Originally published by L.S. Media November 2nd 2011
Cast: Matthew Macfadyen, Logan Lerman, Ray Stevenson, Luke Evans, Milla Jovovich, Orlando Bloom, Christopher Waltz, Mads Miikkleson, Gabriella Wilde, James Corden, Freddie Fox, Juno Temple, Til Schwiger, Carsten Norgaard.
It can’t be certain that Alexandre Dumas would have enjoyed it or quite understood what had happened to his tale of treachery, honour and sword fighting but in the latest movie adaptation of his novel The Three Musketeers comes around with frightening predictability but with the story bought up to date to meet the needs of a 21st Century audience.
Over the years there have been many versions of the classic tale notably with the 1973 and 74 releases of the films starring Richard Chamberlin, Michael York and Oliver Reed and the 1993 release which starred Oliver Platt, Kiefer Sutherland and Charlie Sheen. The newest addition to the canon of films sees the producers play fast and loose with the standards of the film in which is at best disappointing and at worst a pandering to effect over decent plot and film making.
The cast is strong enough to have carried the film and given it extra dimension to the slightly substandard affair of the 1993 version but it somehow feels lacklustre, painful in parts and a chronic underuse of the acting talent at the Director’s disposal.
Modern audiences are used to seeing films play with established timelines and seeing how a future may have played out if the invention of such and such machine been available to times of old, they are used good old fashioned yarns and romps but quite what to make of the tremendous Orlando Bloom play Lord Buckingham as a second rate copy of veteran actor Leslie Phillips would leave many stumped to give a positive answer. If any actors come out of this well then Logan Lerman as the cocky and arrogant but charming D’artagnan and Luke Evans as Aramis steal the film. Otherwise, however a splendid actor Matthew Macfadyen, who portrays Athos, is in most programmes he appears in and the class films he has been involved with, there is something unnaturally wooden about his participation within the movie. It can feel as though he is only involved because out of all the actors on screen his is the most recognisable voice.
The Three Musketeers will have its fans, of both the 3D element within the film but also of some of the more inane additions to the plot, however apart from novelty value there is little to take from this film and it’s no surprise that out of all the three Musketeer movie adaptations this one comes very low down in a very long list.
Ian D. Hall