The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan

This is my third encounter with the immortal classic after The Man in the Iron Mask from the 1990 and the somewhat overdone Paul W.S. Anderson adaptation, but I have never read the book, so I can't blame filmmakers for their faithfulness to the source material or lack thereof. After watching this film, however, and considering that the story of The Three Musketeers is split into two films, you can sense that they took care in this regard. As this is a notorious story, the film offers no big plot surprises, but it does offer solid adventure full of action, intrigue and well done fights – the "bloody" wedding or the chase on the cliffs really had some serious moments. I'm curious to see what the sequel will bring, which will give more space to Eva Green, who is perfect in these demonic creatures. (13/04/2023)

Gone are the saturated colors and boisterous choreography of Lester’s classic version. Bourboulon has his protagonists rooting around in the dirt and mud, D'Artagnan literally in the first scene. The humor is also gone, but that doesn’t mean that the trio, which is actually a quartet, lacks distinctive wit and charm. The cast is good, the sets are properly shabby, the costumes are dirty and the plot is rife with intrigues. The deviations from Dumas are defensible and it’s apparent that this new adaptation wants to bring more behind-the-scenes scheming into play and somewhat sideline the love motifs, which is fine. It’s a shame that some of the plot shortcuts have slightly confused logic, but after a few doubts about whether all that Protestant fun below Paris is only a needless digression, the feeling that everything can be made into an excellent spectacle in the sequel ultimately wins out. In the end, I'm bothered only by minor issues with the film, mainly the fact that Richelieu is an expressionless character. But everything else works. The one-shot action replaced the playful choreography with physicality and the musketeers soon settle into it.  A very respectable contribution to the Dumas canon! (18/04/2023)

Fans of Dumas' might not agree, but "The Three Musketeers" is at best "just" period-conditioned consumable reading, excessively naive and heavily romanticized. Directors attempting to adapt the book were aware of its limitations and the resulting risks for today's audience, often opting for exaggeration and comedic stylization. Martin Bourboulon takes a different approach, opting for a "serious" adventure-romantic treatment lined with a star-studded cast and solid production design. It's arguably the "dirtiest" and most raw treatment of the material I've encountered so far. Despite all efforts, it falls short. It encounters similar pitfalls as directors of recent Bond films, trying to imbue their hero with deeper psychology and adding more artistic elements, yet still ending up with an overblown action movie featuring an invincible hero who dispatches scores of opponents without batting an eye. Here, in the confrontation scene with the cardinal's guards, the quartet of heroes handles six times the numerical superiority without a scratch (and moreover, in a disadvantageous situation of surprise and encirclement!). The action fight scenes are mostly shot in a confusing manner, but the positives clearly outweigh the negatives. Eva Green as Milady and Vincent Cassel as Athos are reliable highlights. Overall impression: 80%. (10/06/2024)

In the future, on a repeat, I'll always prefer Lester's Musketeers anyway, because it has enough juicy popcorn to feed all of Nigeria, it doesn't skimp on the humour (which is almost absent in this French version) and the vivacious Michael York is like the finest wine as D'Artagnan. On the other hand, I like this French unpolished concept. Especially the magnificent production design! Muddy, unpaved, sandy streets, men sweaty and dirty (and with yellow teeth ), when, as we know, hygiene was a priority in the 17th century, even among the high classes, and the camera with muted colours adds a lot to that realistic impression. And what can we say, cherchez la femme Eva Green is after all a sexier milady than Faye Dunaway. So actually, when I sum up the comparison, I come out with a tie, and that's not a bad mark at all. (10/11/2023)

This successful adaptation of Dumas's classic slightly updates the famous story and relies on great action scenes, beautiful sets and a charismatic cast. It completely omits humour and plays on a serious note, and it mostly works very well. Unfortunately, Martin Bourboulon doesn't quite manage to sell the more intimate scenes and dialogue, and towards the end it feels like he's bitten off too big a bite; the finale, however impressive, is a bit too much. But despite these problems, this is a highly above-average adventure flick straddling the line between old-school and modern filmmaking. (10/04/2023)