At first glance, Paul W.S. Anderson's "The Three Musketeers" seems like a dim, unintelligent movie featuring plenty of action but no substance — this is a correct assumption. However, what really matters with a movie like this is it's ability to thrill the audience.
Alexandre Dumas's tale of three swashbucklers whose sole allegiance is to the king of France is over 150 years old and has been adapted for the screen countless times. With studios cashing in on recent film versions of literary classics like "Sherlock Holmes," "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Chronicles of Narnia," it only makes sense to move on to Dumas's work. Unfortunately with "Resident Evil" and "Alien vs. Predator" director Anderson at the helm, the film's direction becomes quite clear.
The story is painfully simple. France is under control by Cardinal Richelieu (Christoph Waltz) who allies himself with the deadly Milady de Winter (Milla Jovovich) to completely take over the throne.
Matthew MacFayden, Luke Evans and Ray Stevenson star as Athos, Aramis and Porthos, the three musketeers, who have given up their noble cause after a failed mission in Italy.
D'Artagnan (Logan Lerman), who grew up trained for fighting by his ex-musketeer father, is sent to Paris to become a musketeer himself. On his way, he encounters Rochefort (Mads Mikkelsen), the captain of Richelieu's guards, who nearly kills him purely out of sport. After finally arriving in Paris, D'Artagnan finds the musketeers and adventures ensue.
The only thing complicated about the film is keeping up with all the characters.
The acting is gleefully over-the-top. MacFayden, Evans and Stevenson are well cast as the title characters and closest resemble the original source material.
Waltz and Mikkelsen are both great actors doing what they can with what they are given, which isn't much. Jovovich's performance isn't bad, but her character becomes so repetitive that by the fourth time there's a slow-motion shot of her dodging objects in midair, it is silly and tiresome. Orlando Bloom has a part as the Duke of Buckingham, another villain, and is surprisingly enjoyable to watch. He seems like he's having so much fun playing the ridiculous part of an eccentric designer of an ‘air ship' equipped with canons and machine guns that audiences forget how unnecessary his character actually is.
Visually, the film succeeds on almost every level. Every shot looks like a CGI rendered painting. The costumes and set pieces are almost as colorful and elaborate as the men's facial hair. The action sequences are simply amazing, with some of the most entertaining choreography I've seen in a fight scene since "The Matrix."
Unfortunately, the writing and dialogue are absolutely atrocious. The story goes places I never expected, but only because I never expected the plot to be this dumb. At times I was actually shocked at how stolid and imbecilic the words coming out of the actor's mouths were.
Though the film isn't original or clever, it does provide viewers with thrills and adventure. The film begins with a bang and never slows down. If you're looking for an entertaining, albeit dim, movie, "The Three Musketeers" delivers.
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