In this busy remake of the repeatedly remade The Three
Musketeers we have a strong cast of recognisable genre actors. We have the trio
of Matthew Macfadyen (Robin Hood, 2010) as Athos, Luke Evans (The Raven) as
Arimus and Ray Stevenson (Thor) as Porthos and as a group they are excellent,
each seizing upon the clichéd aspects of their fictional characters and not
over doing it. Then comes the fourth musketeer Logan Lerman as the arrogant D’Artagnan and even after his
experiences as Percey Jackson, in Percy
Jackson & the Lightning Thief, he fails to convince for much
of the time, the fine gloss of this youthful American somehow out of sync with
the rough to extravagant French setting.
The English
Director, Paul W.S. Anderson, brings along a number of external
influences to this film. His obvious casting of his wife Milla Jovovich (Resident
Evil) as villainess Milady de Winter, who excels at the action sequences but
falls short on the acting, and his casting of English actors and notably the
comedian James Corden as Planchet, who’s style of comedy sits awkwardly in the
flow of the story. But this trusty and put upon side-kick follows the four
Musketeers as they seek to recover a diamond necklace to save the Honour of
Queen Anne and prevent war in Europe.
There are two problems with this updated version though,
aside from the sudden invention of incredibly manoeuvrable airships. Orlando
Bloom as the Duke of Buckingham fails at being a baddy and only achieves a poor
imitation of Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow and Christoph Waltz (The Green Hornet)
as Richelieu is weak. Aside from this when the Musketeers are on screen they
are entertaining and this just about holds the story together.
56/100
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