D'Artagnan against airships
BestMovie.it
A huge thank you to our friend Simona Fonda for the wonderful translation!
by Gabriele Ferrari, OCTOBER 2011
The Three Musketeers returns to cinemas with a new “hybrid” version, that combines the elegance and magnificence of costume drama with touches of modern steampunk. An adventurous journey to the Court of France, at the hands of one of the most adrenaline directors of Hollywood today.
A young man went on a journey, with only fifteen crowns, a horse and a letter.
This wrote, in 1844, Alexandre Dumas at the beginning of The Three Musketeers. The young man called D'Artagnan and was headed to Paris to join the guard of the King Louis XIII.
And he' probably had previewed the new film by Paul W.S. Anderson, and found that to serve the king of France, you're flying on giant blimps armed with gun, challenge (slow motion) beautiful ladies with martial arts and maneuver a flamethrower with the dragon's head. We are not crazy: we are “only” speaking of The Three Musketeers 3D, a new effort by the director of Resident Evil and twenty-second film in the history of cinema based on the novels of Alexandre Dumas. And if these lines will have you to scream treason, if you think this movie is a bad idea, wait a moment and go right ahead.
Probably many of you associate the idea of “Musketeers to cinema” with Leonardo DiCaprio trapped in the Iron Mask and the various Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich and Gérard Depardieu.
The most cinephiles will think about Gene Kelly who plays a D'Artagnan, a little “aged” in The Three Musketeers dated 1948, or Richard Chamberlain and Oliver Reed chasing Diamonds of The Queen in a movie of 1973, and the bravest will quote the much criticized Disney's version with Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland and Chris O'Donnell. None (or almost) will remember Tim Roth, Nick Moran and Mena Suvari engaged in duels in wuxipian style in D'Artagnan by Peter Hyams.
The reason is simple: we are Europeans, and any exotic reinterpretation of one of our classics of literature makes us turn up our noses. Or maybe not? After all, the Sherlock Holmes all “one-liners and punch” of Guy Ritchie has dug out the box office.
«Dumas himself wrote to entertain the audience and make money: he published a chapter a week, they did end up with blatant cliffhanger and after all I think he would approve what I did with his story», Paul Anderson notes. In short, he must be said to himself when Constantin Film has entrusted him the project, why limit yourself to yet another period movie and not try something new and brave? No sooner said than done: the understanding that «the story of the Three Musketeers remains that», Anderson decided that «we live in the post Jack Sparrow, a world in which the pirate adventures are told with a modern eye, and I want to tell the story of D'Artagnan through this lens».
And so, a filmmaker who has so far experimented with science fiction (the excellent and underrated Point of no return, with Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neil), horror (Resident Evil saga) and even a movie machine (Death Race) has bracing arms, baggage and 3D cameras and headed to Germany, «which is full of wonderful castles that have never been used into a movie», for shooting his first movie in costume.
With him, a group of rising stars and established faces to compose a cast that should convince even the most skeptical. Starting, of course, by D'Artagnan: Percy Jackson and the Gods of Olympus is not perhaps the best reference to take an audition, but it is hard to imagine a young best suited for the role of a cadet of Gascony than Logan Lerman. «Long face and dark hair, high cheekbones, look smart, too big to be a boy, too small to be an adult, would not be hard to mistake it for the son of a pastor», wrote Dumas, and try to say that Percy is not the spitting image! Nineteen years, self-described «movie geek», Lerman is probably the most vigorous “new musketeers”: «My D'Artagnan is definitely more badass than you're used to and is the most dangerous of the group, a kind of superhero the age». It will be he who, join the trio of veterans (Athos, Porthos and Aramis), set in motion the events of the movie.
Events that, at first glance, appear based on those novels: Richelieu (the new ultimate villain in Hollywood, Christoph Waltz) wants to conquer the throne of France, and he will organize an illegitimate affair that will sow confusion among the King Louis (Freddie Fox) and its newly-wife, Queen Anne (Juno Temple, which we also see in The Dark Knight - The Return). But like all great villains, Richelieu did not dirty their hands, and entrusting to Milady de Winter (Milla Jovovich: it is obvious to call her “the muse of Anderson” because the two are married) and the Duke of Buckingham (Orlando Bloom, who returns to the superprodactions, after the goodbye to the saga the Pirates of the Caribbean), who have the “thankless” task to seduce Anna. A plot in style of appendix novel, with at least two big news. The first is just the trio of the title: say goodbye to stalwart and infallible warriors you're used to, because these Musketeers are more similar to those seen in The Iron Mask. Aged (if not flabby), humiliated by former ally Milady, we meet them in a decidedly downward phase of their illustrious career.
The faces chosen by Anderson - about you can say everything, but not that he does not have talent in the casting - they are perfect in this sense. The leader Athos, for example, has sad eyes and the face a little “worn” by Matthew MacFayden, accustomed to a period film as demonstrated by Pride and Prejudice and Robin Hood of Ridley Scott. And if the gigantic Porthos was given to Ray Stevenson from Thor, Luke Evans, expected in the coming months Immortals and The Hobbit, will play Aramis. Do you remember the quiet man of faith of the literary tradition? Delete him and replace him with «a sort of cross between Batman and a ninja, the real James Bond of the group».
Which brings us, inevitably, the last road of “transformation” of the Musketeers «sexy, fun and modern. Without sacrificing the historical setting, as the Paris of the seventeenth century is a fascinating environment to explore, especially in 3D, but I wanted decidedly to add a steampunk feature at all of this».
Translation: Anderson has decided to play with technology, introducing all gears of war machines and puffs of steam (“steampunk” refers precisely to this), and exploiting them to spill the action over alert levels.
«I want to tell the same story, but in a somewhat different, and I do not think that the technology that I used was so out of place. The airships and blimps? Within a century, however, would have been invented...». Also because Anderson is one that can do the spectacular scenes - his latest effort, Resident Evil: Afterlife, is the triumph of choreography on the history - and it would be a shame to give up the chance to «make a real movie in costume, with hundreds of extras on horseback and explosions, and to do so with true 3D, not a terrific conversion in post-production».
The movie The Three Musketeers 3D will be «historic, but shot in a modern way, different from other stories but also to my usual Musketeers movie. And it's a tale of swashbuckling in which I have included explosions and action». A bold move by a director who someone had accused to sit on our laurels. A bet that Anderson is sure to win: «It will be an incredibly exciting movie. These Musketeers are not familiar with your parents version».
The Three Musketeers 3D - review
The director of Resident Evil saga reinvents in its own way one of the most famous novels of French literature: an adventure to one thousand per hour, including Musketeers ninja, mysterious and beautiful women, flying machines and flamethrower...
Aramis seems Batman. Athos wielding a flamethrower in the shape of a dragon's head. Milady dance in Matrix-style to avoid cannon balls covered with thorns. The seventeenth century must have been an exciting time, according to Paul W.S. Anderson. For his first period film British director, creator of the Resident Evil franchise, has decided to raise the volume to maximum.
The story is always the same: D'Artagnan (Logan Lerman's Percy Jackson and the Gods of Olympus), cadet of Gascony, he went to Paris to join the corps of Musketeers. There he meets the “three” of the title, that are, Athos (Matthew MacFayden, Pride and Prejudice), Porthos (Ray Stevenson, Thor) and Aramis (Luke Evans, Immortals), whose career is on the wane.
To recover from the dust, the four will face a trio of villains of exception such as Cardinal Richelieu (a diabolical Christoph Waltz, who here seeks to conquer the throne), the Duke of Buckingham (Orlando Bloom) and the former allied Milady (Milla Jovovich, in costume for the first time since the days of Joan of Arc). The similarities with the Dumas novel, however, end there because Paul Anderson has decided to give a pass of steampunk technology to his seventeenth century, Paris peppering with dirigibles and a hearty dose of martial arts.
A risky move, reminiscent of what has been done by Gore Verbinski for Pirates of the Caribbean, an inspiration that Anderson does not hide: «If you can modernize the stories of pirates do not see why you can not do the same with the Musketeers».
Purists will be offended, for others it is coming one of the most enjoyable experiences of the year.
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