-binding influence ever-present even when she is not lighting up the screen directly. Both thanks to portrayal and narrative changes (a backstory and new circumstances of encounters with her antagonists), Milady has never been more of an ambiguous survivor force of nature who is deeply obsessed with revenge and openly diabolical for sure but with motivations almost anyone on this planet can partly understand...She does manipulate perpetually, her audience, her circumstances, her charms but we can see through cracks that it is more because of being self-serving and forced to resilience than deeply held machiavellism or megalomania...Or is it? Even if all of the above does not appeal, it's worth paying the ticket price just to see one if not the very best ever portrayal of Milady de Winter on the big screen. She puts shivers down the spine every time she appears and in a particular emotional climax scene she can even draw tears, just before a sudden laceration of our feelings questioning if we were wickedly played or just opportunistic collateral damages she does not have the luxury to care about in her obsession to reach her goal despite the absence of malice...Maybe a bit of both.

The ending is very Miladian, as sadistic as a last dagger thrown in our direction before fleeing with her precious bounty but not without making sure we know who's signed the crime. Is it a cliffhanger? I bloody hope so. Bring on Part 3 and 4 and even 5 if needs be!

I write this is 2023 and I can assure the reader that this was not a good year for cinema. Actually, it's been years that cinema has been pretty much dead. Politics, general lack of respect with source material, studios' unwillingness to invest in mid-range films, poor production values, poor acting, poor scripting, you name it, are all part of the problem.

The Three Musketeers story has been adapted to cinema many times, but this is the first time it seems to take itself seriously. This was the first time I saw a cinema musketeer hold actual muskets. The story is solid, the acting is top-notch, the bad guys are believeable. Lady Winter is so good, in fact, that before long you start rooting for her!

The costumes look authentic enough, the fighting scenes are not 100% believable, but they are pretty decent, there's a lot of character building around Athos, the relationship between D'Artagnan and Constance, even King Louis XIII has more depth than most characters from Marvel.

These musketeers dress like musketeers, and they display signs of true friendship and comradery, pulling each other's legs, knowing each other's quirks, having adult dialogues and things like that.

The story does not dwell in the stereotypical bad vs good kind of thing and doesn't try to push a message to the viewer. It's all grey areas, each character has an agenda and reasons to do what they do.

And on top of all that: it's all in French. How it's supposed to be.

Even though it's not the book, it's not a strict interpretation of it, these two films are very good. A breath of fresh air and true filmmanship.

If you like the 3 musketeers, or just any good old adventure film, don't miss this one!

The Three Musketeers: Milady: As dark and gritty as the first film. If anything the fight scenes are even more exciting, hand to hand individual fights and battle scenes. Plenty of conspiracy, betrayal and back stabbing. Eva Green shines as Milady, a special forces style agent of Cardinal Richelieu (Eric Ruf). Dastardly as both are though more depth is given to their characterisation and motives. Richelieu really is a Gray Eminence. D'Artagnan (François Civil) and Athos (Vincent Cassel) both perform great acts of derring_do but also face heartbreak. A great adventure! Directed by Martin Bourboulon, Screenplay by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière. 8/10.