The famous, familiar saying of “All for one, one for all” explains who the Musketeers are and what they stand for. The Three Musketeers, written by Alexandre Dumas, has been through so many numerous adaptations that it is very difficult to make the material stimulating and new-fashioned. And while it is with a decent effort, this new film manages to keep the classic tale entertaining, but ultimately director Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil movies) lets it fall flat and forgettable.
As you may already know, Athos (Matthew Macfadyen), Aramis (Luke Evans), and Porthos (Ray Stevenson) make up the musketeers who fight for the king and the country of France. But after a mission goes bad, they are demoted until a young, hot-headed D’Artagnan (Logan Lerman) joins forces with them to get back a diamond necklace that has been stolen in order to get the queen executed. This would leave the evil Richelieu (Christoph Waltz) to rule Europe by using the king to his advantage. The musketeers are on borrowed time to retrieve the necklace while battling Buckingham (Orlando Bloom) in the skies and Milady (Milla Jovovich) who is a beauty but a very deadly one.
Anderson gets some things right in this The Three Musketeers reboot. He makes it silly, fun, and wastes no time getting in to the adventure. It has a nice pace to it. There is actually quite of bit of action in the movie as well. It has some great action sequences involving airship battles and sword fighting. And what is an adventure without some sword fighting right? At the same time, the acting is disappointing, especially Waltz. He is way too good for a movie like this. I think he needs to give up being the villain for a little bit. He is amazing in Inglourious Basterds and pretty good in Water for Elephants. But between this and The Green Hornet, I have seen enough of him playing the bad guy for a while.
This swashbuckling adventure is big and showy, and provides some innocent fun at the movies. In no way is it a classic epic with great dialogue and intelligence. It thrives off of its energy and action (without the help of the pointless 3D). The Three Musketeers is stupid and ludicrous, but Anderson doesn’t mind or care just as long as the audience is enjoying it. For the most part, I think most audiences will walk way getting some modest pleasure out of it, but probably won’t remember it in a couple of weeks. A month at the most.
“Nature Boy” Brandon Vick is a member of The Music City Film Critics’ Association, the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and the star of Brandon’s Box Office In Your Mouth. Follow him on Twitter @SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.
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