{"id":568,"date":"2011-10-24T13:30:15","date_gmt":"2011-10-24T20:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ealasaid.com\/writing\/reviews\/?p=568"},"modified":"2022-06-11T11:14:08","modified_gmt":"2022-06-11T18:14:08","slug":"the-three-musketeers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/2011\/10\/24\/the-three-musketeers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Three Musketeers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> Directed by: Paul W.S. Anderson
\nStarring: Matthew Macfadyen, Milla Jovovich, Luke Evans, Ray Stevenson, Logan Lerman, Christoph Waltz
\nRated: PG-13 for sequences of adventure action violence<\/p>\n

It seems to be a requirement for Hollywood to make a film based on \u201cThe Three Musketeers\u201d at least once every twenty years, preferably saturated with whatever is currently in vogue. So, back in 1993 we had Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, and Oliver Platt as the titular friends, and the whole thing was very bright and shiny and silly. Now we have Matthew Macfadyen, Luke Evans, and Ray Stevenson, and there\u2019s lots of slow-mo martial artsy awesomeness, some snark about governmental budget cuts, and steampunk airships.<\/p>\n

Yes. There are steampunk airships in the new \u201cThe Three Musketeers.\u201d I don\u2019t know why. There\u2019s nothing in the story that calls for them, but steampunk is in, and presumably the filmmakers felt they had to bring something new to the centuries-old story. Maybe they were hoping for a way to capitalize on the \u201cPirates of the Caribbean\u201d vibe you get from having ships firing cannons at each other, even if they\u2019re suspended under giant hot-air balloons. Whatever the reasoning, it\u2019s sufficiently ridiculous and awesome to make it forgivable.<\/p>\n

The story is a familiar one (young hothead goes to the big city to become a musketeer, finds them disbanded, falls in with the three famous ex-musketeers, winds up trying to prevent a huge war by stealing back a necklace belonging to the French queen) and all the high points are hit in the script, including D\u2019Artagnan (Logan Lerman) managing to incur duels with each of his heroes in the same day. There\u2019s a bit of quick wit, lots of thoroughly enjoyable swordfighting, and in general a sense of affable silliness.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Three Musketeers\u201d does a lot of things right. It hits the perfect tone, having fun and not taking itself too seriously. The cinematography is solid, with plenty of gorgeous costumes and lush Bavarian countryside to enjoy. There\u2019s a touch of camp here and there (with Christoph Walz as the villainous Cardinal Richelieu and Orlando Bloom as the just-as-slimy Duke of Buckinham, it\u2019s hard to avoid), and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves.<\/p>\n

The flaws are the usual. The script is a bit predictable at times, even if you don\u2019t know the story already. Buckingham\u2019s hair is so ridiculously styled that it\u2019s hard to find him menacing. The fight choreography and random bits of slow-motion aren\u2019t always timed well together.<\/p>\n

But you don\u2019t go into a movie about the musketeers expecting great art. All it takes to succeed with these characters, as far as I am concerned, is decent production values, actors with a bit of pizzazz, and lots of exciting action. \u201cThe Three Musketeers\u201d succeeds on all fronts. If you\u2019re looking for some light entertainment and your expectations aren\u2019t too high, you\u2019ll almost certainly have a good time. If, on the other hand, you can\u2019t stand movies that know they\u2019re silly and embrace the lunacy, stay away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Directed by: Paul W.S. Anderson
\nStarring: Matthew Macfadyen, Milla Jovovich, Luke Evans, Ray Stevenson, Logan Lerman, Christoph Waltz
\nRated: PG-13 for sequences of adventure action violence<\/p>\n

It seems to be a requirement for Hollywood to make a film based on \u201cThe Three Musketeers\u201d at least once every twenty years, preferably saturated with whatever is currently in vogue. So, back in 1993 we had Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, and Oliver Platt as the titular friends, and the whole thing was very bright and shiny and silly. Now we have Matthew Macfadyen, Luke Evans, and Ray Stevenson, and there\u2019s lots of slow-mo martial artsy awesomeness, some snark about governmental budget cuts, and steampunk airships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[47,57,48],"class_list":["post-568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-fun","tag-rated-pg-13","tag-semi-historical"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/ThreeMusketeers.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2oSX4-9a","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1432,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568\/revisions\/1432"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ealasaid.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}