The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan

A swashbuckling, raucous and modern adaptation of Dumas' classic. More emphasis is placed on the action scenes, which are gritty, dynamic, and with great choreography. There have been so many versions of “The Three Musketeers” that I'm not even sure how it was supposed to be done, but the snipers in the church is a very good sequence. Eva Green is incredible as Milady, and overall it's a very strong cast. The ending is outrageously open and I'm looking forward to the second one. (04/29/2024)

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! (04/18/2023)

Finally, a properly filmed legend. Although not so heavyweight in terms of the actors' names, it can't compare with the 90s version, but actually in everything else it does and in many parameters it even surpasses it. This new remake is much less of a likeable pulp flick and much more of a gritty, dark film of intrigue with excellent sets and fantastically shot action, but there's very little of that so far and that's a shame. Only a fraction of films in French production have this kind of bold handheld camerawork and editing. It's expected that the sequel will be suitably epic and live up to expectations, as many fans are duly hyped after the first installment, and quite rightly so. PS: Captain Rochefort is missing! (10/15/2023)

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. (04/14/2023)

A fan of historical big movies should not hesitate to go to the cinema. A French adaptation of the famous classic by Alexandre Dumas has arrived and I would say it is also the best to date. The huge budget is evident, the beautiful locations and settings are a delight and the best French stars are available: Vincent Cassel, Eva Green and Francois Civil. There are slight changes to the original story, so it's not an exact copy, but they are minor deviations that I welcome warmly. The new adaptation is without a doubt grittier, more action-packed, dirtier and darker. I was most impressed by the action shot in one take, which fits perfectly and is intense enough. I can't recall better filmed sword fights from other films. The finale in particular can lean on the attractive cathedral setting and the decent chaos that erupts there is delicious. All the actors do a good job and even the non-action passages where political intrigue builds up are entertaining. Certainly the film is also suitably suspenseful and atmospheric and visually impressive. I look forward to the second part. 7.5/10. (04/11/2023)